The effect of lifelong learning motivation of fathers with 4-6 years old preschool children on perception of the role of fatherhood and evaluation of fathers' participation in education

The purposes of the study are to examine the lifelong learning Motivation (LLM) of fathers who have children in the pre-school period of 4-6 years in terms of their fatherhood role perceptions and to evaluate the contribution of fathers to the education of children, the related problems and solutions. In the research, concurrent triangulation design, one of the mixed method designs in which quantitative and qualitative methods were used together, was performed. While the quantitative data of the study were obtained from the Fatherhood Role Perception Scale developed by Kuzucu (1999) and the Turkish adaptation scale of the Employee Lifelong Learning Scale developed by Koç (2017), the qualitative data were provided from the form to determine Lifelong Learning of Preschool Children's Fathers and the status of Participation in the Education of their Children developed by the researcher. The universe of the research consisted of 471 fathers whose children were in the pre-school period of 4-6 years in a city center in the Black Sea region in the 2020-2021 academic years. While the scales were applied to 393 fathers determined by convenient sampling method, the interview form was applied to 15 fathers determined by purposeful random sampling.respectively. The data of the research were analyzed with the SPSS 25. In the analysis of quantitative data, descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean, standard deviation) and nonparametric statistical methods including Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Dunn's post-hoc test with Bonferroni correction and Spearman Rank Correlation test were used. The qualitative data obtained from the interview form were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. In addition, direct quotations in the study were included in order to increase reliability. As a result of the research, it was figured out that the levels of the LLM of fathers and their fatherhood role perception were high. LLM levels of fathers showed no significant difference in terms of age, job, employment status of spouses, the number of children and gender but had significant differences in terms of education level and income. Besides, fatherhood role perception level of fathers had significant differences in terms of education level, job, employment status of spouses, the number of children, gender and income apart from age. There was a positive and significant relationship between the levels of the LLM and fatherhood role perception. According to the results from the qualitative part of the study, the manners of fathers to participate in their children's education encompassed taking care of their school needs, providing their transportation to and from school, helping with homework, talking over with school and teacher, attending school meetings, playing educational games, participating in family participation activities, exploring games, stories or experiments. The issues that fathers have difficulty in raising and educating their children were inability to cope with the child's negative habits and behaviors, difficult working conditions and not finding enough time, nutrition and problems regarding fathers' own attitudes and behaviors. Difficulties in acquiring skills for the child were inability to discover the child's interests; problems in preparing the child for education, lack in the knowledge and skills of fathers and financial problems. It was found out that fathers received advice and help from their close environment, explored the problem and developed personal methods in order to overcome these experienced difficulties. It was concluded that the fathers involved in this research spent time with their children, participated in their children's education and had high fatherhood role perception and LLM.