Monica Utsey

Monica Utsey is an American homeschool educator, consultant, and writer based in Washington, D.C. She is a co-founder and the director of the Sankofa Homeschool Community and Collective, an African-centered homeschooling organization serving families in the Washington metropolitan area and, through virtual programming, families elsewhere in the United States and abroad.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Utsey holds a bachelor's degree in mass communications and journalism from Howard University.^[3] She has professional experience in education program development, including work with the Maya Angelou Schools/See Forever Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based alternative education organization.^[3] Utsey homeschooled her own sons; as of 2020, her oldest son was a homeschool graduate attending college, while her youngest, then 13, continued to be homeschooled.^[4]

Sankofa Homeschool Community and Collective

Utsey co-founded the Sankofa Homeschool Community in 2004 alongside Maisha Khalfani and a small group of other homeschooling mothers, initially to support Black and African-descended homeschooling families in the Washington metropolitan area.^[5] As founding members' circumstances changed over time, Utsey took on continued leadership of the organization.^[5] In 2011, the community launched an in-person enrichment program known as the Sankofa Homeschool Collective, which met weekly at the Deanwood Recreation Center in Northeast Washington, in partnership with the Southern D.C. chapter of Mocha Moms, Inc.^[6]

According to a 2023 profile in The Washington Informer, the collective moved its operations to the Adinkra Cultural Arts Studio in Mount Rainier, Maryland, by 2015, expanding its course offerings to include African drumming, Pan-African history, African-American literature, Swahili, narrative essay writing, cooking, art, and quilting.^[1] In 2019, Sankofa students and families traveled to Ghana to perform drumming as part of the country's Year of Return commemorations.^[1] Utsey described the original decision to homeschool and build the collective as “a bold move in unchartered territory that was motivated by deep love.”^[1]

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Sankofa to shift its programming to a virtual format, which the organization has continued to use alongside in-person activities; the shift allowed the collective to reach homeschooling families outside the D.C. area.^[1] By 2023, the organization's virtual course offerings included instructors based in Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria teaching subjects such as African music, French, and Yoruba, alongside continuing in-person field trips and enrichment activities in the Washington area.^[1] That year marked the collective's approach toward its 20th anniversary.^[1] Utsey has also worked as a travel coordinator for H.I.M. Tours in Ghana and has discussed plans to eventually organize homeschool summer camps on the African continent.^[1]

COVID-19 pandemic commentary

In March 2020, as U.S. schools closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Utsey was interviewed by Education Week as an experienced homeschooling parent offering guidance to parents suddenly overseeing their children's schooling at home.^[4] She advised against structuring a home-schooling day around a conventional school schedule, telling the publication, “I think parents are worried too much about having a schedule, schedules are important when everyone has to be out of the house at a certain time.”^[4] Utsey also emphasized that parents already function as their children's first teachers and encouraged incorporating current events, including coverage of the pandemic itself, into home instruction.^[4] The article noted that Utsey's family had previously been featured in Education Week's video series Home Schooling in America.^[4]

Other work and public appearances

Utsey is the author of a blog, Chocolate Covered Boy Joy: Raising and Educating African American Sons, and has produced related video content addressing homeschooling African American sons.^[7] She has appeared as a panelist at events on Black homeschooling and independent Black education, including a Howard University panel titled “Opting Out of the Mainstream: Maroonage and the Quest for Independent Black Education,” alongside scholars including Anthony Browder and Carol D. Lee.^[8] She has also participated in public discussions on Black homeschooling alongside Khadijah Ali-Coleman, co-founder of Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars, and homeschooling parent Tracie Yorke.^[9]

References