School Violence: A Stimulus For Death Education--A Critical Analysis

Dealing With the Concepts of “Grief” and “Grieving” in the Classroom: Children’s Perceptions, Emotions, and Behavior

“…While at first children had difficulties to define both grief and grieving, after the intervention, they were able to specify in a more detailed manner the concepts, including some of the emotions associated with different responses to grieving. The study confirmed that the issues of grief and grieving were topics that involved several misconceptions (Nguyen & Rosengren, 2004), concerned children (Atkinson & Hornby, 2002; Bowie, 2000; Harrison & Harrington, 2001; Job & Frances, 2004; Shackford, 2003), and were related to cultural rituals in Cyprus in some cases, which was expected based on the results of previous studies (e.g., see Lee et al., 2014; Reeves, 2011). Importantly, the intervention helped children enrich their emotional vocabulary, while making them less uncomfortable to talk about some of their emotions.…”

“…Many teachers also find it pedagogically challenging or even morally questionable to discuss issues of death and loss in the classroom (Papadatou, Metallinou, Hatzichristou, & Pavlidi, 2002). However, research revealed that children are interested in death and loss as those events are inextricable aspects of their lives, either as a result of their personal experiences such as the death of a relative, a friend, or even their pet or because of media’s and cartoons’ frequent references to death and loss (Atkinson & Hornby, 2002; Bowie, 2000; Cox, Garret, & Graham, 2004–2005; Harrison & Harrington, 2001; Job & Frances, 2004; Shackford, 2003).…”

Death and Dying Course Offerings in Psychology: A Survey of Nine Midwestern States

“…M. Eckerd which death is still denied in our culture; talking about it is still somewhat ''taboo'' (Basu & Heuser, 2003;Wass, 2004). Another possibility is the relevance of religious beliefs to the topic of death and dying (Shackford, 2003); it may be easier to avoid the potential for controversy inherent in a religious topic. ''Death remains one of those profoundly uncomfortable subjects to talk about meaningfully.…”