A Research on Parent Opinions in Distance Education

Abstract

It has been a difficult process for our country that the formal education, which has been ongoing since the past and is used by all stakeholders in education, has been replaced by distance education due to the Covid-19 epidemic. This distance education, which teachers, students and parents are faced with for the first time in their lives, has emerged as an alternative application that replaces face-to-face education. The aim of the study was to determine the opinions of the parents, one of the groups included in this alternative practice. The study, which aimed to determine the positive and negative aspects of distance education by the parents, was carried out with the phenomenology pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods. 20 parents who have students in different schools in the city center of Erzincan participated in the study. The parents were determined according to the easily accessible sample type in the purposive sample group. The study data, in which semi-structured interview form was used, were analyzed by content analysis. As a result of the analyzes, the parents stated that they had negative experiences with students, teachers, technical, economic, course environment and course teaching process related to distance education. According to the parents, the positive aspects of the study findings were determined that the education continues in distance education, their children are taken into consideration, they do not pay for the service, and they protect their health by staying at home during the epidemic. Different suggestions were made in line with the study.