Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: The purpose of the research was to understand the relationship between the advent and wide-scale diffusion of computer and communication technologies and the growth of home education in the U.S. As a qualitative study, 27 practicing and former homeschool parents from the greater Albany, NY region were recruited to participate in five focus group interviews.Questionnaire, one-on-one interview, and participant reflection data were collected, coded, and analyzed as well.As a group, participants perceived that modern media and internet technologies, along with several confluent social, political, and economic forces had facilitated, and perhaps fuelled, growth in homeschooling in the U.S. Participants felt that access and use of modern technologies had enabled their capacity to educate their children at home.Most participants perceived that modern technologies helped provide the emotional and intellectual capital needed to make the leap to homeschooling.Results indicated that computer and communication technologies had helped parents lower informational, interpersonal, instructional, and psychological barriers of entry during the process of deliberation leading up the decision to homeschool.Once participants had committed to homeschooling, modern technologies helped them create, access, and sustain communities of practice.In addition, results showed that technology
Author: Albert G. Andrade
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W132556799