Crisis – threat and challenge: strategies for coping with the pandemic situation in families and schools
Principal investigator: Mgr. Tatiana Zachar Podolinská, PhD.
Researchers in IESA SAS: Mgr. Soňa G. Lutherová, PhD., Mgr. Ľubica Voľanská, PhD., Mgr. Miroslava Kinczer, Mgr. Edita Rigová, MPA, Mgr. Natália Slivková
Project manager in IESA SAS: Mgr. Tatiana Zachar Podolinská, PhD.
Financial manager in IESA SAS: Mgr. Branislava Kolesárová
Project no.: 022UK-2-1/2021 – Development project
Duration of the project: 2022-2023
Principal investigator: Fakulta sociálnych a ekonomických vied, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave
Partners in the project: ÚESA SAV, v. v. i. Prešovská univerzita v Prešove, OZ CAV
The project focuses on the in-depth mapping of the impacts of the pandemic on key actors in the field of education (primary schools, upper secondary schools, families with school-age children), both in the majority and marginalized environments. We focus on teachers and school management, children from school age to adolescents, and their parents or grandparents. The research is a combination of representative quantitative and in-depth qualitative analysis. It thus focuses on the cross-section and comparison of outputs, mapping common and different mechanisms for managing the pandemic situation. At the same time, it identifies examples of positive and negative strategies for all included groups.
The pandemic situation has mixed the work and personal spheres without the possibility of their separation. The role of parents also changed in it, and they were given responsibilities for which they were not prepared. The experiences of older children (11 – 18 years old) overlapped with younger ones (isolation, online education), but they also faced other challenges associated with growing up. A significant group of actors are teachers who have met various pressures, e.g. on the readiness to accept the required changes and technologies, (self-)evaluation of teaching effectiveness, etc. Therefore, in the project, we focus on their job satisfaction and burnout tendencies, which will help us understand their attitudes outside the pandemic situation. Another source of stress requiring different coping methods for all participants was often the different access to information or attitude towards the pandemic. Anthropological expertise seems crucial in the project because we apply the criteria identified during the research as relevant for the individual researched populations and respect the relevant actors’ needs to assess successful and unsuccessful load management.
