In turn, digital communication has seemingly reshaped the partnership discourse between teachers and parents. Thus, while establishing teacher-parent partnerships continues to be critical, it has become more complicated in the time of COVID-19 when communication is largely restricted to digital forms. In the United States, even among schools that have reopened for in-person instruction during COVID-19, many still bar in-person parent visits and/or parent-teacher face-to-face meetings. The COVID-19 pandemic has induced unwelcome interruptions on humanity in general and the educational process in particular. However, the nature of these partnerships is variable, affected by contextual demands and communication practices. Strong partnerships between teachers and parents are highly valued because they play a key role in the education of the children they “share” (Epstein, 1995, 2016 Epstein et al., 2018).

Given that many teachers and parents have begun to experiment with leveraging innovative digital technologies (e.g., email, e-newsletters, text, apps) to communicate with each other (e.g., Abubakari 2020 Bordalba & Bochaca, 2019 Patrikakou, 2016 Wasserman & Zwebner, 2017), it is imperative that we develop a better understanding of how digital communication may facilitate the fostering of teacher-parent partnerships, insights that can help guide practice. Teacher-parent communication is an integral, yet less-examined, facet of the digitalization of educational practices (Erdreich, 2021). This phenomenon may be described as the innovative application and integration of digital technologies in the dynamic process of teaching and student learning. In the education realm, it has encouraged the “digitalization of educational practices” (Colombo, 2016). In recent decades, the proliferation of digital technologies has reinforced a digital model of operation in many sectors.

The data were triangulated by analyzing teacher-parent communication artifacts on ClassDojo, which confirmed the findings related to the use of this digital platform. The ClassDojo theme further revealed three subthemes: (1) ClassDojo for promoting proactive parent involvement, (2) ClassDojo for building teacher-parent partnerships, and (3) the use of limited functions of ClassDojo. A thematic analysis uncovered four salient themes: (1) modes of digital communication between the teacher and parents, (2) the nature of digital communication, (3) limitations of digital communication, and (4) digital communication via ClassDojo. The teacher and parents were interviewed individually and virtually via Zoom for 30–60 min ( M = 45 min).

The participants consisted of one teacher and three mothers of 3-year-olds in the same classroom of a private childcare center serving preschool children from mostly middle-class backgrounds in a northeastern state of the United States. To contribute knowledge to this area, this study investigated the perceptions of the classroom teacher and parents of preschool children concerning their experiences of communicating with each other via digital technologies during COVID-19. Yet, little is known about their perceived experiences with digital communication. Consequently, teachers and parents rely on digital technologies to communicate and build partnerships. During COVID-19, many schools in the United States restrict parent visits and parent-teacher face-to-face meetings.

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