Parental Involvement in Online Learning During School Closures

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Shikha Saxena

Independent Researcher

India

Abstract

The sudden global closure of schools during crises—most notably the COVID-19 pandemic—reshaped educational delivery at a historic scale and velocity. In this context, parental involvement moved from being a beneficial support to an indispensable pillar sustaining instructional continuity. Parents became technology coordinators, co-instructors, emotional stabilizers, learning environment designers, and mediators between school expectations and household realities (Smith & Jones, 2021; Lee, 2020). Yet educational systems entered this shift unevenly prepared: many policies and pedagogical models assumed the presence of professional educators in institutional classrooms, not learning transferred to homes marked by variable time, space, devices, and literacy levels (Kim & Lee, 2021; Van Dijk, 2020).

This mixed-methods study investigates how parents engaged in online learning facilitation during extended school closures, what strategies they employed, which constraints shaped their efforts, and how such involvement related to student engagement and perceived academic performance. A survey of 300 K–12 parents across urban–rural regions captured quantitative data on access, digital literacy, emotional climate, scheduling practices, communication patterns, and academic support behaviors. Complementing this, semi-structured interviews with 25 educators surfaced practice-level insights into family-school communication, resource gaps, and observable effects on student persistence. Exploratory factor analysis of parent responses yielded three empirically distinct but interrelated dimensions of involvement: Emotional Support, Logistical Coordination, and Academic Facilitation. Emotional Support strongly correlated with student engagement (r = .58, p < .001), while Academic Facilitation showed a moderate association with perceived grades (r = .42, p < .01). Households in rural or lower-income brackets reported significantly more connectivity interruptions and lower self-rated platform fluency, illuminating equity risks already flagged in prior scholarship (Bacher-Hicks, Goodman, & Mulhern, 2021; Van Dijk, 2020).

Qualitative analysis revealed that schools that diversified communication channels, offered parent digital-skills bootcamps, and partnered with community organizations to distribute hotspots measurably reduced absenteeism and helped stabilize learning routines. Parents who co-created schedules with children, built predictable study zones, and used emotionally attuned check-ins were more likely to report sustained motivation. Findings support a reframing of parental involvement from “helping with homework” to “co-orchestrating distributed learning ecosystems.” The manuscript concludes with policy and practice recommendations: structured parent enablement programs, multilingual and multimodal communication strategies, home learning environment design toolkits, data-informed outreach tiers, and integration of parent dashboards in learning platforms. Future research directions include longitudinal tracking of engagement habits formed during closures, culturally responsive parent training models, and AI-supported adaptive guidance for families.

Keywords
Parental Involvement, Online Learning, School Closures, Student Engagement, Digital Literacy

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