BARRIERS EXPERIENCED BY PARENTS DURING DISTANCE LEARNING

AMIDST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AT MUNTINLUPA CITY: BASIS FOR

STAKEHOLDERS' ENRICHMENT AND SUPPORT PROGRAM

A Qualitative Research Proposal Presented to:

Graduate School Department
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa

In Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Education
Major in Educational Management

Presented by:
Kindred B. Villaruz, LPT

June 2021
 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the relevant literature and studies that the researcher

considered in strengthening the importance of the present study. It also presents the

synthesis of the art to fully understand the research for better comprehension of the

study.

According to Alicamen and Abadiano (2020) in their study “Parents as Study

Buddy in the New Normal of Teaching: A Grounded Theory”, the COVID-19 pandemic

had plunged the world into turmoil more than one could ever imagine. It has resulted not

only in an economic crisis but educational crises as well. The flare-up has affected the

education system across the world and has altered the lives of 1,576,021,818 learners

in 188 countries (UNESCO, 2020). To assure the continuity of learning in the

Philippines public basic education system, self-learning modules are put in place to

meet the educational needs of every learner with the help of parents as partners in

teaching. To avoid face-to-face interactions, DepEd offers blended and distance

learning modalities by using printed or digital modules, online learning resources, and

radio and TV-based instructions (Quinones, 2020). This qualitative study conducted an

in-depth exploration of parents as study-buddy in the new normal of teaching using the

grounded theory. The in-depth interviews with the participants exposed four emergent

themes and a central category on the parents’ experiences as study buddy using the

modular distance learning modality. “Parents’ resilient mechanisms” emerged as the

core category and entailed four essential themes: (1) Awareness of the role as para-
teachers; (2) Acceptance of the inevitable educational challenge; (3) Actions toward the

challenges of the educational set-up; and (4) Adaptation of the new normal in education.

The grounded theory of recognition-adaptation-persistence: parents’ resilient

mechanisms in the new normal of teaching unveils an understanding that being a

teacher to your child requires parents and/or guardians to recognize their role

(awareness and acceptance), to adapt certain initiatives (adaptation), and to persist in

implementing the initiatives and measures at home (actions) for the learning continuity

to thrive amid the prevailing challenges and other adversities of the pandemic. The

theory can also provide a frame of reference for the educational leaders and institutions

for them to come up with regulations and other guidelines that are responsive to the

needs and experiences of the parents in actualizing the objectives of modular distance

learning in the public basic education system. Overall, the theory highlights the

accounts of the parents as they assume the role of being a study buddy of their children

at home. Parents’ resilient mechanisms in this type of educational set up are being

magnified since these are instrumental to the challenge of learning continuity amid the

pandemic.

As stated in the study of Luana (2021), as the schools abruptly shifted from face-

to-face learning to distance learning due to the pandemic, novel education-related

problems emerged which include parents answering their children’s modules. This study

described the ways and practices of parents in guiding their children in answering self-

learning modules at home and it also identified the challenges faced by the parents in

modular distance learning by taking a closer look into the parents’ reasons on why they

answer their children’s modules. In doing so, 638 parents were asked to answer a
qualitative survey comprising of one closed-ended and two open-ended questions. The

responses of the parents were thematically analyzed which paved the way in the

identification of practices they employed as well as the plights they faced in the

implementation of modular distance learning. This study identified the pedagogical

stances, albeit unconsciously, taken by the parents in facilitating learning at home.

Moreover, this study revealed that the malpractice of parents answering their children’s

modules is an offshoot of the challenges faced by the parents, to wit: a) poor reading

and writing skills of their children; b) time constraints due to work and household chores;

c) too many children to attend to; d) too difficult lessons and subjects; and e) too many

learning activities in the modules. If these challenges are left unaddressed, modular

learning will fail and no learning whatsoever will take place. Hence, parents, being the

facilitators of learning, should be capacitated and empowered to effectively facilitate.

As mentioned by Kong et. Al (2021) in their study, during the COVID-19

pandemic, as part of shelter-in-place orders for families, their homes simultaneously

became a school, work and social activity space. The physical spaces available to

families shrunk considerably. These series of events have quickly changed the daily

lives of those living, residing, and learning in the United States. The researchers used

the photovoice methodology to share the COVID-19 experiences of seven Asian

families. They follow how Asian parents address their children’s educational needs as

they adapt to the compression and expansion of the physical boundaries of their homes.

They found that the family space became a multipurpose site, a place where multiple

activities happened simultaneously to include school, workplace, social and

extracurricular activities. The compression of space is an opportunity to examine how

Asian parents are involved in their children’s schooling, outside of the school walls. The

researchers found that Asian parents are involved in their children’s schooling and hold

a broader conception of education that is less focused on academic learning. Asian

families adapt to the disruptions in daily life due to COVID-19 by strategically engaging

resources and addressing the stress related to changes in their schooling environment.

In the study conducted by Jo Lauren Weaver1 and Jacqueline M. Swank1(2020)

they identified eight themes. The themes were (a) educational experience; (b)

navigating roles and responsibilities with two subthemes, spousal relationship and

letting go of expectations; (c) recognizing privilege; (d) routine with a subtheme of

priorities; (e) monitoring and communication about COVID-19; (f) vacillating emotions;

(g) connection with two subthemes, lost connection/support, and changes in

connections/relationships in the future; and (h) meaningful experiences.

