Discussing death in the classroom: Beliefs and experiences of educators and education students

In this study the beliefs and attitudes of teachers and education students about providing death education and death related interventions were explor ed. Teachers from twelve elementary and middle schools (n = 189), and educa tion students from three universities (n = 139) were surveyed. The groups d id not differ significantly in beliefs about their own qualifications, whet her the content belongs in school, and willingness to attend a seminar abou t providing death related interventions. There were no differences between the groups in intervention style, or in whether they preferred to intervene themselves or to have someone else (e.g., a school counselor) intervene. T eachers and students differed significantly only in frequency of experience s with bereaved students (chi(2) = p < .0001). The experiences of interacti ng with bereaved students did not result in teachers believing themselves m ore qualified to provide death related interventions. These data indicate t hat, while many teachers are willing to provide death related interventions with elementary and middle school students, a majority (55%) of teachers w ould not use a proactive intervention style, that is, those teachers would not introduce the topic of the recent death of someone close to the child.