Project Change. Children’s pandemic experience aims to investigate how preschool children experience the changes associated with the pandemic. We want to know how children see their role in this situation, how they understand the COVID-19 pandemic, what meanings they give it, how they perceive the changes it has caused in their lives. As a research team, we assume that in a crisis that affects all citizens, children’s voices should be heard and taken into account. This will provide a better understanding of the different aspects of the pandemic. The project is carried out together with the Municipal Kindergarten No. 16 in Pruszków (Poland).

In march 2020, just after the schools were closed, we started collecting children's works about the pandemic. Via the social media and with the help of parents, teachers and journalists we managed to gather several dozen works, mainly drawings and photographs, but also letters, diaries, or songs lyrics. The works can be found here. The pandemic have changed our social live and it is still difficult to say what will be the its longterm consequences. Those changes touched not only the lives of adults, but also the lives of children, who suddenly had to start learning online and were not allowed to go out, meet their friends, or grandparents. Children, just like the adults, could feel helpless, frightened, and angry, but also experience joy and hope. With our project, we would like to allow children's voices to be heard. We would like to find out what children think about the current situation, and how they feel about it. We would also like to emphasise, that with the project Children's pandemic archaive we were only able to reach a specific group of children: mostly children from middle class families, whose parents made the effort of photographing the works and sending them to us. Childen's pandemic archive is a closed project. However, we are still inviting children who would like to share their experiences to contact us at badaniazdziecmi@gmail.com

In August 2020 we have started interviewing people in the age between 14 and 20 about their experience of the pandemic. The project is running, we are still looking for young people who would like to tell us how they survived the first wave of the pandemic and how they are doing now. The interview - which is a rather informal conversation, takes about an hour. If you have any questions, or would like to take part in our research - contact us!