According to Bubb and Jones (2020), schools in many countries had to close in

response to the COVID-19 virus pandemic and move to remote teaching. Their paper

explores the views of pupils, parents/careers and teachers of ‘homeschool’ in one

Norwegian municipality, gathered through parallel online surveys in April 2020 during

the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown period. It finds that adaptation happened very

quickly and that homeschool was well received by pupils and parents. There was more

creative learning, better progress, more useful feedback, and greater student

independence. School leaders reported that they wanted to implement changes based

on the experience of remote learning enforced by the lockdown, so that the crisis has

become an opportunity for grassroots innovation.

 Another research conducted by Teresa Parczewska (2020) which aims to

present parents’ perceptions and experiences related to home education during the

coronavirus pandemic, and the ways of coping with difficult situations. A survey was

conducted on a group of 278 parents’ home education; parents; living in Poland – in a

large city, small town and in the countryside – children 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.

As explained by Alil and Ishak (2020) in their study, Covid-19 is a pandemic that

strikes the nation almost instantly. Many people are affected due to the pandemic.

Parents, in particular, have to juggle between work and life at home. On the one hand,

they need to take the responsibility of meetings and other office-works that are

conducted online in their premises. On the other, that are required to take care of their

children’s education at home as well. The study, therefore, attempts to identify the

challenges faced by the parents home-schooling their children. Another objective of the

study is to identify the influence of homeschooling due to the outbreak. Finally, it seeks

to describe the aftermath of home-schooling in point of views of the parents. The study

employs content analysis; in particular, summative content analysis to examine and

synthesize online resources. The results of the analysis of the resources are reported in

the forms of themes

following the research questions being formulated at the beginning of the analysis. The

findings reported provide insights on home-schooling during the time of pandemic

among parents.

As stated by Bhamani et. al (2020), the widespread prevalence of COVID-19

pandemic has affected academia and parents alike. Due to the sudden closure of

schools, students are missing social interaction which is vital for better learning and

grooming while most schools have started online classes. This has become a tough

routine for the parents working online at home since they have to ensure their children’s

education. The study presented was designed to explore the experiences of home

learning in times of COVID-19. A descriptive qualitative study was planned to explore

the experiences of parents about home learning and management during COVID-19 to

get an insight into real-life experiences. Purposive sampling technique was used for

data collection. Data were collected from 19 parents falling in the inclusion criteria.

Considering the lockdown problem, the data were collected via Google docs form with

open-ended questions related to COVID-19 and home learning. Three major themes

emerged after the data analysis: impact of COVID on children learning; support given by

schools; and strategies used by caregivers at home to support learning. It was analyzed

that the entire nation and academicians around the world have come forward to support

learning at home offering a wide range of free online avenues to support parents to

facilitate home-learning. Furthermore, parents too have adapted quickly to address the

learning gap that have emerged in their children’s learning in these challenging times.
Measures should be adopted to provide essential learning skills to children at home.

Centralized data dashboards and educational technology may be used to keep the

students, parents and schools updated.

As mentioned in the study of Amber Garbe et al (2020), schools across the globe

closed their doors to decrease the spread of the viral outbreak during the COVID -19

pandemic. This physical closure led to a rapid shift to remote learning which placed

more responsibility for learning on parents and guardians. As one of the major

stakeholders in the education process, experiences of parents with their children during

remote learning are worth examining to inform future policy decision making. This study

aimed to investigate parents’ experiences and struggles during school closure using an

online survey. Thematic coding was conducted to analyze parental responses regarding

their greatest educational struggle experienced during the COVID school closure. The

results indicate parents agreed with the school closure policy and were generally

satisfied with the level of support provided by school districts whilst describing some

areas of struggle. Parents described having difficulties with balancing responsibilities,

learner motivation, accessibility, and learning outcomes. The results of the study

suggest some important implications and recommendations for educators and

policymakers.

In addition to the above-mentioned related studies, according to Donga el. Al

(2020), online learning has been widely promoted to replace traditional face-to-face

learning during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain young children’s learning and play

at home. This study surveyed 3275 Chinese parents’ beliefs and attitudes around young

children’s online learning during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most parents
(92.7%) in the study reported that their children had online learning experiences during

the pandemic, and many (84.6%) spent less than a half-hour each time. The parents

generally had negative beliefs about the values and benefits of online learning and

preferred traditional learning in early childhood settings. They tended to resist and even

reject online learning for three key reasons: the shortcomings of online learning, young

children’s inadequate self-regulation, and their lack of time and professional knowledge

in supporting children’s online learning. Also, the hardship caused by the COVID-19

pandemic has made them suffer, thus more resistant to online learning at home. The

results suggested that the implementation of online learning during the pandemic has

been problematic and challenging for families. The Chinese parents were neither

trained nor ready to embrace online learning. The paper concluded with implications for

policymakers and teacher education.

Although home distance learning was implemented in the Philippines to continue

basic education, there are various problems that Filipinos were facing especially in

remote learning. Many poor students and teachers cannot afford to buy the necessary

equipment for online learning. While the rich can afford unlimited internet access, the

poor can barely pay for metered mobile data packages. And while some students can

afford to study in the safety of their own homes, others put themselves at risk just so

that they are not left behind in their education (Marquez et. al, 2020). On the other hand,

while parents are taking the responsibility of facilitating learning at home, most of them

are having difficulties in teaching their child because of lack of educational background,

lots of modules to answer, their socio-economic status, etc. Hence, this research will
share personal experiences of parents managing learning at home during the times of

COVID-19.