UC Educator Leads Internet Dialogue on Home Schooling

Mary Anne Pitman, professor of educational foundations and head of the Division of Educational Studies at the University of Cincinnati, will be the guest expert on a live Internet chat on WebMD's New Parenting site at 1 p.m. (EST) Monday, Jan. 29. The topic of discussion will be the home schooling movement.

Pitman is an educational anthropologist who looks at the impact of social and cultural factors on learning. Her research in home schooling stemmed from her quest to study how children acquire knowledge outside an institutional environment. She focused on about two dozen households in the northeastern United States which had formed their own parent cooperative which included a board on which Pitman served. In addition, Pitman lived with six different home schooling families as she conducted her research.

Pitman is both a researcher and author and is co-editor of the book, Home Schooling: Political, Historical and Pedagogical Perspectives (1991). Her most recent publication, the book entitled Caring as Tenacity: Stories of Urban School Survival, was released last year.