Death Education

This article investigates children’s views on providing peer support to bereaved children. The data (pre- and postinterviews and written documents) come from an action research study of a teacher–researcher and her 16 children aged 10–11 years old. Analysis of the data shows children’s ideas on supporting a bereaved child and how this support should be provided, taking into consideration various factors such as the relationship with the bereaved and the role of memories. The paper emphasizes that children should have structured opportunities across the whole-school curriculum to learn how loss affects people’s lives to support themselves and others.

This paper was presented at The 14th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal (at University of Bath, 7th September 2019). Original title was “Sources of Influence on the Taboo of Death and a Good Death: The Relationship between Social Construction and Education among Japanese People.”

This article presents an action research study that explores how a fifth-grade classroom of 10- to 11-year-old children in Cyprus perceive the concepts of grief and grieving, after an educational intervention provided space for discussing such issues. It also explores the impact that the intervention program had on children’s emotions while exploring these concepts and illustrates how it affected their behavior. The findings suggest that the intervention had a constructive impact on children’s understandings of grief and grieving along two important dimensions. First, the intervention helped children better define emotional responses to loss (grief). Second, children seemed to overcome their anxiety while talking about grief and grieving and were able to share relevant personal experiences. The study has important implications for curriculum development, pedagogical practice, and teacher training on death education.

Loss, impermanence, and death are facts of life difficult to face squarely. Our own mortality and that of loved ones feels painful and threatening, the mortality of the biosphere unthinkable. Consequently, we do our best to dodge these thoughts, and the current globalizing culture supports and colludes in our evasiveness. Even environmental educators tend to foreground 'sustainability' whilst sidelining the reality of decline, decay, and loss. And yet, human life and ecological health require experiencing 'unsustainability' too, and a pedagogy for life requires a pedagogy of death. In this paper we explore experiences of loss and dying in both human relationships and the natural world through four different types of death affording situations, the cemetery, caring-unto-death, sudden death, and personal mortality. We trace the confluence of death in nature and human life, and consider some pedagogical affordance within and between these experiences as an invitation to foster an honest relationship with the mortality of self, others, and nature. We end by suggesting art as an ally in this reconnaissance, which can scaffold teaching and learning and support us to courageously accept both the beauty and the ugliness that death delivers to life.

Il saggio affronta il tema della morte da un punto di vista educativo. Nella prima parte, a partire da un breve racconto di fatti realmente accaduti, si tratterrà della rimozione della morte dalla cultura contemporanea e, nello specifico, dal panorama pedagogico. Si sosterrà la tesi dell’opportunità educativa di non rimuoverla e nasconderla e, per converso, si porteranno alcuni argomenti in favore della tesi opposta: l’importanza di affrontare la morte. Corollario di questo schema è la tematica del divertimento: l’obiettivo è di situare la rimozione della morte all’interno della più ampia questione della tensione al divertimento e alla distrazione.
Nella seconda parte del saggio, sempre a partire da uno spunto reale, si procederà ad analizzare i principali sensi dell’educazione alla morte, in particolare il collegamento con la resilienza e quello con la questione della ricerca di senso, come finalità di ogni educazione. Si proseguirà poi con l’argomentare in favore del nesso tra morte e caducità e, quindi, quello tra educazione alla morte e educazione alla caducità. Configurata in siffatta maniera sarà il caso di concepirla più propriamente come educazione alla mortalità. La questione della costitutiva
limitatezza umana consentirà di affrontare, in conclusione, il tema del limite in connessione alla death education, con l’importante risvolto dell’educazione alla responsabilità.

Most teenagers use social media and technology
on a daily basis, with 91% using text messaging
tools (NORC Center for Public Affairs Research,
2017) and 94% going online each day using a
mobile device (Lenhart, 2015). When adolescents
experience life-threatening illness, grief, or
tragedy, they are using thanatechnology—digital
technology and social media (Sofka, 1997; Sofka,
Cupit, & Gilbert, 2012)—to cope with these
adverse life events.
A growing body of literature has documented
multiple uses for digital and social media during
times of illness and loss that are summarized in
this article. Regardless of one’s role in a teen’s
life (professional helper, parent, or supportive
adult), it is important to be knowledgeable about
the ways that teens are using thanatechnology
and to consider how you can assist young adults
in making wise decisions about using these resources.

