News date: June 20, 2013

Keywords: homeschooling, research, homeschooling research, home education, philosophy, history, socialization, academic achievement, Black, African American, law, legal, tolerance, liberty

The Peabody Journal of Education published an entire special issue on the topic of homeschooling on June 19, 2013. The guest editor of the issue is Dr. Brian Ray and the opening article is entitled, “Homeschooling Rising Into the Twenty-First Century: Editor’s Introduction.” In it, Ray presents the following:

It is easy to forget history and that thinkers holding fundamentally different worldviews have been thoughtfully critiquing institutional mass schooling for many decades (e.g., Cole, 2010; Freire, 1970; Gatto, 2001) and calling for something radically different than that which nearly 96% of all American children now experience. It is also easy to forget that institutional state schooling did not involve the majority of what are now called school-age children for most of the “school year” until after 1900 (Ray, 2012). With so many educational scholars, policymakers, journalists, and even the general public forgetting such history, it is not difficult to comprehend why the modern-day, parent-led home-based education movement—that is in many ways radically different from mainstream and institutionalized schooling, both state run and private—stirs up many a curious query, negative critique, and firm praise from those in varied walks of life. (p. 261)

PJE published a special issue on home-based education (a.k.a., homeschooling) in 2000 and it is likely that this new issue will serve as both an engaging follow-up to the earlier one and a noteworthy smorgasbord of new research and thought in its own right. PJE, “… America’s second longest-running publication devoted exclusively to educational research, practice, and policy, is committed to providing information and reasoned opinion that will enhance understanding and practice among institutions and individuals concerned with human learning and development” and articles in it are peer reviewed. [1]

Following is list of the articles and authors involved in this special issue:

Homeschooling Rising Into the Twenty-First Century: Editor’s Introduction Brian D. Ray

Resisting the Status Quo: The Narratives of Black Homeschoolers in Metro-Atlanta and Metro-DC, by Cheryl Fields-Smith & Monica Wells Kisura

Homeschooling and the Question of Socialization Revisited, by Richard G. Medlin

Confrontation and Cooperation: The Complicated Relationship Between Homeschoolers and Public Schools, by Donna M. Johnson

Reflections on a Decade of Changes in Homeschooling and the Homeschooled Into Higher Education, by Gene W. Gloeckner & Paul Jones

Homeschooling Associated with Beneficial Learner and Societal Outcomes but Educators Do Not Promote It, by Brian D. Ray

Saving Democratic Education from Itself: Why We Need Homeschooling, by Perry L. Glanzer

Hostility or Indifference? The Marginalization of Homeschooling in the Education Profession, by Charles Howell

A Question of Resistance to Home Education and the Culture of School-Based Education, by Blane Després

Does Homeschooling “Work”? A Critique of the Empirical Claims and Agenda of Advocacy Organizations, by Christopher Lubienski, Tiffany Puckett & T. Jameson Brewer

Tolerance and Liberty: Answering the Academic Left’s Challenge to Homeschooling Freedom, by Michael Farris

The articles in this homeschooling-themed issue of the Peabody Journal of Education are sure to inform, challenge, engage, and aggravate each of various readers.

Get the entire special issue, print version, on homeschooling of the Peabody Journal of Education – at a price that is far below the publisher’s retail price of the journal.

Get the journal

Or, at www.nheri.org, click on “store” at the top main menu, then you can order, read, and enjoy.

Endnotes: [1] Retrieved June 20, 2013 from http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/pje/index.php.