Mothers as teachers to their children: lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The study examined Israeli mothers’ engagement in their children’s distance learning during COVID-19 crisis. A thematic analysis of interviews with 20 mothers from high and low socioeconomic background yielded three core categories: (a) mothers’ responses to the situation of school closures that addressed to organizing, supervising and less learning pressure by keeping boundaries between school and home activities; (b) challanged and concerens that refed to workload, instructional difficulty and the quality of teachers’ work; (c) mothers’ resources for engaging in their children's learning that comprised social capital and human capital including digital skills. Socioeconomic differences were found in regard to these three core categories that sustain inequality. However, mothers from low socioeconomic background reported being actively engaged and critical toward teachers. Implications regarding parent engagement at the post-COVID-19 are suggested.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• mothers
• parent engagement
• capital
• socioeconomic

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Israel’s society is diverse along ethnic groups (Jews and Arabs), and among the Jewish population there is a distinction between the secular and religious/ultra-orthodox populations who have their own educational system and cultural orientation regarding the way they raise their children and in their involvement in their schooling. Given this diversity and the relatively small sample, we preferred to focus on one group, which is the largest Israeli group.