Roles of the Parents in Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the education process. A sudden shift to online learning changed the mechanism of the education system. As key stakeholders, parents have to undertake the responsibility of this process at home. This study aims to reveal the roles of parents in online learning during the pandemic. It was conducted with a phenomenological research design. The study group consists of 28 parents having children aged 7 to 13 years old. Data collected employing interviews and open-ended questionnaires were analyzed by the thematic analysis method. According to the findings, parents organize their daily lives at home according to online learning of their children. They explain the online learning process in the context of family circumstances, the challenges they experienced, the educational environment, household chores, job responsibilities, and relationships. It is challenging for parents to undertake the roles of reinforcer, supervisor, motivator, and controller in online learning at home. To overcome the challenges they take family or caregiver support, make partnerships, and use external sources like tutoring, web applications, etc. All these findings suggest that with the emergent shift to remote teaching, parents get much more involved in the education process by undertaking the responsibilities of the teachers.