ERIC Number: EJ1183672
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Jun
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2013-9144
EISSN: N/A
Using an Online Social Media Space to Engage Parents in Student Learning in the Early-Years: Enablers and Impediments
Willis, Linda-Dianne; Exley, Beryl
Digital Education Review, n33 p87-104 Jun 2018
Unprecedented changes to family life in the new millennium have left many parents feeling unable to effectively participate in their child's school-based learning. This article presents research which explored enablers and impediments when using social media as part of an inquiry curriculum to promote parent engagement in student learning in one Australian school. Using collaborative inquiry research, various data were collected from two early-years teachers, their students, and the students' parents using surveys, a full-day meeting, online weekly meetings, interviews, and the social media digital platform of Seesaw. Rogoff's three interrelated planes of sociocultural analysis--personal, interpersonal, and community--were used to examine participant interactions and their effects. The agency/structure dialectic provided a conceptual lens to further explain how the social media apparatus of Seesaw enabled learning and teaching. The findings showed that access to forms of language needed to contribute to online social media spaces drew attention to the importance of teachers having at the ready a substantive knowledge of inquiry. Implications for future research are discussed.
Descriptors: Social Media, Foreign Countries, Family Role, Parent Participation, Inquiry, Young Children, Surveys, Meetings, Interviews, Interpersonal Relationship, Interaction, Technology Uses in Education, Early Childhood Education, Computer Oriented Programs, Electronic Publishing, Integrated Learning Systems, Teaching Methods
Universitat de Barcelona. Passeig de la Vall d'Hebron 171, Edifici Llevant P3, Barcelona, 08035 Spain. e-mail: der@greav.net; Web site: http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/der
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A