Date
5-20-2026
Department
School of Music
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education (PhD)
Chair
Monica Taylor
Keywords
home education, homeschool music education, homeschooling, music learning choices
Disciplines
Education | Music
Recommended Citation
Finke, Ashley Virginia, "Homeschool Music: The Predictive Relationship between Parents’ Homeschooling Approach and Religiosity for Music Learning Choices" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8351.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8351
Abstract
The purpose of this quantitative predictive correlational study was to examine how accurately the combination of parents’ homeschooling approach and parents’ religiosity predict music learning choices for homeschooled students. A Florida Department of Education report showed an increase in homeschooling between the 2013-14 and 2023-24 school years, while an Institute of Education Sciences report documented that 49 percent of homeschooled students in the United States participated in music in 2016. Despite these reports, limited research exists of homeschool music education in the United States and, specifically, in Florida. This study resulted from the related literature and the dearth of current research, support, and resources for homeschoolers’ music learning. Recruitment encompassed contacting homeschooling parents throughout Florida via email, text, and Facebook to complete an online, anonymous survey consisting of eligibility questions, an information sheet, demographic questions, religiosity questions obtained from the Duke University Religion Index, a homeschooling approach question, and a music learning choices question with nine options rated via a seven-point scale. Recruitment efforts returned seventy viable responses to run twenty-seven standard multiple regressions. All results, except for one test, failed to reject the null hypothesis. Rational Choice Theory and relativism provided the theoretical framework for the study’s development and the results’ interpretation. While not statistically significant, the results mostly support the literature that homeschooling varies between families via instructional methods and foundational approaches that often result from parents’ desire to support each student’s learning via the best method that reflects parents’ personal and educational philosophies.
