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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in interruptions to social, economic, cultural, and educational life, with social distancing measures and well-being concerns leading to widespread restrictions to everyday activities. When COVID-19 first made an impact in 2020, many schools across Australia were closed entirely or provided limited access. Subsequently, many parents and caregivers were tasked with educating their children from home. Throughout this period, a key concern identified by various stakeholders was the potential impact of school closures on academic progression. This paper reports the results of a study that investigated Australian primary school parents’ experiences of home-learning with their children due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. To explore perceptions of how home-learning was managed by schools and the impact the experience had on children’s academic progress from the perspective of parents, survey data were collected (n = 171) and interviews were conducted (n = 29). The study was guided by Epstein’s Framework of Parental Involvement, with a particular focus on home-school partnerships. Findings indicated that, despite individual challenges, many parents were willing to engage in home-learning with their children, often beyond what was expected of them by the school. Overall, parents felt that the impact on academic progress was minimal, and that positive experiences were characterised by strong home-school connections. Through building on Epstein’s work to reconceptualise parental engagement with learning, rather than parental involvement with school, the study is important because it highlights assumptions made about parents’ pedagogical and content knowledge and their capacity to support school directed student learning. Importantly the findings demonstrate how home-school partnerships can be strengthened or put at risk under challenging conditions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The option to provide information on the experiences of multiple children was available.
2 Measures of Remoteness and Socio-economic Status were generated from participants post-codes using ABS data cubes from the 2016 census. It is recognised that ideally these demographics should be calculated at the SA1 level however this information was not available due to concerns regarding participant privacy and confidentiality. As a result, these demographics should be interpreted with caution.
3 Note SR refers to open-ended survey response; P refers to interview participant
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tracey Muir
Dr Tracey Muir is a Professor of Education at the Australian Catholic University.
Bethany Muir
Bethany Muir is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University.
David Hicks
Dr David Hicks is a lecturer at the University of Tasmania.
Kim Beasy
Dr Kim Beasy is a lecturer at the University of Tasmania.
Carol Murphy
Dr Carol Murphy is a senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania.