Emotions and Empathy during the Pandemic in an International School in Madrid: A Case Study

Abstract

Emotions and empathy contribute to the development and formation of all people. These factors are most decisive in the developmental stages where the role of stimuli from the environment is also a determining factor. From this maxim, we present a paper that investigates a group of school pupils’ process of transformation regarding their emotional perspective of themselves and the situation that they have had to live through: that of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Taking into account that the focus of this research is the most significant moments in terms of emotional perception and the primary school students themselves, we deduce that evaluations can be carried out repeatedly and specific situations can be analysed. Consequently, we opt for a qualitative methodology with a single case study method. From this point and the data collected, the results relate to the dif-ferent phases that correspond with the most important events which steer us inevitably towards a “new normality”. Here we refer to events from the ceasing of all activities and free movement (March 2020) to the new situation one year later of inoculations by different vaccines (March 2021).

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Primary Education
• Empathy
• Resilience
• Habits