Students’ Diaries as a Source of Knowledge about Their Everyday Education and Private Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

On 20 March 2020, the Polish authorities announced the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2. The announcement of the state of pandemic completely changed our lives. Healthy people were locked at home, entry to forests was forbidden, online school and work became mandatory and face masks and hand sanitizers became a necessity. The “battle” for vaccines was started. As for the people infected with the virus, in addition to transforming wards on hospitals to ones dedicated to COVID-19 patients, additional beds were arranged, for example, on stadiums. The number of deaths rose sharply, to around 200,000 in the years 2020–2021. At the moment, COVID-19 progresses from the pandemic stage to endemic one, which means that it will become a part of our lives. The experiences gained during that time are rooted in every person. Thus, it is worth looking at diaries written by the students of pre-school and early school pedagogics (uniform studies leading to a master’s degree, at the University of Warmia and Mazury, UWM in Olsztyn), in which they described their entanglement in the difficult pandemic reality, in the years 2020–2021, in the context of their education and private lives. It is worth emphasizing the importance of the source of information, apart from the problems raised. In this study, this is a source created, constructed over several months in a reality different from normal. The diaries uncover/reveal the meanings which the pedagogics students assigned to the pandemic reality.