IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v10y2021i4p141-d536769.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mothers’ Accounts of Attending to Educational and Everyday Needs of Their Children at Home during COVID-19: The Case of the UAE

Author

Listed:
  • Fatma F. S. Said

    (Language Studies Department, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University, P.O. Box 144534, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

  • Nadine Jaafarawi

    (Language Studies Department, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University, P.O. Box 144534, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

  • Anna Dillon

    (College of Education, Zayed University, P.O. Box 144534, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

Abstract

From March 2020 until July 2020, the UAE implemented mandatory distance learning due to COVID-19, which meant that children had to continue their learning remotely at home. Though schools concerted exemplary efforts to ensure that children received all that was necessary through advanced technology platforms and interfaces, the duty of ensuring that children continued to engage in successful learning fell solely on parents. This paper is based on a self-report study conducted during this first period of distance learning where parents were invited to anonymously complete a survey and then be interviewed. The paper relies on interviews as its main data source. Interview transcripts once transcribed were thematically analysed. One recurring theme in the data was gender differences in domestic and other duties as well as attending to the educational needs of children. Mothers, irrespective of cultural or educational background, disproportionately seemed to be the caretakers of the home and of children’s educational needs. Mothers spoke of their mental health concerns, pressures of time management, and negative effects on their own work. This paper makes an original contribution by exploring parental experiences of emergency remote learning and what these reflect about parental ethnotheories in the UAE.

Suggested Citation

  • Fatma F. S. Said & Nadine Jaafarawi & Anna Dillon, 2021. "Mothers’ Accounts of Attending to Educational and Everyday Needs of Their Children at Home during COVID-19: The Case of the UAE," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:4:p:141-:d:536769
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/4/141/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/4/141/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Batsheva Guy & Brittany Arthur, 2020. "Academic motherhood during COVID‐19: Navigating our dual roles as educators and mothers," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 887-899, September.
    2. David A. Matsa & Amalia R. Miller, 2014. "Workforce Reductions at Women-Owned Businesses in the United States," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 422-452, April.
    3. Sharmistha Self & Richard Grabowski, 2011. "Is there gender bias in participation in early childhood education programs in developing countries? Role of mother's education," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(7), pages 909-925, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. M. Rezaul Islam, 2023. "Child health status in the United Arab Emirates: an in-depth exploration of current issues and challenges," Journal of Community Positive Practices, Catalactica NGO, issue 1, pages 36-49.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sorana-Alexandra Constantinescu & Maria-Henriete Pozsar, 2022. "Was This Supposed to Be on the Test? Academic Leadership, Gender and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Denmark, Hungary, Romania, and United Kingdom," Publications, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, April.
    2. Charlene Marie Kalenkoski & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, 2022. "Impacts of COVID-19 on the self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 741-768, February.
    3. Özlem Altan‐Olcay & Suzanne Bergeron, 2024. "Care in times of the pandemic: Rethinking meanings of work in the university," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1544-1559, July.
    4. Masayuki Morikawa, 2014. "What Types of Companies Have Female and Foreign Directors?," AJRC Working Papers 1404, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    5. Francesco Devicienti & Elena Grinza & Alessandro Manello & Davide Vannoni, 2016. "Which Are the Benefits of Having more Female Leaders? Evidence from the Use of Part-Time Work in Italy," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 489, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    6. Steven C. Deller & Tessa Conroy & Philip Watson, 2017. "Women business owners: a source of stability during the great recession?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(56), pages 5686-5697, December.
    7. Lena Göbel & Steffen Burkert, 2023. "Benevolent Leadership: Unveiling the Impact of Supervisor Gender on HR Practices and Employee Commitment," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Nilmini M. Rathnayake & Pivithuru J. Kumarasinghe & Ajantha S. Kumara, 2022. "How Do Different Types of University Academics Perceive Work from Home Amidst COVID-19 and Beyond?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Tessa Conroy & Steven Deller & Philip Watson, 2021. "Regional income inequality: a link to women-owned businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 189-207, January.
    10. Astrid Kunze & Amalia R. Miller, 2017. "Women Helping Women? Evidence from Private Sector Data on Workplace Hierarchies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(5), pages 769-775, December.
    11. Simel Parlak & Oya Celebi Cakiroglu & Feride Oksuz Gul, 2021. "Gender roles during COVID‐19 pandemic: The experiences of Turkish female academics," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 461-483, July.
    12. Karyn E. Miller, 2021. "The ethics of care and academic motherhood amid COVID‐19," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S1), pages 260-265, January.
    13. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2016. "What types of companies have female directors? Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 1-7.
    14. Tessa Conroy & Sarah A. Low, 2022. "Entrepreneurship, Broadband, and Gender: Evidence from Establishment Births in Rural America," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 45(1), pages 3-35, January.
    15. Aliza N. Husain & David A. Matsa & Amalia R. Miller, 2023. "Do Male Workers Prefer Male Leaders? An Analysis of Principals’ Effects on Teacher Retention," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(5), pages 1480-1522.
    16. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2014. "What Types of Company Have Female and Foreign Directors?," Discussion papers 14032, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    17. Lopez Boo, Florencia & Canon, Maria Eugenia, 2014. "Reversal of gender gaps in child development: Evidence from young children in India," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 55-59.
    18. Tessa Conroy & Stephan Weiler, 2016. "Does gender matter for job creation? Business ownership and employment growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 397-419, August.
    19. Jeong-Hyo Seo & Hee-Kyung Kim, 2022. "What Is the Burnout of Mothers with Infants and Toddlers during the COVID-19 Pandemic? In Relation to Parenting Stress, Depression, and Parenting Efficacy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-14, April.
    20. Anna Maria Górska & Karolina Kulicka & Zuzanna Staniszewska & Dorota Dobija, 2021. "Deepening inequalities: What did COVID‐19 reveal about the gendered nature of academic work?," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1546-1561, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:4:p:141-:d:536769. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.