Retrieved from https://www.nhpco.org/sites/default/files/public/ChiPPS/ChiPPS_e-journal_Issue-53.pdf

"Connecting through stories can do much to help young people and adults counter the feelings of fear and anxiety that shadow childhood. In a 2007 article, I suggested that ‘crossover’ books—or stories that readers of all ages have adopted as their own (Beckett, 2009; Falconer, 2009; Harju, 2010) hold great potential for encouraging meaningful conversation between children and adults about difficult themes.
In this paper, I discuss how a small, intergenerational reading group made meaning of death and grief experiences by sharing their responses to Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002) and The Graveyard Book (2008). I highlight the book talk that took place between myself, a mother, and her eleven year-old daughter examining our “lived through experiences” of story engagement (Rosenblatt, 1938/1995). I demonstrate the kind of ‘grand conversation’ (Peterson & Eeds, 1990), or, open, honest and reciprocal talk that was prompted by our responses to death, fear and anxiety in these and other crossover books. Additionally, I reflect on the ways we worked through such difficult subjects by sharing these stories and telling some of our own (Eeds & Wells, 1989; Sumara, 2002).
This discussion of ‘the promise of unhappiness’ in childhood speaks to the greater significance of story sharing by illustrating the importance of talking through experiences with death, grief, mortality and other troubling truths with children. Sell (2002) proposes that we seek out stories because, above all, “literature gives its readers the experience—not just an illusion—of being not alone in the world” (p. 12). Knowing that we had company in the dark certainly helped our reading group face the things that continue to terrify us."

Los adolescentes tienen una relación compleja con la muerte, estan al mismo tiempo fascinados y asustados. En la escuela generalmente no se ocupa de la temática de la muerte o lo hace por las cuestiones relacionadas con la educación de las emociones y el dolor, educación al duelo o las cuestiones de bioética. Por el contrario es útil para difundir el recorrido educativo de momentos que debatan la precariedad y la mortalidad de las personas. Para este fin la enseñanza de la filosofía y de las ciencias humanas puede resultar importante. A través de estas lecciones se puede educar a los chicos a la constitutiva finitudine y fragilidad humana. Poner el acento en la fragilidad humana  permite configurar la educación a la muerte como educación a la mortalidad humana.

Though death and loss are recognized as significant themes in fine and popular arts forms, we know virtually nothing about how people who themselves are dying or bereaved use the arts – unless they are practising artists or under therapeutic
supervision. This article first reviews how established artists have used death/loss themes in their work, along with the work of arts practitioners in palliative and bereavement care and the role of the arts in death education. These literatures tend to privilege the production of artworks over their consumption, and reveal the absence of research into the arts practices of lay people who are dying or grieving. The article goes on to advocate ethnographic research into lay practices, using the author’s own personal experiences and observations to indicate the kind of findings that ethnography may produce, in particular the likely importance – at the end as in the rest of life – of meaningful arts consumption. The article then
suggests avenues for researching lay arts practices at the end of life, before concluding with some possible implications for professional care of dying and bereaved people.

Humanity is on the threshold of recognizing the fundamental error in its view of life and death. Both death as well as active life is necessary to the vital formation of a larger, more essential whole. In this paper, I apply the sociology of knowledge and change as it pertains to death and focus on ways in which we can step outside its traditional frameworks and limitations. I also discuss topics related to death such as birth, aging, sickness, and war, and examine cultural differences in attitudes toward death. I offer varying perspectives including the Buddhist view and from these draw implications and conclusions. I apply the lenses of contemporary social scientists such as Edgar Morin, Kenneth Gergen, Edward Stewart, Milton Bennett, Mary Catherine Bateson, E. Doyle McCarthy, Philip Slater, and Piotr Sztompka. To these I add other relevant passages from the writings and speeches of key thinkers on the topic of death, in particular, Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder, and educator, Daisaku Ikeda. To construct a more humanistic and sustainable view of life, it is first of all crucial to establish a culture which perceives death in its larger living context as but one cycle in the expansive eternity of life.

The essay analyses the experiences of death in virtual reality video games or similar interactive experiences. The goal is to trace the effects of these immersive images – especially when combined with certain game design structures – in their influence on the possible cultural rethinking of death, through a perspective focused on the aesthetic component of game studies, on game design and on emotional movement design.
The discussion is introduced by an analysis of the recent evolution in the perception of death, followed by an overview of some currents representative of death in video games, to finally reach the experience of virtual reality, between established market logics and experiments that could provide new fields of application of Death Education.

