Cheryl Fields-Smith

Cheryl Fields-Smith is a Professor of Elementary Education at the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Before earning her doctorate, Dr. Fields-Smith served as an elementary school teacher in her native state of Connecticut. She serves as associate department head for the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at UGA. Dr. Fields-Smith earned her doctorate from Emory University in 2004 under the direction of Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker. Her research interests include homeschooling among Black families, Black family engagement, and home/school/community partnerships. Her groundbreaking research on Black homeschooling has been featured in many multimedia reports including NBC News, PBS NewsHour, and the Atlantic. Her 2020 AESA Critic’s Choice Award-winning book titled, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance through Homeschooling, details the lives of four single Black mothers who homeschool while choosing not to work full-time. In 2021, Dr. Fields-Smith was awarded a Spencer Foundation Conference Grant to bring together a group of researchers, including doctoral students, who focus on Black home education to share research and begin to establish a formal annual conference on the topic. She also served as co-editor of the 2022 book, Homeschooling Black Children in the U.S.: Theory, Practice, and Popular Culture. In 2025, her Harvard Education Press book, Creating Educational Justice: Learning from Black Home Educators, published with Havard Educational Press, will be available. This book offers insights gained from 17 years of research with Black home educators.