Parental involvement in nonformal distance education: Experiences from Lebanon

The pandemic has abruptly compelled education systems to change and adapt to a new situation. Across different communities and contexts, the sudden and unplanned transition to distance learning induced by the pandemic has generated many challenges, but has simultaneously offered several opportunities. One of its most widely appreciated effects is the increased involvement of families in the school system. This study was conducted in a refugee community in Lebanon, addressing the needs of out-of-school Syrian children through a distance learning programme for early childhood education and basic literacy and numeracy. Through a phenomenological design, this study investigates the parents’ or caregivers’ role and the challenges they faced in facilitating the process of distance learning during the pandemic period. A total of 68 parents and caregivers participated in 07 focus group discussions. According to the findings, distance learning can be significantly hampered by the lack of a stable internet connection and a minimum level of digital devices. At the same time, the effectiveness of the process can be greatly affected by the caregivers’ logistic and pedagogical readiness to support their children while they were enrolled in a distance learning programme. External support from schools or civil society organisations can improve the caregivers’ readiness and positively affect the children’s learning outcomes.