The Experiences of the Parents Involved in their Children’s Online Distance Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

This phenomenological study aimed to provide a description of the parents’ experiences, together with the resolutions they undertook to address the challenges during their children’s online distance learning, and to draw meaningful insights from them. Ten parents were interviewed online, and individual and composite textural descriptions were derived from their personal life accounts. Results showed that parents experienced struggles in adjusting to the sudden change and coping with multiple tasks, while communication and emotional support, being a responsible parent, and time management effectively helped in overcoming the challenges. The study also highlighted the importance of parental love and parent-child relationship in these challenging times and the need to re-assess the implementation of the remote educational process.