Parents' Approaches to Their Children's Education and Related Issues During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Slovak and the Czech Republic

In this article, we present the results of the qualitative research and the thematic discourse analysis of discussions of Facebook groups of parents of pupils in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The aim was to identify how the parents perceived the issue of distance learning during the COVID-2 pandemic and how they approached the problems that they encountered. Parents step into the role of a teacher and of a pupil; they are participants and observers of the educational process and advisors and supporters of their children. They evaluate the educational process from the didactics and the instructive point of view but they lack competencies that belong to teachers. Insufficient digital literacy and lacking equipment in households regarding ICT represent a weak point. Problems linked to the loss of social contacts and isolation are growing in number. Families also struggle with economic and logistics problems.