This paper describes an ethnographic study of how fundamentalist Christian parents new to home schooling are socialized to norms, beliefs, and values of the Christian home schooling organizations with which they are affiliated. Research involved participant observation and interviews with "home schoolers" and educators over an 18-month…

Interviews reveal that home schooling is both a pedagogical decision and a public declaration of the importance of the family. Parents' socialization into home schooling is defined by the political and legal climate of their state and school district. Restrictions of home schooling will not solve the parents' dissatisfaction with traditional…

The social context within which home schooling takes place is described, and the ideological frameworks and contexts within which parents (most of them fundamentalist Christians) make schooling decisions are examined. Research involved participant observation and interviews with 16 home schooling families (13 families self-labeled…