(Digital) parent-educator cooperation in preschool during Corona pandemic. Digitization boost or missed opportunity?

Abstract

The closure of day-care centres as a measure to contain the corona virus presented early childhood educators with changed working conditions and opportunities to implement the continuing educational mandate. The cooperation between parents and educators, including through digital tools, plays an important role in this respect. The paper examines a) how often and of what type early childhood educators implemented digitally supported parental cooperation during the closure of day-care centres, b) which attitudes educators had towards general as well as digitally supported parental cooperation, and c) what role their qualifications, their attitudes and their perceived support through the centre played for their digital and non-digital parental cooperation during the closure of day-care centres. The study is based on a nationwide online survey of 3513 early childhood educators in day-care centres during corona closing time. The results show that educators’ perceived importance of parental cooperation had a positive influence on whether or not educators had stayed in contact with the parents. Whether this contact occurs via digital media, in turn, depended on educators’ attitudes towards digital media, the expected reaction of parents to this form of parental cooperation and the availability of technical support for implementing digital media in parental cooperation. The results are discussed with regard to the structural conditions of institutions and the professional skills of early childhood educators for a broad implementation of digital media in early childhood education practice.