Rural Parents’ Exploration and Reflection on Junior High School English Homework Under the “Double Reduction” Policy

As an integral component of teaching, homework plays a pivotal role in consolidating students’ knowledge and cultivating their ability. Situated within the context of China’s “Double Reduction” policy, this paper focuses on English assignments for junior high school students in rural areas. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study explores parents’ perceptions, behaviors, and their cognitive levels regarding smart technologies in relation to junior high school students’ English homework. Furthermore, the study analyzes the effects of homework volume, homework expectations, home-school communication, and homework effectiveness on academic achievement. This paper administers questionnaires to parents of junior high school students in three rural areas, analyzes the data using SPSS and AMOS, and supplements the questionnaire data with semi-structured interviews with frontline English teachers. The findings reveal that parental involvement in students’ English homework is low, with insufficient daily accompaniment; awareness of home-school collaboration is weak; parents hold positive attitudes toward smart technologies but lack sufficient understanding; homework volume has a negative predictive effect on course grades, while home-school communication exerts the greatest influence on homework effectiveness. Based on these findings, this paper recommends establishing shared information channels to strengthen home-school collaborative mechanisms, enhancing parental literacy through targeted digital skills training, and increasing parental involvement. These measures are proposed to facilitate the effective implementation of the “Double Reduction” policy in English education within rural areas.