Garner, McKenna (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Haug, Jordan (Brigham Young University, Anthropology); Thompson, Greg (Brigham Young University, Anthropology)
Homeschooling has long existed as somewhat of a countercultural alternative to educating children in the United States, and it has grown in popularity nationwide since the beginning of the modern homeschool movement in the 1970s. As of 2016, there were about 16,085 school-age children being homeschooled in Utah (Utah State Board of Education Superintendent's Annual Report 2016), though this number has likely increased as the homeschool movement has continued to sweep the nation. While there exists a sufficient amount of research on the educational outcomes of homeschooled children, the research lacks the perspectives of the mothers who are taking on the responsibility to homeschool their children. This project is focused on understanding why mothers, specifically those of the Latter-day Saint faith, choose to homeschool and what their individual experiences look like. Using ethnographic methods such as participant-observation and person-centered interviews, I sought to understand the experiences of 28 different homeschooling mothers in Utah. The data from interviews suggest that, from the perspective of my informants, there is a clear connection between the responsibilities of homeschooling and the responsibilities of motherhood. My observations also show unique methods of homeschooling within each family that echo unique approaches to mothering. While some arguments exist about the gendered inequalities that homeschooling may perpetuate, I argue that homeschooling mothers demonstrate a great deal of agency and autonomy within their homes, which in turn supports the religious ideologies of these women related to their "divine" roles as mothers and "equal partnership" with their husbands (The Family: A Proclamation to the World).