Parent Chats in Education System: During and after the Pandemic Outbreak

Abstract

Digital technology has significantly changed the face of education by, among other things, creating many communication channels between the participants in the process. This study reveals the role of parent chat rooms in supporting the learning process. The pandemic experience has shown that parent chat rooms can serve a controlling and regulatory function, noting problems and inconsistencies in the learning system. The chats contain background routine messages related to informing and “events”, that is, messages of bewilderment, resistance, elation, and other emotional reactions. A total of 143 chats were analyzed, and 326 communication events were identified. During the regular period, the basic topics, including chat rules and regulations (22%), homework (20%), school activities and holidays (24%), and behavioral problems (24%), were evenly distributed, while during the distance learning period, the assignment problems (36%) and technical problems (28%) came to the fore. In the traditional offline period, parents are not direct participants in the educational process, so the information in the chats sometimes comes in a one-sided or distorted form; however, parental activity can serve to improve the educational system and monitor the processes taking place.

1. Introduction

Digital technologies have become an important part of the educational process, the specific impetus for their increasing role being the isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The forced transition to an online learning format had significant consequences: in an accelerated process, available digital resources and technologies became more widely used, new technologies were created and disseminated, and students and faculty gained extensive e-learning experience [1,2,3]. Overall, we are seeing digital technologies taking more and more of a place in the educational environment. Digital diaries at schools, digital records at universities, and a variety of near-educational communication platforms have become the norm. In addition to education itself, many administrative, communicative, and other near-educational processes are being digitized. There is a lot of research devoted to educational practices that allow teaching in a digital environment, though less attention is paid to the issues of electronic communication between the teacher–student, and students among themselves [4,5]. However, another important subject of the digital educational environment, which plays an essential role in school education, has been rarely covered to date.

Parents traditionally occupy an important place in the school education of younger schoolchildren, including, first of all, helping to prepare for school, doing homework, sorting out obscure topics, etc., and acting as a natural “tutor” and helping schoolchildren adapt to the new stage of life, forming an attitude to school and the learning process. However, despite such deep involvement in the educational process, in the traditional “pre-digital” system, the parent was connected primarily with the child, communication with the teacher is periodic, and if the child is successful, it is reduced to formal reporting and organizational moments, and communication with other parents is often reduced to almost zero, or there are private interpersonal relationships. American researchers cite the following data: roughly 80% of parents attending school events and about 60% reported volunteering in the classroom [6]. Studies on the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement show mixed results [7,8]. However, higher parent involvement, as reported by mothers and teachers, promotes better social skills, fewer problem behaviors, etc. [6,9]. At the same time, it is clear that parental involvement consists of a multitude of separate activities that can be considered separate variables. In particular, parental involvement is often divided into school-based and home-based activities [10]. However, most studies [11] do not pay attention to the communicative component of the school environment in which parents are included. There is only some research on the communication aspect. Tan, Lyu, and Peng, addressing specific aspects of parental involvement, note that parent–teacher communication had a stronger association with the achievement of students if their parents are highly educated [12]. Research shows that parents from different social classes respond differently to school challenges. So, only middle-class parents (in contrast to working-class and poor parents) tend to react collectively and are able to draw on contacts with professionals to mobilize information, expertise, or authority [13].

Digital technology has allowed parents to communicate more easily and closely with each other and sometimes with teachers, although in many cases the negative experience of shared chats has led to a ban on teacher participation. Despite the declared involvement of parents in educational processes, in fact, there are a lot of difficulties, which have come to the surface due to the expansion of communication flows. For example, Sanders and Sheldon point out that the source of tension between teachers and parents can be the sharing of responsibilities [14], Kruger and Michalek emphasize the difference in expectations [15], and Hoover-Dempsey, Whitaker, and Ice point to responsibilities and the definition of their roles [16].

In Russia, the digital age with new means of communication has made parent chat the new norm. Parents are automatically added to the WhatsApp or Telegram group, either by the teacher or by active parents. In China, too, the most popular way to organize communication between parents and teachers is instant messenger (IM) tools such as WeChat and QQ [17]. Electronic means of communication proved to be especially important during the transition of schools to distance learning, since in many cases they became the main line of communication between schools and families. Lacking a sufficient level of responsibility and self-organization, and at times lacking the appropriate communication skills, younger students could not act as full participants in communication to support the educational process, so the role of parents as intermediaries in the educational process increased dramatically. The role of parents in the educational process itself also increased [18], and there is greater attention and understanding of its flow [19]. During distance learning their children during the pandemic mainly through the monitoring of attention in classes and tasks [20].

