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Session Submission Summary

Improving education through technology-driven parental engagement

Sun, February 19, 9:45 to 11:15am EST (9:45 to 11:15am EST), Grand Hyatt Washington, Floor: Constitution Level (3B), Roosevelt

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Over 50% of children in low- and middle-income countries (LICs and MICs) cannot read a simple text by the age of 10; in Kenya, this figure is closer to 70%. While parents and carers have long been shown to play a vital role in building children’s foundational literacy, reliance on home learning has exponentially increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet many carers lack the educational resources, capacity and connection with schools needed to effectively support their children’s literacy development.
As we seek to improve education for a more equitable world at CIES 2023, this panel will explore how technology can be best used to strengthen parental and carers’ engagement with children’s reading. The panel will highlight existing research on EdTech and parental engagement presented by one of the co-authors of the recent GEM background paper, then pivot to highlight two research-driven interventions being led in Kenya. The panel will explore results from the parental engagement approaches, which schools can use to facilitate greater parental engagement. These approaches include ICT-supported training, nudges, feedback loops, incentives, information campaigns, and Vroom tips with daily activities for carers to support their child’s development.
Finding cost-effective and inclusive ways to improve children’s foundational skills is an urgent task. Covid-19 has elevated the issue of parents and schools working together to enable children’s learning in virtually every country around the world (Winthrop et al., 2021). Students’ learning outcomes increase 10-fold if there is strong engagement between schools and parents (ibid). A better understanding of how this engagement is most effective - and the best school-to-parent pathway - when it comes to strengthening parental engagement with their child’s reading is less clear. This understanding, and what effect parental-child engagement ultimately has on reading outcomes, is the objective of this panel presentation.
Substantial evidence suggests that adults, especially parents/carers, play a crucial role in developing children’s literacy through reading (Bus et al., 1995; Liebeskind et al., 2014; Sénéchal, Pagan, Lever, & Ouellette, 2008). ⇡Feinstein & Symons (1999) even argued that parental/carers interest in their child’s education is the single greatest predictor of children’s educational achievement. Notably, evidence has also shown that active reading practices (such as dialogic reading) are as much as twice as effective for marginalized children. Despite its proven effectiveness, a number of barriers may prevent parents/carers from reading with their children. These barriers relate to the lack of educational resources, capacity and time needed to support their children’s literacy development. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 97% of households have two or fewer children’s books in their homes (⇡UNICEF, 2017).
Emerging evidence suggests that digital books, delivered by mobile phone, can be used to significantly increase equity in book access - as well as reading frequency and habits (⇡West & Ei Chew, 2014). A 2014 UNESCO and Worldreader survey of 5000 people in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe found that 62% of children were reading more since accessing opportunities to read on mobile devices (⇡West & Ei Chew, 2014). Evidence for the effectiveness of digital books to improve learning outcomes is, however, still unclear (⇡Kucirkova, 2019; ⇡Takacs et al., 2014). What is clear is that distributing digital books is not enough to deliver literacy learning outcomes. Emerging evidence finds that distributing digital books - without providing support in their use - can fall short in delivering learning literacy outcomes (⇡Jang et al., 2016; ⇡Senechal, 2006).
Limited rigorous evidence currently exists of the modes of support parents and carers would need to use digital books and improve children’s literacy skills, and the advantages/ disadvantages in terms of learning outcomes and equity of using digital books versus paper books (⇡Kucirkova, 2019).
The implementation research presented by the panel seeks to fill this existing research gap by evidencing the most effective ways that schools can support parents and carers in engaging with their children’s reading through the use of digital books and parenting tips, and the extent to which this improves children’s literacy skills. The panel will start with a representative from the EdTech Hub to provide background knowledge on existing research in the space and will continue with a joint presentation from the EdTech hub researchers and team at Worldreader on results from a set of five parental engagement strategies surrounding use of the Booksmart reading application by 1300 Kenyan Grade 3 learners and their households. Finally we will hear from the Cheza, Soma, Jifunze project on findings from integrating Vroom tips for early child development into parental reading practice in the home across a network of early childhood education centers.
The research-based interventions presented by the panel will inform large-scale government programs and public policies by providing rigorous evidence considering how best to empower parents/carers to improve children’s literacy skills. By focussing on foundational skills delivered via mobile phones the findings will contribute to a broader international understanding of the use of mobile technologies for marginalized groups. This research is also relevant for implementers and researchers working with out-of-school children and refugees, where mobile phone ownership is high but access to formal education is limited (⇡Ashlee et al., 2020).

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