Investigation of Primary School Children’s Views of Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic Through Metaphors

Abstract

Global epidemics bring about problems that affect the lives of all individuals to a great extent. Although there have been global epidemics at different times, especially in the last two decades, primary school students are faced with such a situation for the first time. In order for students to manage this process in a healthy manner, it is important to see life through their eyes. It is necessary for both decision makers and practitioners to refer to students’ own comments and statements in order to see the traces of the effects of the measures taken on behalf of the students on their views. Determining primary school students’ views of the concept of life in this process is extremely important in terms of seeing and interpreting the process from their perspective and planning the continuation of the process. In the current study, the metaphors that primary school students developed regarding the concept of life during the pandemic and the explanations they brought to these metaphors were examined. In the study, it was determined that the students were able to explain the concept of life in the COVID-19 period using different metaphors and qualifiers. It was seen that metaphors were gathered under the categories of being restricted, disruption of order, feeling threatened, and despair. It was concluded that primary school students evaluate life predominantly negatively during the COVID-19 period.