Kalayaan, katarungan, karangalan and kapwa: a provisional exploration of children’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic through Philippine virtue ethics

ABSTRACT

This article presents a qualitative study in which families recorded themselves reading a child-friendly book about a bear in lockdown and combines ethnographic and autoethnographic methods to examine the reactions of home educated and traditionally schooled children during Aotearoa New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdowns. This research theorizes data sourced from family reading sessions through the writings of Philippine psychologist Virgilio Enriquez and the indigenous Philippine concepts of kalayaan (relational autonomy), katarungan (justice), karangalan (self-respect) and kapwa (shared inner identity). This research considers how children’s experiences of lockdown differed according to their investment in a primarily school-based identity. It argues that pedagogies of love and care, along with the prospect of supporting children as they cope with the pandemic, should entail a recentering of reciprocal modes of thinking, doing, and relating.

KEYWORDS:

• Philippine virtue ethics
• Philippine philosophy
• Philippine psychology
• picture books
• childhood
• homeschooling
• Covid-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. This article was drafted in consultation with my partner and children at all stages of its development. This included inviting them to select their own pseudonyms.