What are the benefits and barriers to using e-mail to communicate with parents?
This question was answered through responses given by the participants to the qualitative semi-structured interviews. By investigating the potential barriers and benefits to the use of e-mail in the frequent teacher and parent communication, the researcher was interested in establishing how conversant and comfortable the teachers were with the technology, as well as what they believed was the parents’ abilities to use the e-mail. Among the aspects that the researcher sought to understand was the level of training that the teachers had in the use of e-mail technology and whether there were any further training courses required to enhance their competencies in e-mail communication. At the same time, the question sought to understand any notable benefits that the teachers associated with the use of e-mail communication, and this could include convenience, speed, and low costs compared to other conventional modes of communication.
By seeking the teachers’ responses on the barriers and benefits of the e-mail communication method, the question is interested in fostering an understanding of how the teachers made decisions regarding their preferred communication channels. In this case, the responses given by the participants were expected to reveal the factors that the teachers considered to be influential in their decision-making process regarding the suitability of e-mail communication for maintaining constant contact between the parents and teachers. The question was also meant to elicit the teachers’ responses regarding their perceived negative effects or barriers to the use of e-mails, amongst which could be fear of insecurity for their data. The question was also instrumental in acquiring valuable information on how supportive the school administration had been in promoting the teachers’ cause for e-mail-based communication in school.
The outcomes of the qualitative analysis provided insight into the range of perceptions that different teachers had towards the use of e-mails for parent-teacher communication. One important observation was the strong connection between the level of training in the use of e-mails and the approval of this platform for the teachers’ communication with parents. For those who approved the use of the e-mail communication, convenience, reliability, speed, and low costs were the core factors that informed their decisions. This implied that the respondents believed in the effectiveness of e-mail communication as an ideal method for communication between teachers and parents. However, they were concerned that the suitability of this channel depended on the infiltration of internet connections within the region, affordability of the internet services, and the ease of acquiring and operating and internet-enabled electronic devices, which may not be guaranteed for many parents. Hence, the responses made by the teachers were based on their own convenience as well as the convenience of the parents with whom they had interacted, in acquiring, accessing, affording, and using the internet technology and devices. Nonetheless, it was understandable that as teachers’ age increased, they trended to not believe e-mail communication was as reliable as other forms of communication such as the phone and in-person conversations. Ultimately, there was a consensus among the vast majority of the respondents that e-mail method was indeed the most suitable in sending out messages that included a bulk of attachments or explanations, in addition to being quicker and cost-effective in relaying such messages.
The qualitative approach to this question was instrumental in obtaining detailed accounts of the teachers concerning the factors that they believed influenced the effectiveness and suitability of e-mail communication in the teacher-parent partnership. In this case, the responses were insightful because of the multiple perspective evaluation of the issues, which included trying to consider the appropriateness of the e-mail method from the parents’ perspective. Having interacted with the parents for a long time, the teachers acknowledged that some parents would struggle to access e-mail supported platforms, which inevitably undermined the effectiveness of this method in relaying critical and urgent messages from teachers to parents. However, there was a unanimous approval that e-mail use was ideal for communicating school-wide announcements, amongst which are school projects and newsletters. Teachers were also cautious that the effectiveness of the e-mail communication could be affected by the spam filter problems and the suspicions of fake e-mails by the recipients.