The perceptions of female breadwinner parents regarding their children’s distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Covid-19 has affected the everyday educational lives of students, teachers, administrators, and parents. Parents who are living in low-income and disadvantaged communities are probably more likely than others to have been affected by the pandemic in relation to their children’s distance learning. This study focused on the perceptions, predictions, and suggestions of female breadwinner parents from low-income families regarding their children’s distance learning. Data were collected from 12 mothers who participated in a three-stage focus group study. The data from the focus group discussions were thematically analyzed into three categories: (1) financial issues, (2) social and cultural issues, and (3) educational issues. Additionally, the findings presented the breadwinners’ general and technological reasons for their predictions for enhancing education in the future if schools return to face-to-face learning or pursue a blended learning approach. The breadwinners suggested three approaches to teaching and learning for the following academic year. The findings of this study may be useful in the development of educational policies and training programs to provide essential social and technological support to low-income families to address their needs in the online learning environment and to improve digital equity for low-income families who are likely to be educationally disadvantaged.

Parental experiences during remote education in Paraguay: a comparison between the beginning and the end of 2020

“…In addition, considering the academic activities proposed, almost half of the parents agreed that they were very difficult to understand, either because they had almost total ignorance about the subject matter or simply because they did not have enough guidance to carry them out (Haller & Novita, 2021). The findings also show that mothers were the main responsible for following up their children's process in almost all cases of remote education at home, as suggested by other research (Aladsani, 2021;Bunga et al, 2021;Lau et al, 2021).…”

“…The role of parents or guardians was fundamental in this remote learning process of their sons and daughters. Works such as those of Aladsani (2021), Bunga et al (2021) and Lau et al (2021) argue that they were the ones directly involved in the development of the children's school activities.…”

Educators by proxy: Emergency remote teaching and learning in the voice of parents

“…Mothers explained children's lack of motivation and concentration as deriving from using digital devices-a source of entertainment and distraction-but also from relational reasons, such as not being under the authority of their teacher or being bored because of lacking social interaction with their peers, and finally for aspects related to their characteristics such as lacking discipline (Aladsani, 2022).…”

“…In fact, self-regulation is a critical prerequisite for distance learning (Wang et al, 2013). Digital technology is also referred to as a source of distraction in other studies (Aladsani, 2022).…”

“…We have previously highlighted parents' sense of being unprepared and untrained to face such challenges and roles (Fontenelle-Tereshchuk, 2021;Aladsani, 2022). These limitations have as an underlying theme the equity of ERTL.…”