Chapter 4: Self-Efficacy Insights from a Public-School Educator Turned Home Educator

Working through thoughts of inadequacy are common when faced with new challenges and responsibilities. This chapter details increasing efficacy beliefs, which is a psychological concept that describes the perception of an individual’s capabilities to complete a task to a desired outcome and the level an individual will persevere when obstacles occur. Coming to homeschooling as a parent has been an interesting journey for many families, however in this chapter I describe my battles with low efficacy beliefs and homeschooling my children. Also included are stories of my research and advocacy for home-schooling while as a teacher in public schools and later in graduate before having the opportunity to homeschool my own children. These experiences helped build my parental and teaching efficacy beliefs to create a culturally relevant and academically rigorous homeschooling adventure for our family.