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.

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.

A thoughtful, research-based discussion of Black homeschool experiences as models for educational improvement in K–12 public educationIn Creating Educational Justice, Cheryl Fields-Smith upholds the decisions of Black parents to homeschool their children as acts of empowerment, resistance, and educational justice. The work spotlights the various motivations of Black families to home educate, bringing attention to key issues facing K–12 public schooling in the United States.Fields-Smith shares the voices and perspectives of sixty Black home educators from a range of demographic backgrounds. Many of these families moved to homeschooling after students began their formal education in public schools, citing both problems endemic to US public schools (curriculum limitations, teacher shortages, and inadequate resources) and those faced particularly by Black students (marginalization of Black parents’ engagement, deficit narratives surrounding Black student ability, discriminatory disciplinary practices, and overrepresentation in special education) as reasons for their switch. Their stories demonstrate the many ways in which Black home education curates learning opportunities that promote positive identity development and racial healing, as well as academic success, in ways that traditional schools often cannot.  Fields-Smith argues that public educators can learn much from Black homeschool parents’ decision-making, folk pedagogy, and educational practice. This work offers a wealth of constructive feedback for teachers, school administrators, and policymakers that can inform teacher education practices, school administration approaches, and education reform measures and help build stronger school-family-community partnerships.

This book expands the concept of homeplace with contemporary Black homeschooling positioned as a form of resistance among single Black mothers.