In a radically changed and still changing world, parents, schools and pupils have had to adapt to a new teaching and learning modality. Working parents have faced the competing demands of employment ...and home-schooling, and schools provided support to pupils through online platforms and other resources. A qualitative approach elicited the views and experiences of working parents through a social media parents' group in Northern Ireland (NI). Only well-educated mothers responded revealing their extreme lack of confidence and pedagogical skills, complete exhaustion, frayed family relationships, and acute concern about children's educational loss and its future implications, particularly those for whom public examinations were imminent. Communication between teachers and both pupils and parents was deemed crucial, as were greater clarity from teachers on tasks set, less screen time, daily live interaction, feedback on work done, and more printed resources from schools to avoid undue expense for parents, especially those with children of different ages in different education sectors. Much more effective home-schooling could be facilitated if government required employers to arrange flexible working hours, at least for one parent. However, the creation of a daily structure that included lessons and leisure, the latter both indoors and outdoors, was beneficial and therapeutic.
In early 2020, schools across Canada closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring parents to homeschool their children. We examined the association between homeschooling and romantic conflict among ...couples during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian couples (N = 756) completed online measures, including whether they were homeschooling, hours spent homeschooling, and romantic conflict during the month of April 2020. Two hundred ten couples (27.8%) reported that they were homeschooling their children during this period, with 173 (22.9%) couples homeschooling due to the pandemic. Multilevel regressions were used to examine the association between homeschooling status and romantic conflict, and actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs) were used to examine the association between homeschooling hours and romantic conflict among homeschoolers. In our APIM analyses, significant links between hours spent homeschooling and romantic conflict were observed, even when controlling for demographic variables. We found significant actor effects, where an individual's own homeschooling hours were positively related to the conflict they enacted toward their partner, and significant partner effects, where the partner's homeschooling hours were positively related to conflict received by the individual. Among all couples, we found significant positive associations between homeschooling status (i.e., nonhomeschooler or homeschooler) and both types of romantic conflict. However, these associations were nonsignificant when controlling for demographic variables. Our findings suggest the number of hours spent in homeschooling may be an important contributor to romantic conflict between partners during the pandemic. We discuss implications for schools and governments in providing additional support for families homeschooling children during mandated school closures.
A robust finding from research in high-income countries is that children living in resource-poor homes are vulnerable to difficulties with language and literacy but less is known about this ...association in low- and middle-income (LMI) countries. We present a meta-analysis of 6,678 correlations from studies in 43 LMI countries. Overall, the results indicate a small but significant association (r = .08) between home language and literacy environment and children's language and literacy skills. After examining a range of moderators, adult literacy practices and books-at-home had a significantly larger association with children's language and literacy skills than did home tutoring. Studies using customized measures demonstrated a more marked association between home attributes and children's outcomes (r = .14) than studies using a common measure across multiple sites (r = .06). Published studies showed significantly larger associations than unpublished studies, and countries with greater income inequality showed a larger association than relatively egalitarian societies. We conclude that the small overall association should not be taken as support for the absence of, or a vanishingly small relationship between the home learning environment and children's language and literacy skills in LMI countries. Rather, an important factor in detecting this relationship is that assessments must better reflect the nature of homes in different cultures to capture true variation in the population. Such contextually situated measurement would lead to an inclusive conceptualization of home learning environments and can better inform intervention programs to enhance children's educational success, a critical target for many LMI countries.
Public Significance Statement
Studies demonstrate that resource-poor homes render children vulnerable to difficulties with language and literacy. Here, we summarize data from studies conducted in low- and middle-income (LMI) countries. Our meta-analysis (based on 6,678 correlations; from 43 LMI countries) shows a small but significant association between the language and literacy learning environment in children's homes and their language and literacy skills. The association is more marked for the adult literacy practices and book resources in the home than for home tutoring, and when studies use locally situated measures. These sociocultural and measurement factors are crucial to consider in designing studies in LMI countries where many children are behind in literacy learning.
