Learning from home during COVID-19: primary school parents' perceptions of their school's management of the home-learning situation

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in interruptions to social, economic, cultural, and educational life, with social distancing measures and well-being concerns leading to widespread restrictions to everyday activities. When COVID-19 first made an impact in 2020, many schools across Australia were closed entirely or provided limited access. Subsequently, many parents and caregivers were tasked with educating their children from home. Throughout this period, a key concern identified by various stakeholders was the potential impact of school closures on academic progression. This paper reports the results of a study that investigated Australian primary school parents' experiences of home-learning with their children due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. To explore perceptions of how home-learning was managed by schools and the impact the experience had on children's academic progress from the perspective of parents, survey data were collected (n = 171) and interviews were conducted (n = 29). The study was guided by Epstein's Framework of Parental Involvement, with a particular focus on home-school partnerships. Findings indicated that, despite individual challenges, many parents were willing to engage in home-learning with their children, often beyond what was expected of them by the school. Overall, parents felt that the impact on academic progress was minimal, and that positive experiences were characterised by strong home-school connections. Through building on Epstein's work to reconceptualise parental engagement with learning, rather than parental involvement with school, the study is important because it highlights assumptions made about parents' pedagogical and content knowledge and their capacity to support school directed student learning. Importantly the findings demonstrate how home-school partnerships can be strengthened or put at risk under challenging conditions.