Abstract:

COVID-19 pandemic has forced most students to turn to online learning and spend longer periods of time with their families (UNESCO 2020b). In addition to their daily responsibilities, parents had to supervise their children’s online learning and homework, but also provide tutoring when needed. Although this period was challenging for parents, it made it possible to reveal the reality of literacy, numeracy, and digital practices in the daily lives of rural families in Morocco. Thus, this study analyzes literacy and digital skills and practices in families during the school closure period.  In five different rural areas, we conducted semi-structured interviews in focus groups consisting of six parents in each one, we discuss how they supervised and supported their children during the lockdown, how they judge their digital skills, what educational digital tools they use, and what are for them the advantages and disadvantages of these tools.  Given the situation of the rural areas we visited characterized by a high rate of poverty and unemployment, the results show that overall families find it difficult to think about their education and improvement, since their first concern is to provide for the needs of their family. Parents, especially mothers, are often illiterate thus they have no digital skills, they faced additional problems in supporting their children’s learning at home. The use of digital tools is very limited, interestingly, there are families that do not even have a television in their house, the rest of the participants only use their cell phones for phone calls and WhatsApp. Taken together, parents agree that the crisis provided an opportunity to discover deficiencies in literacy and numeracy, reduce intergenerational gaps between them and their children, strengthen connections and acquire new knowledge and skills. In this chapter, we will begin with a literature review of literacy, numeracy, and digital skills in families.  Secondly, we will report the findings from the interviews, and finally we discuss and interpret the results of the study. 

Keywords:

Digital skills, digital literacy, numeracy, families.