Type of Submission
Poster
Keywords
Homeschooling, parents, success, social life, stress, education
Abstract
We conducted a qualitative research study on the lives of homeschool parents. We interviewed 24 parents who have either homeschooled their children in the past or were currently homeschooling at the time of the study, regarding constructs such as success of homeschooling and the effects homeschooling has had on the personal lives of the parents. Several themes emerged from the study’s data. One such was the feeling of homeschooling being a success in comparison to traditional education. They shared accounts bonding with their children and being able to set the curriculum speed just right for their children. The second theme is the social stigma homeschooling had in their respective communities. The participants shared how there were instances of people thinking homeschool parents were weird, but they found support in homeschool support groups or in their religious communities. Third is the cost of time and resources. The participants continued to mention time management as a cost and that finding/purchasing the right resources was a struggle. We relate the findings to literature regarding broader topics; such as reasons for homeschooling, the parents’ social lives, and the impacts homeschooling has on families.
Campus Venue
Stevens Student Center
Location
Cedarville, OH
Start Date
4-12-2017 11:00 AM
End Date
4-12-2017 2:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Download file contains only the abstract
Perceptions of Homeschooling: A Qualitative Study of the Lives of Homeschool Parents
Cedarville, OH
We conducted a qualitative research study on the lives of homeschool parents. We interviewed 24 parents who have either homeschooled their children in the past or were currently homeschooling at the time of the study, regarding constructs such as success of homeschooling and the effects homeschooling has had on the personal lives of the parents. Several themes emerged from the study’s data. One such was the feeling of homeschooling being a success in comparison to traditional education. They shared accounts bonding with their children and being able to set the curriculum speed just right for their children. The second theme is the social stigma homeschooling had in their respective communities. The participants shared how there were instances of people thinking homeschool parents were weird, but they found support in homeschool support groups or in their religious communities. Third is the cost of time and resources. The participants continued to mention time management as a cost and that finding/purchasing the right resources was a struggle. We relate the findings to literature regarding broader topics; such as reasons for homeschooling, the parents’ social lives, and the impacts homeschooling has on families.