It would seem that such stakeholder communication that supports the educational process should have extremely positive consequences. Having the opportunity to quickly obtain information about homework and other learning processes and to agree on joint activities, parents should turn such chats into channels of effective communication. However, the situation is not so simple. As evidenced, for example, by the precedent of the shooting in St. Petersburg in 2020, when fathers started a fight with shooting over a quarrel in the parents’ chat room [21]. In Volgograd, a discussion in a chat room about how to get an assignment done in a few hours led to a shift in personality and ended in the death of one of the participants in the communication [22]. E.N. Ramsayeva points out that 25% of parents become participants in conflicts in parent chats, and many parents ask educational institutions to participate in moderating chats to avoid escalating conflicts [23].

2. Materials and Methods

The study of group chats presents some problems, because the information must be provided either by the participants of the polylogue, or it is possible to use information from chats already publicly published, etc. For this study, the first approach was used, data was provided in the form of screenshots by direct participants in the polylogues, information was collected in two time intervals, and parent chats from 2020 were obtained in 2021 and 2022 in 2023, respectively. The purpose of this study was to determine the main functions of parent communication in the educational process through group chats. The main methods of the study include data analysis, quantitative methods such as statistical processing and content analysis, and data visualization techniques.

The study was conducted in four phases. The first stage involved the collection of information from group parent chats in 2020. In Russian society, the transition to distance learning of educational organizations in March 2020 in connection with the new coronavirus infection and pandemic led to the activation of this type of communication, and to the emergence of additional official channels of interaction between student–parent–teacher–administration. We turned to this work in 2021 when such practices could be investigated in a stable environment. The second stage was devoted to the analysis of 100 consecutive messages (experts highlighted events and background) in 45 parent chats of pupils of grades 1–5 in Russian schools. The study examined 11 chats of 1st graders, 9 chats of 2nd graders, 12 chats of 3rd graders, 6 chats of 4th graders, and 5 chats of 5th graders (Figure 1). In the Russian Federation, children go to school at the age of 7 in the first grade (although sometimes this age varies from 6 to 8 years), elementary school lasts 4 years, and at the end of the 4th grade, children move from elementary school to secondary school.

These classes were chosen because older students are independent and parents are less actively involved in the educational process. Beginning on 1 January 2021, data were collected from parents who wished to participate in the study and received consent to send anonymous messages from all group participants. Invitations to participate in the study were distributed via social media (official school pages). The groups included from 20 to 45 people, some of them had a teacher/teachers in addition to parents (in 19 chats the teacher was a participant in the communication, and in 26 it was only parents). All chats were on WhatsApp, as it is the most popular app among parents. Applications such as Telegram and Vkontakte are used much less frequently, so they were not specified in the process of finding respondents willing to participate in the study. In the third phase of the study, in January 2023, we obtained data from 98 chats and correspondence which took place in 2022. In a strict sense, this study cannot be called a longitudinal study, but the authors repeated the methodology for collecting and processing information among the same schools. The groups ranged from 23 to 38 people, of which 37 chats had teachers as members and 61 consisted of parents only. Thus, if we compare the composition of the chats with 2020, we can record a smaller number of participants and a smaller number of chats with a teacher, which is most likely due to the return to the normal functioning of schools and the decline in parental involvement in the educational process. All chats were, as in 2020, in WhatsApp. The distribution by grade level is shown in Figure 2. The study examined 23 chats of 1st graders, 26 chats of 2nd graders, 20 chats of 3rd graders, 17 chats of 4th graders, and 5 chats of 5th graders (Figure 2).

In the fourth stage, the analysis of messages by experts was carried out. Background refers to constantly recurring questions and answers, mainly related to students’ homework, vacations, and other everyday problems (for example: what is the task today? What is the math task?), as well as one-word answers (yes, no, me too the like), various emoji. Events stand out from the background and are associated with what causes a reaction in the chat, which can be recognized as bewilderment, resistance, delight, and other strong emotions.

The intensity of events in the chats of 2020 is higher than in 2022 and is 154 and 172, respectively. Events last in most cases from 1 to 2 screens; if we talk about the distribution of the number of events per chat, the statistics can be seen in Figure 3 and it ranges from 0 to 5. There were no events in only 1 chat in 2020 and in 4 chats in 2022. Only 1 event can be noted in 6 chats of 2020 and 37 chats of 2022, 2 events in 11 chats of 2020 and 31 chats of 2022, and 3 events in 24 chats of 2020 and 16 chats of 2022. Further, 4 events occurred in 6 chats in 2020 and 37 chats in 2022, and 5 events in just 1 chat in 2020 and 3 chats in 2022. Chats in 2020 have more events, most often it is 2–3, while chats in 2022 have fewer events on average at 1–2, which most likely correlates with the decline in the activity of including parents in the educational process after the abolition of online education in schools.

Because parents do not have access to the actual learning process and what happens in school, they receive information through children and/or teachers. The direct interaction takes place between teacher and students and students among themselves, and chat reflecting these processes does not include the main participants in the process, which contributes to all kinds of distortions. The importance of this research paper is related to the study of such distortions and their impact on the learning process and the teacher’s communication with students and parents. During the pandemic, the role of parent chats as an important controlling and regulating part of the educational system was particularly evident, but how it changes over time and how the resulting chats and communication channels can be used in the future. This is certainly of research interest because the role of parents in the communicative educational space is virtually unexplored. We also want to emphasize the importance of long-term research on parent chat rooms to identify their potential and possibilities.

The respondents took part in the research on a voluntary basis. The results study are anonymized with regard to names and to any other links that may identify the individuals. Ethical approval was received from the Ethics Commission (#3 dated 26 February 2021) founded by the Institute of Humanities, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, which is ruled by the code of ethics of the Russian Society of Sociologists.

In the course of the study, content analysis of chat events was used; first of all, the main words and phrases were identified. Technical analysis revealed the frequency of use of words and non-lingual symbols. On the basis of a formal analysis of the text, conceptual schemes were identified that made it possible to create a cognitive map and visualize the basic ideas of chats.

3. Results

3.1. General Characteristics of Parent Chat Rooms

Parents’ chats are a polylogue space, part of the communication space of the network, and at the same time a component of the educational system. Their specificity lies in the fact that although parents are not formally participants in the educational process, their importance and potential for influence is high enough, as well as involvement in the learning process, which does not allow the role of chats to “fade” in a natural way.

The parent chats analyzed may include a teacher, who in this case is considered a more high-status communicator, is a representative of the school and is responsible for everything that happens there. If there is no teacher, then initially parents find themselves on equal footing, and everyone participates in the polylogue as they see fit. Children, although they themselves are not participants in parental chats, are often involved in the communication process, as their words are transmitted in the chat (from them they learn information about homework, about insults inflicted at school, etc.). That is, children are the primary sources of some information, which is then discussed by parents; this secondary character affects the actual side of communication. The teacher is also the source of information coming in, even without participating in the chat, as their messages are usually forwarded to the parents. Also, the source is the direct experience of the parent, their emotions, and impressions from near-school events, such as, for example, from doing homework with the child. Less often the source of information is the media and other conventional media when parents see fit to convey the information they receive, e.g., about a danger or news concerning the school to other participants in the discussion.

An important feature is that being the creators of the chat, the sources of its existence and development, parents at the same time are not objects for the chat (Figure 4). In other words, the parents themselves, their actions, etc., are almost never the subject of chat discussions except for the communicative actions that take place in the chat, that is, the messages sent directly, their themes, style, etc. The main topic of chats is what happens to children in connection with school: the school itself, the actions prescribed by the school (including homework), the consequences of school events, etc. The student is a direct participant in the process, but cannot fully protect their interests. Most often mothers participate in the chats, but they act as representatives of the family, sometimes using indirect speech, conveying the opinion of the children or the husband.

The analyzed chat communication events usually last 3–5 replicates and include 2–3 participants, although some events are longer and can include up to 7 participants.

With the help of cognitive mapping, we will create a model of the general meaning of the text, in the form of a graphic map, which represents the relationship between the main ideas of communication. In Figure 5, you can see the visualization and connections between basic topics: activities and events, homework, and discipline problems.

As a result of the content analysis, the main topics of communication events were identified, which will be discussed in detail below. However, we will begin our consideration not with near-school topics, but with the features of communication and the challenges associated with communication itself.

3.2. Chat Rules and Regulations

Communication on the Internet is often conflicting. Different sites have different rules of conduct, both fixed and required reading, and unwritten norms. In general, however, online communication is very free, allowing a wide range of opinions and arguments. Conflicts on the Internet are not an unusual phenomenon; on the contrary, people encounter diverse and sometimes uncompromising opinions online, as well as provocateurs–trolls, which creates a fertile ground for lengthy and heated discussions. As a rule, however, disputes are between communicators who are anonymous or at least do not know each other in real life. Therefore, all the threats that may target the interlocutor remain only in virtual space, which any participant can easily leave. In some cases, parents perceive chat rooms about school as part of the free communication space of the network. Although, as a rule, the general formal rules of politeness are preserved (there are no direct insults, foul language, or the transition to familial communication), in Russian, there are two forms of address for strangers/respectful people and friendly or disrespectful relations. The most popular words in chat rooms are words of politeness, primarily “thank you”, as well as “dear parents” and “good day” (Figure 6). At the same time, in chat rooms it is possible to criticize, switch to personalities, sharp remarks, etc., as well as to use visual signs (smiles, emoji, pictures, etc.), to write words in capital letters (to express indignation), etc. If we talk about emojis as part of the message, most often the participants in the polylogue use a “funny” emoji, most often as a reaction to a paradoxical or silly situation (both intentional and accidental: a typo of the initiator of the dialogue, a description of a comical situation, etc.). Emojis associated with bewilderment or frustration appear no less frequently in messages. The reason for their use often becomes misunderstood homework, dissatisfaction with the behavior of specific students, or unwillingness to resolve issues related to finances and other economic aspects of life in school. In general, the use of emojis is quite conventional: there are not many of them, and there are none that are not understandable. At the same time, some parents consider chat rooms a normative space, part of the school, in which only strictly formal communication is possible.

Since there are no formal rules of conduct in parent chats, part of the communication events is devoted specifically to attempts to establish them. Attempts to introduce such rules can cause bewilderment or clarification, which is more like an Italian strike (strict observance of all written rules), questions about what form the order on the rules of conduct in parental chats recorded (verbal or written) and who ordered it (the school principal, higher organizations involved in the management of educational organizations, or local authorities, represented by specific municipal leaders). As an example, the following polylogue can be given (here and below, the spelling and punctuation of the authors are preserved):

• Good afternoon, dear parents! By order of the administration, from today the parent chat is for information only. If you have any questions, we will solve them through private messages.
• What kind of censorship is this.
• Can I make it clear whether it is the agency or the city district? Is the order verbal or written?

A separate interesting aspect is time. Since chats are asynchronous communication, when questions and answers can be separated by time, and also communicants can be in different time zones, the rationing of communication in the network never occurs in relation to the possible time of sending messages. At the same time, messengers for instant communication are usually checked regularly, and it becomes a habit; unread messages can cause unpleasant feelings and, in addition, you can forget to respond to them if they are followed by a lot of new messages, and some do not turn off the notifications even at night. Thus, messengers turn out to be part of the personal communication environment, more so than social networks and e-mail. Unlike “pending emails” in the mail, messages in messengers are perceived as an invasion of personal space. Therefore, it is possible to see such messages:

Friends, who solved the math problem?

TODAY IS SATURDAY. A DAY OFF. GIVE ME A BREAK, PLEASE.

During the pandemic, for example, a number of firms imposed restrictions that limited communication on work-related issues in messengers to business hours. School chats with the teacher also pose a similar problem:

Dear Parents! Let’s be mutually courteous and not abuse the opportunity for online dialogue with the teacher by limiting questions to 8 a.m. and after 7 p.m.! Y.A. also has a family and interests outside of work, just like all of us. I don’t know about you, but I find it extremely odd to see questions in school chat from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. Good night.

It is interesting that this message was sent at 10 p.m.

A separate problem in some parent chat rooms is flooding, i.e., uninformative, low content, and irrelevant messages. Sometimes messages that are not intended for parental chat accidentally get into it, or on the contrary, someone deliberately posts irrelevant information, either of a personal nature or related to their own tastes and hobbies. For example, non-thematic posts, images, and videos, as well as masses of repetitive posts; cases in which many questions are asked, even when complete information is provided; or, for example, each participant writing a thank you after an informative post or confirming their agreement unnecessarily often provoke comments and harsh criticism. Parents notice that, as busy people, they do not want to view many unnecessary chat messages, communicate their intention to leave the chat, and in other ways try to create thematic chat boundaries and response rules, for example by indicating that one “thank you” is enough, not necessarily repeating it to everyone. On WhatsApp, it is very common to send holiday cards to everyone you know, so they are also part of non-thematic messages, but usually, if there are 1–2 postcards, it does not cause negativity and such messages do not become a communication event.

Thus, in chat rooms, there are two types of events related to the rules and norms: attempts to establish them, and criticism of violations of unwritten norms, primarily the posting of flooding and spam. Among the researched chat rooms, the communicative events related to norms make up 18%, which illustrates that at the moment the process of establishing social norms in chat rooms is underway since this aspect is given such close attention.

3.3. Homework, School Activities, etc.

Predictably, since the chats are led by parents of primary school students, most of the polylogues are devoted to homework, what exactly was assigned, clarifications on the assignments, the implementation, etc. Also, chats serve to promptly inform about the activities, and the need to perform some actions (such as voting on the portal, participation in an online lecture, etc.). Although we refer homework, school events, and activities to the communicative background in parent chats, they can also become “events”, in case they cause an emotional reaction, disagreement, etc. Let us consider when homework or activities become a “communicative event” in chat rooms.

Homework turns out to be the collective responsibility of elementary school students and parents. And since homework is usually shared by the whole class, when difficulties arise, they are solved together. The first reason for attention to homework is ambiguity. Sometimes there is a lack of precise information about what exactly needs to be done. Often, the information received through the children about what was assigned or what should be done is contradictory:

Do you learn the first verse in full? Mine said only one verse.

Mine said two verses of each song.

And mine said only the first song, but the whole

I still have to ask, are we in the same class? :)

Yeah)))

Still, you should ask them to record the assignments in the electronic diary. Collectively putting together a puzzle is not such an activity.

Although the presence of electronic diaries, to which parents have access, partly reduces the tension with homework, often there are problems of what to do and how to do it, as parents not only control the fact of homework but also help in the process. In addition, sometimes the assignment is not fully reflected or the electronic diary does not work.

It seems that the discussion of homework is a topic that should increase the cooperation of communicators. However, some dialogues show conflict potential in such polylogues. Some parents make mistakes in words, and in understanding assignments, which causes backlash.

Another aspect is dissatisfaction with the complexity of the task, its non-standardness, etc. Often questions and indignation are in case of the need to bring to school non-standard objects, to make objects (herbarium, handicrafts from natural materials, Christmas decorations, etc.). It is interesting that parents also ask each other for help with difficult tasks:

Friends in misfortune! Who solved the logical problem? I already feel sick, my husband went outside, the cat jumped off the balcony. Solved, save me!

We decided and decided. We got an answer from one and a half people and gave it up.

My husband made a system of four equations and got that there are no solutions

Mine suggested finding the derivative. The argument that the child is in the third grade didn’t convince him

A variety of evaluative comments about assignments, teachers, and the teaching system provoke heated discussions.

Popular themes in the messages are also reports of a variety of activities that need to be carried out, and of absences from class. It can be seen that the tension in the polylogues is caused by demands for different kinds of participation in class life, especially when some work needs to be done, as well as collecting money for various needs of the class or gifts. Since the financial situation of families sometimes turns out to be different, it can be difficult to organize holidays and joint activities. Some parents consider it the norm to organize quite expensive entertainment, joint trips to entertainment centers, paying for the work of animators, etc., while others see such events as a pointless waste of money. In general, almost any issues that require a collective decision turn into a long discussion, where in the end there are those who participate and those who refuse activities.

Often the problem is choosing gifts and collecting money for them. In Russia, traditional gifts for children are given on New Year’s Day, and the choice of what to give and how much to give is not always made peacefully, because tastes and preferences are not congruent. Gifts to teachers can also cause a discussion.

Homework and school events are the main topics of chats, these topics are the constant background for the functioning of chats, but they are also the most frequent events when they provoke discussion, emotional reactions, protest, etc. Among the events, homework makes up 28%, while school events and holidays make up 15%.

3.4. Behavioral Problems at School

Parent chats are also a place where dissatisfaction with the behavior of children at school is expressed. Such discussions can be initiated by either the teacher or the parents of the “aggrieved party”. Any such message reflects the “chp” that has occurred at school and implies that the parents of the guilty students should influence the child so that the behavior does not recur.

Teachers report violations of school rules of conduct and call for accountability, usually, such reports are written in a strictly neutral format, without pointing to specific offenders, allowing parents to figure out for themselves which of the children behaved inappropriately. Messages from parents of victims are more emotional, often pointing to specific perpetrators, demanding investigations and punishments, and threatening unpleasant consequences if discovered.

Usually, allegations of misconduct at school provoke a backlash, some support the victims and suggest action, while others are looking for someone to blame for the situation.

Dear parents, please talk to your children and tell them that school is not a place where they have to have sprinklers. It’s not the first day the boys bring sprinklers and pour them over everything (tables, personal belongings of other children) and they themselves walk around wet. On Friday I took them away from one of them, today others brought them.

Olga Viktorovna, you can write a statement on all this. How much is it possible, one dances, the others support. The whole class cannot be responsible for four or five people.

Now and sprinkles.

They disrupt classes, they do what they want, you can’t kick them out in class, but you can mock the teacher and your classmates? There has to be a limit.

You know who does everything. I’m sick of it already. Honestly, I don’t understand how other parents keep quiet, these “kids” disrupt their grades and can sometimes bully Our children.

Less frequently, incidents at school may relate to teacher behavior, which may involve punishing children or grading their work.

A situation has arisen that requires serious discussion. X punishes children for minor faults. Physically punishes them by making them stand at the blackboard and threatening to put them in the corner. Psychologically punishes them by shouting,

intimidating, shaming, calling them bad names, shaming them, making them apologize for their childish behavior. The use of physical and psychological violence is unacceptable—I suggest that concerned parents discuss the topic with X. Perhaps at the next meeting or earlier, as such incidents almost every day. Yesterday they were punished for nothing: A, B, C, D, E, F. What the fuck?

My child tells me that X punishes those who misbehave, not a single girl has been punished yet. There should be discipline in the classroom, it’s not a kindergarten.

Not for hitting or pushing someone. Children played at recess, moved around, talked loudly. No one was hurting anyone. They were made to apologize for being living children. That is, for nothing.

Since parents who initiate discussions about unpleasant moments at school learn about what is happening at school primarily from the children, the information may not always be accurate, sometimes on purpose and sometimes accidentally, but it is subject to distortion. Often children who accuse someone and see the scandal brewing will confess to having said something untrue, and this will be reflected in the chat. In turn, after learning about some event from the chat, parents turn to their own child for information and sometimes supplement or refute the descriptions with a reference.

Emerging problems with children’s behavior constitute one of the most emotional events, as information is contradictory and opportunities to influence the situation are limited. Any incident at school almost certainly becomes a communicative chat event. On the other hand, such events do not happen that often, disturbing the usual rhythm of school life and, as a result, 20% of the events studied in the chat are devoted to them.

Communicative Chat Events in the Online Learning Format

During the forced isolation during the pandemic, there was a change not only in the format of learning, but also in the area of responsibility. The clear and separate spaces of school and home blended together. Whereas in the usual format, children spent most of the day at school and studied under the supervision of teachers, and a relatively small portion of assignments was left for completing work at home, now all learning took place at home. Teachers in many cases merely provided the material and checked the assignments, so then the learning process had to be provided by the parents. Such a distribution of responsibility caused dissatisfaction in the chats, and sometimes refusal to carry out the teaching load.

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Hello! Teachers must be happy that you sit at home and get a free paycheck

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Poor parents and their children are at home doing their homework. And teachers get paid. Aren’t you ashamed?

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My son won’t do his homework! We all fought because of him. He got on everyone’s nerves. He is so uncomfortable, he can’t see on his phone, or the camera is bad.

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We’re not going to study like this! When the quarantine is over, we’ll go to school.

Some of the problems were of a technical nature, as parents did not understand and did not want to get into the complex system of using a variety of electronic resources that were used to support classes. In some cases, parents voiced dissatisfaction with the technical organization of classes and the situation in general. However, direct expression of dissatisfaction was rather the exception; more often, dissatisfaction was expressed in the form of ironic comments, such as suggestions of ridiculously impossible alternatives, or reference to the student’s own opinion. Learning in an online format was taken less seriously. Although most parents understood the no-strings-attached nature of online learning during the pandemic, they refused to follow the norms of schooling. For example, parents prompted their children with answers:

Dear Parents! There is no need to prompt your child in online lessons. Unfortunately, I often hear the voice of parents. Children at school answered on their own. Now they can do it on their own, too. Thank you for your understanding!

If he makes a mistake, you give him an F. And then we have to correct those grades. It’s better if I tell him right away, and he’ll get a B. No problem at all.

Parents were also dissatisfied with the number of assignments, classwork, and homework—all assignments were now the responsibility of the parents:

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I go to the diary, and there are F’s! All the assignments are handed in, where did such grades come from?

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Hello. You have not registered on the platform 2*2, you have not done tasks in the Yandex tutorial, you have not sent an Olympiad in English, you have not created an individual email for your child, you have not sent a video with text reading, on the forum uch. English teacher’s forum, no one has visited for three days and we haven’t read the book in English. Information from the English teacher.

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But we’re in the second grade...

Subjects that traditionally required a personal presence, such as physical culture or labor, were particularly problematic.

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Good afternoon. In the diary, the topic for physical education is grenade throwing. Homework: grenade throwing. Is there a mistake? It’s hard to do at home.

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Hello. I checked with the teacher. I need to work on my technique. There’s no need to throw anything.

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At least this way. Thanks

The work of the electronic resources used also caused criticism. The systems hung, notwithstanding the load, and parents refused to use them so as not to waste their nerves. The use of automatic checking also caused problems:

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Explain to me what the problem is! It says, “Your answer is fish. The correct answer is fish. Vanya’s answers are all so ‘wrong’”.

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You didn’t put a point at the end

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??????? POINT???? YES... HIGH TECHNOLOGY.

Teachers also complained about falling discipline, interference during videoconferencing, and the antics of children, such as logging in under an assumed name or distributing non-instructional content. Students also justified their absences from class and their failure to complete assignments with non-existent technical problems.

Further problems include interference in video conferencing by extraneous sounds produced by pets, houseguests, neighbors, etc. A standard problem and cause for humor during the pandemic has not escaped school chats:

Dear Parents! Please be quiet during lessons, if possible. Try not to let pets interfere with your child’s lessons. Yesterday in math we listened to Vanya’s Bobik barking for 15 min, and then Mashin the kennel sang songs.

Bobby was quiet before the remote control. And then he couldn’t take it either.

And the kenarian was a cry from the soul, I’m sure. I’ll sing it to you in math class soon.

During the pandemic, the role of parents in the educational process has increased. In the traditional educational process, teachers and students are the central elements. And much of the information in the chat room comes indirectly, through the direct participants, students, and teachers (who even without being part of the chat room, send information through the “parent committee”). The role of parents is usually actualized only in specific situations on the periphery of the educational system, or in situations of force majeure. During the pandemic, parents began to perform a number of teaching functions, so the role of the parent has increased, and communication became saturated with critical commentary. Parent chats became an indicator of responding to the shortcomings of the newly developed e-learning system. Most often, comments pointed to an excessive number of platforms for children to engage in, an excessive number of assignments, a mismatch between the complexity of assignments and students’ abilities, a lack of time to complete assignments, and so on. Although it is not always possible to trace the consequences of parents’ criticism on the chat, in some cases it is clear that changes have taken place, the learning load has decreased, and the tasks have become more adequate.

Thus, in a critical situation, parent chats began to perform a control regulatory function, providing feedback. During the pandemic, the correlation between the categories of events changed (Figure 7), and more participants became involved in communication than in the normal period. During the normal period, the four main topics occupy about equal space in chats: chat rules and regulations (22%), homework (20%), school activities and holidays (24%), and behavioral problems (24%), while technical problems (usually related to e-diary work) occupy 10%. During the e-learning period the emphasis shifts. Discussions of activities and holidays lose relevance, as there is a period of self-isolation. Questions are asked only about the future, for example, whether there will be a graduation party at the end of the school year (3%). Questions about homework (which is difficult to distinguish from class work during the pandemic) become the most relevant for the chat —36%—with technical problems coming in second place—28%. Behavioral problems usually only come up during the pandemic from the teacher as opposed to in post-pandemic time—19%. Since the children were at home, the teacher required the parents to make sure the children followed the prescribed behavioral norms, which demonstrates a partial role reversal.

4. Discussion

In recent decades, there has been quite a lot of discussion about involving parents in the educational process [24,25]. Today, all elements of digitalization related to education have been maximized [26,27,28]. However, the role and place of already existing communication platforms and their role in parental involvement are not studied practically.

Thus, parent chat is a constantly functioning supportive learning environment, which allows parents to be aware of what is happening, teachers and organizers among parents can promptly convey the necessary information, and parents compensate for information gaps with questions. At the same time, the object of communication is children and school; parents take an indirect part in the educational processes but bring their own opinions and ideas, so the parents’ chat has significant conflictogenic potential. Online communication in a network of people, not united by common views or friendships, quite often ends in disputes or quarrels. In Indonesian parent chats, one of the problems is the widespread use of links to external resources, which are not always relevant, and sometimes even fake, which contributes to tension in chats [29].

Ultimately, first of all, the conflict in the chat may be a reflection of problematic situations in the school. Also, school events and holidays that require some kind of parental participation, including difficult or unclear tasks, sometimes become a source of increased attention and conflict.

Since parents do not have access to the actual learning process and what is going on in the school, they are informed through the children and/or teachers. The direct interaction takes place between the teacher and the students and the students among themselves, while the chat reflecting these processes does not include the main participants in the process, which contributes to various kinds of distortions.

At the same time, tensions can arise in the chat room regardless of what is going on in the school, with students and teachers. Disputes and quarrels can arise from disagreement among parents on various issues, ranging from the rules of conduct in the chat room, which are not regulated, to different positions on the solution to specific issues. The peculiarity that distinguishes parental chats from others is the association of people who have little in common; as a rule, parents of students of a regular class will differ significantly in age, education, income level, social status, life experience, etc., they are united only by having a child of a certain age and approximate area of residence. In addition, parents rarely meet, rarely participate in joint activities, and have almost no common goals except those that are temporary, unimportant, and related to consensual activities. Although chats are created to solve academic issues together, the group of parents rarely has enough unity of opinion and expectations to solve problems without conflict. The peculiarities of habitual online communication behavior can also be annoying, as expectations of effective communication are not met. The lack of moderation and generally a hierarchy in the chat requires significant self-organization skills from participants in the absence of a clear goal. Thus, we have the communication of people who have little in common, yet are not anonymous, but with well-known and easily reachable interlocutors in reality.

At the same time, chat rooms have great potential. The results of the study show the high involvement of parents who are interested in their child’s school affairs and many of whom are ready to defend their position and be actively involved in discussions and problem-solving.

One often reads in the media about the need for strict moderation of parent chat rooms, and in some cases, schools prohibit teachers from being part of them. The potential for conflict in chat rooms is frightening. At the same time, one must understand that there are different causes of conflict. In some cases, chat rooms reflect real problems existing in the educational system, in the behavior of children or teachers. Silencing such problems, and not being able to discuss them freely, will not have positive consequences. Researchers from Chile argue that where communication between families and schools has relied heavily on messaging apps such as WhatsApp, it is especially important to have free communication and not to silence problems [30]. Researchers from Israel note the presence of not only specific concerns and complaints, but also entrepreneurial and transformative initiatives in Whatsapp parent chats [31]. Spanish researchers, on the contrary, believe that conflicts should be avoided by focusing on ensuring the success of schooling [32]. In general, in Spain, WhatsApp groups are not considered useful when it comes to promoting family participation or being used as an educational resource to support education, but rather as a space for families and teachers to remain connected [33].

During the pandemic, the role of parent chats as an important control and regulatory part of the educational system became especially clear. Many of the problems that arose during this period would not have been solved or at least not noticed by the school if it were not for the constant feedback. Also, positive communication in chat rooms has social implications, helping to adapt to the pandemic [34].

Chat allows us to quickly spread and report on any problems and issues, but its capabilities do not always allow these problems to be solved. Often this requires the use of additional communication and other ways for people to interact. Parent chats arise spontaneously, are the initiative of parents, and have no specific features that could help in the educational process. However, modern technology could help flesh out parent–school interaction more fully and effectively, and allow for interaction on a broader level than in the classroom. School websites could become not just an information resource, but also a place to organize communication, organize initiatives, etc.

5. Conclusions

Modern formats of communication in education, as a rule, can influence the course of interaction of subjects in the educational environment. These forms of communication form new practices of discussing issues of education and upbringing at school: the creation of parental chat rooms allows them to hold talks and meetings, transfer information and interact in a more mobile and fast manner. The pandemic the new coronavirus infection has influenced the intensification of parents’ communication through chat rooms and their involvement in the educational space. High activity in the digital environment, inability to participate in online dialogs in a timely manner, personal peculiarities of digital competence, and digital etiquette are some of the few reasons that can increase the risks of destructive communication, including between participants of educational relations. Parents’ school chat room has only one fact in common with its participants—the child’s education in a certain class; otherwise, the participants of communication can be very different, in particular, by the level of education, income, age, cultural characteristics, etc. Basically, nothing unites them—there is no common interest, common past, or common experience of joint activities. In this regard, it is important to study the communicative practices of parental chat rooms, because this communicative platform has great potential for useful participation in the life of the school and involvement of students/parents in the educational process, but it can also lead to destructive behavior, such as conflicts not only in the online space but also in real life. The authors have identified the main categories of parental communication, which include chat rules themselves, homework, school activities and holidays, behavioral problems, and technical problems. These categories provide insight into the processes that are most important from the parent’s point of view, that require their involvement or that are of most interest to them.

Limitation of study This study focuses on an initial study of parent chat communication, only in St. Petersburg, Russia, and of a relatively small volume. The research has a random sample, so the results should be complemented with more rigorous methodological bases of sampling and comparison of parental chat rooms, which is a goal in the next stages of the research project. The study of school–parent communications requires more in-depth and comprehensive research over a longer period of time. Despite comparing chats in two time periods, a more comprehensive study is needed to look at communication trends over time. In addition, cultural sensitivities related to both online communication and the role of parents in education in different countries need to be taken into account. Since this work is only the first stage of a large research project, and taking into account that some limitations can be eliminated, we would like to indicate what we will address in the future when continuing the project. We would like to expand the sample of parental chats, removing geographical limitations, so we see two possible directions: this is a study of parental chats throughout the Russian Federation, taking into account not only large cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, and Yekaterinburg, but also regional centers, villages, and smaller settlements which will allow us to have a more detailed picture of this communication, and we also want to address comparative studies between countries, such as Germany, Israel, the Philippines, etc. We believe it is important to expand the sample of parental chats in the Russian Federation. We consider it important to be able to expand the sample from hundreds to thousands of chats. Realizing the great possibilities of including observation in the study of chat rooms, we still consider it more correct to obtain data from chat rooms from their participants in order to preserve the respondents’ data. Also, in the future, we would like to combine quantitative and qualitative methods in our research for greater accuracy of the results, as well as validation of the results.