Paper short abstract:

This paper explores opposing and entangled discourses on temporality in a covid-19 diary written by pupils in a lower secondary school in Finland during coronavirus outbreak and when schools were closed, contact teaching was suspended and distance learning was organized.

Paper long abstract:

During spring 2020, the Finnish government together with the President of the Republic declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak. As the Emergency Powers Act was implemented, for example, schools closed, and contact teaching was suspended and distance learning through digital learning environments was organized instead.

Drawing on theoretical perspectives on temporality in combination with institutional time, past, present, and future intertwined practices and normality, and acceleration and deceleration, this paper explores discourses on temporality in a time that could be called ‘strange times’ or ‘corona times’. Using the concept temporality is a way to emphasize the social character and dimensions of time, as time is in different ways experienced in different contexts and by different people.

The material for this article consists of a corona diary, where 34 pupils in a lower secondary school, aim to give their version of how a day passes during a pandemic and social distancing. The method of the analysis of this paper is a qualitative textual analysis inspired by critical discourse analysis. Through qualitative textual analysis, I aim to identify different narratives, thematic structures of the diary entries, as well as, value-laden words and expression.

In the paper, I identify opposing and entangled discourses on temporality in youth’s everyday lives during a pandemic.