Abstract

Parental support roles in K-12 online learning differ from traditional schools. Since K-12 students typically have not developed the self-regulation skills necessary for academic engagement, parents partner with schools to provide the affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement support necessary for academic success. Through 21 semistructured interviews with parents supporting K-12 students in varied online contexts, this study delineates how parents provided support in each of these dimensions of engagement. The participants felt that in online education, parents should take the primary responsibility for behavioral engagement support, and that teachers were primarily responsible for cognitive support. Parents believed they shared affective engagement responsibilities with teachers, but that teachers should make content more interesting and engaging while parents provided for the emotional needs of their student. The findings also describe additional parental support roles, including helping students move to an online school, increasing personal availability, leveraging resources, teaching themselves, and encouraging students to develop independent engagement skills. The themes reveal how parents strengthen both themselves and other community actors to ensure their students receive sufficient engagement support. Given the importance of parental support in K-12 online education and the inequity of parental support across online learners, online schools should consider how to provide targeted help to parents in their support roles, including assuming a dual-support role for both students and parents.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Instructional Psychology and Technology

Rights

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