Parents’ Perceptions of School Support During COVID-19: What Satisfies Parents?

Teresa Haller,Shally Novita

doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.700441

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, face-to-face schooling could not be performed continuously, and alternative ways of learning had to be organized. Parents had to act as their children’s home schooling tutors while working from home, and schools had to deal with various alternatives to distance education. Since parents are by all means both important school users and partners, their perceptions of schools can be considered a central indicator for assessing school quality. In this respect, during school lockdown, parents’ school satisfaction may reflect schools’ ability to adjust and react to fast social changes with almost no time for preparation. To date, there is nearly no knowledge about school satisfaction or school support during this challenging situation. Using data from the COVID-19 survey of the German National Educational Panel Study, we identified central predictors of parents’ perceptions of school support during the national lockdown in Germany in spring 2020. All students (N= 1,587;Mage= 14.20;SD= 0.36; 53% girls) and their parents (Mage= 47.36;SD= 4.99; 91% women) have participated in the longitudinal survey for at least 8 years. The results of the structural equation model indicate that the perceived support and abilities of teachers have been especially relevant for parents’ school satisfaction during the time of the school lockdown. In contrast, factors relating to parents’ and children’s backgrounds seem to be less important.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on most aspects of life
All variables except for the delivery of learning materials suffer from missing values, with the highest missing rate of 27.91% demonstrated by the construct of support from one’s employer
Satisfaction with learning materials demonstrated a median result with a mean of 5.70 out of a maximum of 10 possible obtained scores

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on most aspects of life. During the first lockdown in Spring 2020, teachers, students and parents had to face the challenge of maintaining learning processes via remote schooling in Germany, as in almost all European countries (DW 2020). While teachers and schools had to provide students with learning materials, instructions and assistance by distance, parents had to function as home schooling tutors for their children while maintaining their regular jobs at the same time (Lagomarsino et al, 2020: 851f; Parczewska 2020). In such critical times, where parents have to be more actively engaged in their children’s learning programs (Bubb and Jones 2020), parents’ satisfaction with school becomes a crucial factor, reflecting schools’ ability to adjust and react towards fast social changes.

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Conclusion