Difficult situations and ways of coping with them in the experiences of parents homeschooling their children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

ABSTRACT

The aim of the research project is to present parents’ perceptions and experiences related to home education during the coronavirus pandemic, and the ways of coping with difficult situations, taking into account sociodemographic factors. At the end of March and beginning of April this year, a survey was conducted on a group of 278 parents living in Poland – in a large city, small town and in the countryside – and affected by this problem. The findings indicate that a significant group of respondents described the existing situation as difficult, and the responsibilities related to home schooling as being beyond their capabilities. Parents are generally not confident about their competence and solutions they adopt; they express anxiety about the future of their children. Significant differences were observed in the ways of perceiving difficult situations and of coping with them with respect to gender and place of residence. The undertaken research is important because the voices of parents shed light on the problems of Polish education in a crisis situation, and at the same time indicate the direction of necessary changes.

KEYWORDS:

• Pandemic
• difficult situation
• home education
• parents
• children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The terms ‘home education’, ‘homeschooling’ and ‘home-based education’ used in this article refer only to educating children at home in the situation of the coronavirus pandemic and are not the same as typical ‘home education’ implemented in Poland since 1991, understood as an alternative to education in preschool and at school (Art.37 of the Act of 14 December 2016 - Education Law, Journal of Laws of 2020, item 910): http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU20170000059/U/D20170059Lj.pdf (accessed 30.07.2020).

2 In the Polish education system, compulsory education is divided into: (a) compulsory one-year preparation for school for 6-year-old children; (b) compulsory schooling, which starts with the beginning of the school year in the calendar year in which the child reaches the age of 7, and continues until the end of the 8-year primary school, but no longer than until the age of 18 (see: Organisation and structure of the education system: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/organisation-education-system-and-its-structure-56_pl (accessed: 30.07.2020).

3 The Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 20 March 2020 on specific solutions during the temporary limitation in the functioning of units of the education system in relation to preventing, counteracting and combating COVID-19: http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WDU20200000493 (accessed: 30.03.2020).

4 According to data from the Ministry of National Education, in the current school year (2019/2020) about 4.6 million students receive education at school, 3 million of whom are primary school students, and 1.6 million are secondary school students: https://www.zadluzenia.com/ilu-jest-uczniow-w-polsce/ accessed: 30.03.2020).

5 According to the report by Sieć Edukacji Cyfrowej Komet@ from 2018, 59% of Polish schools more or less strictly prohibited the use of smartphones and tablets.

6 The concept of the situation is of interest not only to psychologists (Reykowski 1966; Tomaszewski 1984; Tyszkowa 1986), but also to philosophers and sociologists. In philosophy, it is present in these directions that focus on the problems of human existence, fate and activities, such as phenomenology and existentialism (Husserl, Heidegger, Hartman, Sartre). In sociological works, the concept of situation is mainly analysed in the context of human activity (Parsons 1972; Znaniecki 1973).

7 Terminology used in the literature includes internal and external motivation (Gottfried 1990; Carlton and Winsler 1998), results-oriented and mastery-oriented goals (Elliott and Dweck 1988), and achievements (Berndt and Miller 1990). Internal and external motivations describe the way an individual engages in a task or activity. Internal motivation is the motivation to take up activity for itself; external motivation is the motivation to take action as a means to an end. Goal orientation explains achievement behaviour and sheds light on an individual’s understanding, learning, and task performance. The purpose of activities in external motivation is reward or avoidance of punishment, while in internal motivation - focus on learning, developing new skills or an attempt to understand the problem (Elliott and Dweck 1988).