Joyce on Patriarchal Homeschooling, Part 1

This post reviews Kathryn Joyce, Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009).
Joyce, a freelance journalist based in New York City, here pens an important book on one of the most dynamic subcultures within the homeschooling world: “quiverfull” families where father is patriarchal lord, mother is submissive breeder of as many children as [...]

Read Full Post »

Lois on Deviant Homeschooling Moms

This post reviews Jennifer Lois, “Emotionally Layered Accounts: Homeschoolers’ Justifications for Maternal Deviance” in Deviant Behavior 30, no. 2 (February 2009): 201-234
Lois, a sociology professor at Western Washington University, here investigates how homeschooling mothers deal with criticisms of their actions. 

Read Full Post »

Sun on Chinese-American Christian Homeschoolers

This post reviews Laura Li-Hua Sun, “Dare to Home School: Faith and Cultural Experiences of Chinese Christian Mothers” (Ph.D. Dissertation, Biola University, 2007). [Link to dissertation here]
Sun begins by explaining how important formal education is to the Chinese, who see it as a means of maintaining their privileged status as “children of the dragon” over [...]

Read Full Post »

Stroobant on Homeschooling School-Resistant Children

This post reviews Emma Stroobant, “Dancing to the Music of Your Heart: Home Schooling the School-Resistant Child” (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Auckland, 2006).  (Available fulltext here)
Stroobant, a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, here offers as her Ph.D. thesis a challenge to the dominant medical model that pathologizes the phenomenon of [...]

Read Full Post »

SmithBattle on Homeschooled Teen Mothers

This post reviews Lee SmithBattle, “‘I Wanna Have a Good Future:’ Teen Mothers’ Rise in Educational Aspirations, Competing Demands, and Limited School Support.” in Youth and Society 38, no. 3 (March 2007): 348-371.
SmithBattle, a professor at the St. Louis University School of Nursing, here describes how pregnancy and childbirth often serve as motivators for young teens [...]

Read Full Post »

Part 3 of Gilbert on Motherhood

This is my third and final post reviewing Neil Gilbert, A Mother’s Work: How Feminism, the Market, and Policy Shape Family Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).
In Gilbert’s first section he described the shift over the past several decades away from motherhood and toward paid labor among American women.  In the second section he [...]

Read Full Post »

Part 2 of Gilbert on Motherhood

This post reviews part two of Neil Gilbert, A Mother’s Work: How Feminism, the Market, and Policy Shape Family Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).
In the book’s first section Gilbert described the long-term trend among American women toward having fewer children and investing more of their time in paid labor.  In the second section [...]

Read Full Post »

Neil Gilbert on Motherhood, Capitalism, and Feminism, part 1

This is the first in a series of posts reviewing Neil Gilbert’s new book A Mother’s Work: How Feminism, the Market, and Policy Shape Family Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).
Gilbert, a professor at U.C. Berkeley, has a long and distinguished track record working in many fields related to social policy, welfare, and family [...]

Read Full Post »