Parental Facilitation of Young Children's Technology-based Learning Experiences from Nondominant Groups During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Junnan Yu,Ronni Hayden,Ricarose Roque,Julisa Granados

doi:10.1145/3476048

Junnan Yu, Ronni Hayden + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1145/3476048

Copy DOI

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shifted family life across home, work, and education, especially families from nondominant groups. As schools and other educational programs moved online, parents became the primary facilitators for their children's learning. In this work, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 parents from nondominant groups. Insights from interviews highlight the technology-based learning experiences of young children during the pandemic, how parents facilitated these learning experiences, and the challenges parents and children encountered in these learning experiences. We summarize four parental facilitation patterns for children's learning (i.e., designing learning, finding resources, managing, and teaching) and highlight equity issues in distance learning, such as unequal access to learning resources and quality education. Finally, we further reflect on potential solutions to address the challenges parents have reported and share implications for designing technologies that better address children's and parents' needs during a crisis.

Highlights

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a significant disruption to our education systems
We report findings of children’s technology-based learning experiences, details about parental facilitation patterns in Table 2, and the challenges parents reported during their children’s learning
When children were engaged in the aforementioned learning experiences, parents adopted various facilitation strategies, which we summarized into four categories: Designing learning, Finding resources, Managing, and Teaching

Summary

Introduction

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a significant disruption to our education systems. According to the United Nations [50], around 94% of the world’s student population and 99% of students in low and low-middle income countries are impacted by the closures of school buildings and other learning spaces. To support students’ continuity of education during the closures of physical learning spaces, schools have adopted distance learning at all levels, accompanied by other innovative support like radio, television, and take-home packages [50]. Interact., Vol 5, No CSCW2, Article 307.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion