Factors that Facilitate Parental Involvement in Family-based Learning: Cases of Nomadic Families in Rural Mongolia

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal the factors that facilitate parental involvement in family-based early childhood learning in emergency settings, such as natural disasters, pandemics, or displacement from the home environment. The research setting was rural Mongolia, where children from vulnerable backgrounds have been unable to access kindergarten education as a result of their nomadic lifestyle. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with nomadic families, schoolteachers, local community members, and university students conducted in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2022. The data were analysed using a modified grounded theory approach. The analysis yielded three factors that facilitate parental involvement in family-based early childhood learning: 1) the availability of learning materials, which can be replaced with natural objects; 2) the establishment of learning goals; and 3) interaction between children and their parents. A significant factor outside the home (networking with other parents and the school) was also identified. It is essential to determine how parents become involved in their children's education while maintaining a traditional nomadic lifestyle. Governments and policymakers must meet the demands of vulnerable families by providing holistic support, including the provision of learning materials and knowledge on the environmental factors that facilitate parental involvement in children's family-based learning. These identified factors can be applied to vulnerable families in other countries in emergency settings, since the learning environments will not necessarily be formal preschools, but any space with children and parents.