Parental Involvement Challenges in ICT-Based Early Childhood Education Attainment

Abstract

With the fast digitization of the world, ICT is taking a central role in ECDE and provides many learning opportunities. This study aimed to examine parental involvement in ICT-based ECDE attainment. The research objectives used for this study are to investigate the extent to which parents provide ICT tools for learning in ECDE programs in Kenya and to assess the level of parental involvement in assisting children with ICT-based learning in ECDE programs in Kenya. This research utilized existing literature from peer-reviewed academic journals. The researchers employed three search terms: ' parental involvement,' 'challenges,' and 'ICT-based early childhood education. The targeted journals included 9,000 articles. Articles that did not address the search terms were excluded. The final sample for review comprised only four scholarly articles. Content analysis based on Marcus's theory is used in the study, which shows that parents face some difficulties when using the ICT-based ECDE, significantly less educated parents. The study established that several parental involvement challenges exist in ICT. The study concluded that these challenges can be overcome by parental empowerment and multi-sectoral tools, which can be used to close the technology gaps and improve the ECDE quality. The paper suggests policy recommendations for the government, parents, teachers, policymakers, and institutional managers. This study reveals a vital part of parental engagement in forming the children's educational experiences and preparing them for the digital age, thus stressing the need to overcome the parental challenges to improve the ECDE effectiveness of ICT.