Teachers Initiatives and Perceived Parental Involvement Practices among Filipino Junior High School Students

The COVID-19 pandemic brought considerable changes in education system, particularly the non-face to face implementation of classes. Hence, this case study aims at assessing the changes in both parents and teacher's involvement and practices, respectively as perceived by students. Ten parents, their respective children from an intact class of Grade 8 students in a public high school were randomly selected as respondents of the study. Five teachers from the same grade levels were also interviewed. A validated interview questionnaire was used as guide to illicit responses from the respondents through Google Meet and personal messaging. Answers were transcribed and thematically analyzed though qualitative software Quirkos. Quirk size per themes were basis for tabulation and referred for further grouping per category. Results showed that material and emotional support of the parents were recognized as the primary parental involvement in the schooling of the child at home. Parents value to continue education and recognize the need to adapt in the new normal of schooling. Monitoring offline and online activities at home, teaching the concept, and building communication with the child are strategies employed to help understand science concept. Parents perceived communication with school through teachers for updates as the most important factor for them to execute their roles. Teachers are easy to deal with and can easily resolved problems regarding academic issues of the child however they are challenged with teacher's availability, attitudes, time constraints and internet connections. Teachers involved stakeholders, initiate, and reciprocate the communication stablished by parents through messaging and portal through social media platform but are confronted with parents and students who seldom goes online. The use of various learning materials and assessment delivered in various modalities are teachers’ mechanism to strengthen science concept the way parents recognize teachers’ pedagogic capabilities. Students highly appreciate actions taken both by parents and teachers and acknowledge the need for parental program to be beneficial. Internet connectivity, knowledge on the use of technology for distance learning and capacity on digital literacy are factors that limits the three group of respondents. Developing differentiated and inclusive communication strategies for parents, giving focus on designing resilient, flexible and self-directed asynchronous learning with parental involvement experiences and standardizing minimum requirement for a learning space at home are recommended for implementation in the next phase of this research.