Shifting Boundaries for Parents in School Engagement at the Wake of Covid-19

Peter Mpiso Sssenkusu¹, Cornelius Ssempala¹ and John Mary Vianney Mitana^2,

¹College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

²JM Education and Research Centre (JMERC), Kampala, Uganda

Cite this paper:
Peter Mpiso Sssenkusu, Cornelius Ssempala and John Mary Vianney Mitana. Shifting Boundaries for Parents in School Engagement at the Wake of Covid-19. American Journal of Educational Research. 2022; 10(1):65-72. doi: 10.12691/education-10-1-7

Abstract

The epistemological perspective fashioned on the industrial model created a dualism between universal and particular knowledge, and consequently, a dichotomy between specialized knowledge taught in schools and the local knowledge applied in communities. This dichotomy relegated the parents to the periphery making their knowledge and experiences irrelevant and a source of contempt in the formal school. This paper uses the Goodall and Montgomery model to seek a deeper understanding of the shifting boundaries in the enforced parental involvement in children’s home learning when educational institutions were closed in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID 19 pandemic. The three-point dynamic continuum indicates that parents can participate in school affairs, from acting as teachers’ assistants, to more interaction with the school, and forming partnerships with teachers and administrators. Voices of parents that participated in the home-schooling program organised at the primary level were recorded to understand the shifting boundaries in their school involvement. Results highlight the parents' enthusiasm to adapt and also reimagine the learning of their children. Despite the challenges encountered, the school is significantly transformed into a learning community to benefit of the learners, teachers and the parent’s community.

Keywords:
shifting boundaries parental involvement parental engagement home-schooling Uganda

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Lide, Allison (2018) Montessori Education: What Is Its Relationship with the Emerging Worldview, Journal of Conscious Evolution, 8(8) Available at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/cejournal/vol8/iss8/5.
[2]	Pinnegar, S., & Hamilton, M. L. (2009). Self-study of practice as a gengre of qualitative research: Theory, methodology and practice. Dordrecht: Springer.
[3]	Miles, Matthew B., A. Michael Huberman, Johnny Saldana. 2014. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
[4]	LaBoskey, V. K., (2009). The methodology of self-study as social justice teacher education. In D. Tidwell, L. Fitzgerald, & M. Heston (Ed.), Research methods for self-study of practice (pp. 73-82). Iowa: Springer.
[5]	Amanda Ripley, (2013).The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way. New York : Simon & Schuster.
[6]	Mosweunyane, D. (2013). The African Educational Evolution: From traditional training to formal.
[7]	Crotty, M. (2003). The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and perspective in the research process. Sage Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi.
[8]	Megan, Poore (2015). Using Social Media in the Classroom: A best practice guide. Sage Publicatns.
[9]	Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). A guide to managing knowledge: Cultivating communities of practice. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
[10]	Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2017). Uganda National Household Survey Report: Socio-economic Report, Kampala, UBOS.
[11]	Muganga, l. & Ssenkusu, P. (2019). Teacher-Centered vs. Student-Centered: An Examination of Student Teachers’ Perceptions about Pedagogical Practices at Uganda’s Makerere University. Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry, 11(2), 16-40.
[12]	Illich, I. (1970). De-schooling Society. New York, Harper & Row.
[13]	Vegas E. & Winthrop, R. (2020). Beyond reopening schools: How education can emerge strong that before COVID-19, Report.
[14]	Lima & Kuusisto (2019). Parental Engagement in Children’s Learning: A Holistic Approach to Teacher-Parents’ Partnerships.
[15]	Bottell, D., Freebody, K., & Goodwin (2011). School-Community engagement: Shifting boundaries of policy and practice. Paper presented at the AARE Annual Conference. Hobart 2011.
[16]	Hannon, V., Thoma, L., Ward, S., & Bresford, T. (2019). Local learning ecosystems: Emergining models. Qatar Foundations.