Cheryl Fields-Smith – författare

In 2021, the United States Census Bureau reported that in 2020, during the rise of the global health pandemic COVID-19, homeschooling among Black families increased five-fold. However, Black families had begun choosing to homeschool even before COVID-19 led to school closures and disrupted traditional school spaces. Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture offers an insightful look at the growing practice of homeschooling by Black families through this timely collection of articles by education practitioners, researchers, homeschooling parents and homeschooled children.

Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture honestly presents how systemic racism and other factors influence the decision of Black families to homeschool. In addition, the book chapters illustrate in different ways how self-determination manifests within the homeschooling practice. Researchers Khadijah Ali-Coleman and Cheryl Fields-Smith have edited a compilation of work that explores the varied experiences of parents homeschooling Black children before, during and after COVID-19. From veteran homeschooling parents sharing their practice to researchers reporting their data collected pre-COVID, this anthology of work presents an overview that gives substantive insight into what the practice of homeschooling looks like for many Black families in the United States.

This book expands the concept of homeplace with contemporary Black homeschooling positioned as a form of resistance among single Black mothers. Chapters explore each mother’s experience and unique context from their own perspectives in deciding to homeschool and developing their practice. It corroborates many of the issues that plague the education of Black children in America, including discipline disproportionality, frequent referrals to special education services, teachers’ low expectations, and the marginalization of Black parents as partners in traditional schools. This book demonstrates how single mothers experience the inequity in school choice policies and also provides an understanding of how single Black mothers experience home-school partnerships within traditional schools. Most importantly, this volume challenges stereotypical characterizations of who homeschools and why.