Family as a Substitute for School? The Distribution of Educational Responsibilities during Two Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The worldwide crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced many states to adopt strict anti-COVID measures aimed at social distancing. In the field of education, this involved closing schools and the continuation of education at home. In the Czech Republic, schools first closed in March 2021;the school closures lasted, with a few interruptions, for more than a year. Some educational functions that were traditionally performed by schools were temporarily transferred to parents of school-age children. This fact was a challenge for both schools and families and led to a temporary change in the distribution of educational responsibilities between the school and the family. From March to September 2021, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with the parents of children in primary schools who participated in their children’s education during the school closures. The data were analysed by means of a thematic analysis. The aim of the study was to shed light on the nature of parents’ educational involvement, describe new pedagogical aspects of parenthood that were not a part of it before the mass introduction of remote learning, and understand the reconfiguration of the relationship between school and family. The analysis of the data showed that the transfer of some educational responsibilities onto the shoulders of parents led to a quantitative and qualitative expansion of ‘pedagogical’ interventions in society, the (auto) didacticisation of parental identities, and a strengthening of parents’ ability to engage in pedagogical reflexivity. © 2022 Sociologicky Ustav. All rights reserved.