Exploring the Black Parental Imaginary: A Critical Mixed Methods Exploration of How and Why Black Parents (Re)Imagine Black Education Through Homeschooling

Abstract

Scholars compellingly argue the many ways public schooling in the US was never designed to foster Black children’s thriving. As such, Black parents wrestle with the extraordinary challenge of either hoping ongoing school reforms will result in better educational opportunities and experiences for their children or fully removing them from schools altogether, and in doing so, take full responsibility for imagining and designing an educational experience that ensures Black children’s wellbeing. Wellbeing can take many forms which may include Black youth’s pride in their racial identity, public and private regard for being Black. This mixed methods dissertation utilizes large-scale nationally representative survey data, interviews, and ethnography to explore the motivations and visions of Black parents who have turned to homeschooling as an act of resistance against anti-Black schooling structures that reproduce racialized harm.