Percepción familiar de las tareas para casa durante el confinamiento por la Covid-19un estudio nacional

Abstract

School homework remains a contentious and ongoing debate within the education system, as its presence immerses families in the teaching-learning process of students. The confinement situation due to COVID-19 shifted the primary educational space to the home, increasing family obligations. This research aims to give voice to families to understand their involvement in school homework based on six dimensions: the organization of homework, their children's competencies to tackle it, perceived benefits, emotional strain, support received from institutions, and changes due to confinement compared to a normal situation. In this regard, based on data analyzed from a nationwide questionnaire with a sample of 1,787 families, we have published a series of articles that have allowed us to address how families perceive the different dimensions studied concerning school variables such as academic performance, type of school, educational stage, and the presence of specific educational support needs, as well as personal variables such as the agent accompanying the child in doing homework, family nationality, and the educational level of the parents. Generally, the following results were obtained: families perceived an increase in the amount and difficulty of homework, with a greater presence of digital tasks, marked by individual homework. This perception intensified when children had lower academic performance, had specific educational support needs, or were at higher educational levels. Similar patterns were observed for perceived benefits, competencies, and emotional strain. Only the dimension of changes before and during confinement showed significant data with the presence of specific educational support needs. In terms of family variables, it was found that the main support agent was the mother, with differences in perception of benefits, competencies, the level of support received from educational institutions, and changes during confinement according to nationality and educational level of parents. This work concludes that confinement marked a crucial change in parents' perception of homework, leading to greater involvement, lack of guidance from school teachers, feelings of abandonment, and incapacity to effectively support the digitalization of their children's education.