Deconstructing Death is a book dealing with some of the most recent changes and transformations within the realms of death, dying, bereavement and care in contemporary Nordic countries. The book deals with some of the major as well as some of the less conspicuous changes in our cultural and social engagement with the phenomenon of death. Among the themes touched upon are: organ transplantation, death education, communication with the dead, changes in commemorative rituals, mourning practices on the internet, parental responses to children’s suicide, death control, practice and ethics of end-of-life care, and the lonely death.

Deconstructing Death contains contributions written by researchers and practitioners from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland with professional and academic backgrounds within areas such as sociology, anthropology, religious studies, and palliative care.

A unique indicator of change in our culture's openness to and interest in death, dying, and bereavement is the availability of "thanatechnology": technological mechanisms such as interactive videodiscs and computer programs that are used to access information or aid in learning about thanatology topics. This article describes resources available through society's latest and most widely accessible type of thanatechnology, the Internet and World Wide Web. The conceptual framework of mediated interpersonal communication is used to illustrate sites available as resources for social support. Additional categories of thanatology sites, including narrative, commemorative, expressive, and experiential sites, are defined. Implications for the use of these resources in clinical practice, death education, and research are considered.

This is an historical document on which Sofka, Noppe Cupit, and Gilbert (2012) builds.

La morte non esiste più. Allo stesso tempo, però, viviamo costantemente circondanti dai morti. Relegata lontano dalla nostra quotidianità, medicalizzata, espunta dalle nostre vite, l'esperienza del morire vive oggi una situazione paradossale, quando le immagini e le parole dei cari estinti tornano e irrompono all'improvviso dagli schermi dei nostri telefoni. Moriamo, ma continuiamo a esistere nella presenza ineliminabile della nostra passata vita online. Social network, chat, siti web costituiscono insieme, ad oggi, il più grande cimitero del mondo. Il territorio esplorato dalla fantascienza, dalla fiction e, recentemente, da una delle serie più perturbanti che mette al centro della sua riflessione il rapporto tra uomo e tecnologia, Black Mirror, sembra superato dalle nuove intelligenze artificiali. Sono già disponibili bot con cui dialogare e capaci di interpretare i nostri stati d'animo per poi sostituirsi a noi quando saremo trapassati, e continuare a parlare con i nostri cari; il profilo Facebook che consultiamo compulsivamente più volte al giorno, quando mancheremo, diventerà una vera e propria lapide virtuale, e i nostri amici potranno continuare a farci gli auguri ogni anno nell'aldilà. E ancora, il web è diventata la più grande piazza pubblica per celebrare il ricordo o condividere anche l'esperienza privata del lutto. Insieme piangiamo i nostri cari, insieme ricordiamo i nostri beniamini. Insieme, in un futuro prossimo, vivremo una seconda vita nella realtà virtuale. Davide Sisto, giovane filosofo che da lungo tempo ha consacrato i suoi studi alla relazione tra morte e cultura digitale, per la prima volta mette insieme un discorso interpretativo che ha al centro il rapporto nuovo della nostra società con la morte indotto dall'avanzamento tecnologico. La morte si fa social è il miglior esempio di umanesimo capace di confrontarsi con l'era digitale. L'uomo ha sempre pensato la morte. Oggi più che mai, il digitale offre un'opportunità per ripensare la morte in una prospettiva rivoluzionata.

Marco Bracconi (Repubblica, 26 agosto 2018): http://ricerca.repubblica.it/…/per-sempre-connessi-con-lald…

Lo speciale di "Mind. Mente & cervello" (settembre 2018): http://www.lescienze.it/…/il_numero_di_mind_di_settembre-4…/

Francesco Paolo De Ceglia (Il Tascabile, 30 agosto 2018): http://www.iltascabile.com/societa/morte-social/

This study describes the psychological effects of an experience of death education (DE) used to explore a case of suicide in an Italian high school. DE activities included philosophical and religious perspectives of the relationships between death and the meaning of life, a visit to a local hospice, and psychodrama activities, which culminated in the production of short movies. The intervention involved 268 high school students (138 in the experimental group). Pre-test and post-test measures assessed ontological representations of death, death anxiety, alexithymia, and meaning in life. Results confirmed that, in the experimental group, death anxiety was significantly reduced as much as the representation of death as annihilation and alexithymia, while a sense of spirituality and the meaning of life were more enhanced, compared to the No DE group. These improvements in the positive meaning of life and the reduction of anxiety confirmed that it is possible to manage trauma and grief at school with death education interventions that include religious discussion, psychodrama and movie making activities.