The surprising reasons parents are opting out of the
public school system and homeschooling their kids
Homeschooling has skyrocketed in popularity in the United States:
in 2019, a record-breaking 2.5 ...million children were being
homeschooled. In The Homeschool Choice , Kate Henley
Averett provides insight into this fascinating phenomenon,
exploring the perspectives of parents who have chosen to homeschool
their children. Drawing on in-depth interviews, Averett examines
the reasons why these parents choose to homeschool, from those who
disagree with sex education and LGBT content in schools, to others
who want to protect their children's sexual and gender identities.
With eye-opening detail, she shows us how homeschooling is a trend
being chosen by an increasingly diverse subset of American
families, at times in order to empower-or constrain-children's
gender and sexuality. Ultimately, Averett explores how
homeschooling, as a growing practice, has changed the roles that
families, schools, and the state play in children's lives. As
teachers, parents, and policymakers debate the future of public
education, The Homeschool Choice sheds light on the
ongoing struggle over school choice.
Experiences with racism and other emotionally laden encounters are intricately entangled with parents' motivations to take direct action that can lead to voluntary separation from school or ...homeschooling. Using the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (HDS) model, this article expands parental involvement by including homeschooling and examines the usefulness of including emotion as a discernible motivator of parental involvement. Research on Black homeschooling is used as an example to explore the psychological and socio-emotional dilemmas parents face when preparing their children to become self-sufficient in an anti-Black lived context. Particular focus is given to parental role construction and efficacy beliefs to describe the intersection of emotions leading to parental actions toward involvement. Marchand et al.'s process of critical action is detailed to further illustrate the complexities of Black parents who actively engage in activities to combat discrimination. New insights on theory adaptation and pathways to inform practice, and recommendations for future research on parental involvement and Black homeschooling are also provided.
Home education, in particular Confucian home education, has been increasing steadily in China over the past decades. However, research relating to home-schooling families has largely been ignored. In ...particular, the literature grounded in empirical study and focusing on the development of Confucian home education is negligible in the educational context of China. This study places a focus on the influence of Confucian culture and beliefs on the development of home education in China, which is now attracting scholarly interest and public attention. It provides in-depth information regarding the status of Confucian home education, the motivation to undertake Confucian home education, teaching content, teaching methods and its outcomes. It is found that Confucian values and beliefs fit well with the model of home education in China in terms of the relationship between family, education, moral development and society.
The closure of schools worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic required parents to undertake key pedagogical roles to support their children's education and movement to a remote, often virtual ...world of online teaching presented many challenges for families. For the parents of children attending special schools, the loss of educational, as well as therapeutic provision, added a further layer of complexity unique to this group. This paper presents findings from a Northern Ireland-wide survey undertaken during the first lockdown period. Using Hornby and Blackwell's model of parental involvement (PI), the paper describes parents' experiences relative to their child's needs, family circumstances and societal expectations, and the intersection of these with teacher relationships and the wider school community. The findings reveal those factors that facilitated and inhibited PI and makes suggestions for improvements at school and policy levels in the short and longer term. The results have relevance and reach beyond the Northern Ireland context and should contribute to international dialogue on the synergy between PI and the special school setting.
School closings have been a key policy measure worldwide for reducing the spread of corona-virus disease (COVID-19). In Germany, federal states closed schools in mid-March and started to reopen them ...in late April. This policy potentially increased parental obligations for supervision and support during homeschooling and, thus, might reinforce social inequality in educational opportunities. Therefore, this research note investigates social inequality in students’ homeschooling efforts. Moreover, it asks whether social disparities in home learning environments, social support, teacher support, and cost–benefit-related considerations account for the social differences in homeschooling efforts during the school closing period in Germany. To that end, we use data from an ongoing research project on high school students in their final years that were collected during the school closing period. Our results show pronounced differences in home schooling efforts by social background. Thus far, the mechanisms under study can explain only a moderate part of the social origin effect. In summary, the results show that school closings have the potential to exacerbate social inequality in educational opportunities. Therefore, future research should scrutinise the extent to which school closings reinforce inequality in educational opportunities. (Orig.).
PDF