The censorship of death and dying has removed the “memento mori” practices, and in order to reintroduce this practice, some “Before I die” projects have been increasingly implemented. Running in parallel, in the syllabi of social service and psychology students, some experiences of death education has commenced. This study illustrates the results of a qualitative research conducted on the “Before I die I want to …” Polaroid® Project (BIDIWT), which is divided into two phases. The first phase entails an analysis of the wishes collected from the United States, Japan, India, and Italy. The second phase refers to the analysis of the captions of the BIDIWT realized from two groups of undergraduates, with regard to the effect of such experience on their religiosity, representation of death, and fear of death.

The primary objective of Death Education is to break the silence and denial regarding
death. Regardless of the fact that some guidelines on how to integrate Death Education in schools may be found in many curricula ―especially those of primary school― the concept of  death remains a very difficult, if not impossible, task. Death education, as a field of study or a  curriculum program, is still fairly unknown to many teachers. However, many theorists and researchers maintain the need of such an integration. Death Education could be approached  through many subjects studied at school, such as Health Education, Religious Education, Children’s Literature, History and Arts. Any effort to integrate Death Education in schools  should be systematical and deliberate in order to successfully reach its goals. This is, after all,  a genuinely humanitarian and utterly existential aspect of education.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the perception of children on the concepts of loss and bereavement through an intervention educational program. Specifically, the study investigated the degree to which the integration of these concepts in Primary School affect the way children perceive and evaluate these concepts, as well as the impact of the intervention program on the emotions and behavior of children. Since no other studies have been carried out on this issue, the literature review focuses on the way Philosophy, religion, Psychology, Sociology and Pedagogy approach the concepts of loss and bereavement. Educational Action Research was the method used for data collection purposes. Sixteen 5th grade students and their teacher were the main participants of the research. The limitations of the research involved the method of data collection used and the sensitivity required in approaching the concepts of loss and bereavement.

This study investigates the psychological effects of participation in Death Education (DeEd) by middle school children in two towns in northeast Italy in which suicides occur to a greater extent than in the rest of the region. The aims of the project “Beyond the Wall” were inherent to the prevention of suicide, address existential issues and enhance the meaning of life through positive intentions for the future and reflection on mortality. It involved eight classes (150 students in four classes in the experimental group; 81 in four classes in the control group) engaging with films, workgroup activities, photovoice and psychodrama. The constructs of resilience, emotional competency and psychological well-being were monitored with the Resilience Scale for Adolescents, the Hopelessness Scale for Children, the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children and the Stirling Children’s Well-being Scale. The DeEd intervention was found to be significantly related to some of the variables investiga...

During research on bereavement process in parents who lost their children I was asked frequently about grief stages, about pathological grief and the social understanding of grief, death and dying. It appears that there are still confusing information that are given by practitioners — psychologist and grief concealers, that are not updated and make grieving parents more upset.

In my humble opinion there is an urgent need for death education programme in Poland. I would like to share my discoveries on areas of concern, where are too many opinions that are not useful and in addition they are dangerous for people in need. I would also like to share some lights on the aspect of the death of animal companions, which can cause the same feelings of grief as in case of human companion or family member death.

In the presentation I would focus on the most problematic issues as: (1) the question of death taboo; (2) the sex of grief; (3) the stages of grief and the question of pathological grief; (4) the question of grief after animal companions' death. I would also like to present a draft for such death education programme.

This qualitative study aims to reveal the effect of professional education on medical and nursing students' attitudes toward death. The study was carried out with nursing and medical students (N = 197). Research data was collected through semi-structured interview questions and 23 focus group interviews. The data was assessed using thematic analysis method. The themes were evaluated within the context of perception of death, ethical dilemmas, and, death education. To achieve professional competency in attitudes toward death, it is imperative to form a common educational curriculum and practice that would help students develop a mutual language and value system about death.

In Norway's Land of the Midnight Sun above the Arctic Circle, continuous daylight occurs around the clock during the months of June and July. The sun gets low on the horizon, only to rise again before it has a chance to set. An opposite effect occurs six months later. This area of the ...

Disclaimer; This book is not written to proffer ways for euthanasia, suicide, murder or any illegal ways of taking one’s life. But it rather tries to instruct humans to be sensitive to the fact that the next minute might be their last and how one prepares for that is very important.

This paper details a system for analyzing the content of constructs that persons employ to conceptualize situations involving death and dying. The development of the content coding manual is reviewed, and the interjudge reliability of the scoring system is presented. The paper outlines instructions for using the manual and discusses potential areas for its application.