Pedagogy of death within the framework of health education: The need and why teachers and students should be trained in primary education

Anabel Ramos-Pla; Isabel Del Arco; Anna Espart

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15050

Pedagogy of death within the framework of health education: The need and why teachers and students should be trained in primary education

Heliyon. 2023 Apr 2;9(4):e15050. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15050. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Anabel Ramos-Pla^{1

2

3}, Isabel Del Arco^{1

2

3}, Anna Espart^{1

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Càtedra de Desenvolupament I Territoris Saludables (DOTS), University of Lleida, 25001, Lleida, Spain.
² Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Social Work, University of Lleida, 25001 Lleida, Spain.
³ Organisational Development Team (EDO-UdL), University of Lleida, 25001 Lleida, Spain.
⁴ Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Lleida, 25198 Lleida, Spain.
⁵ Health Care Research Group (GRECS), Lleida Institute for Biomedical Research Dr. Pifarré Foundation, IRB Lleida, 25198 Lleida, Spain.

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to analyze the perceptions of in-service teachers about Pedagogy of Death within the framework of Health Education (HE), with respect to the training received and their teaching experience. A quantitative method was utilized, with the design of an ad hoc questionnaire with a Likert-type response scale and dichotomous questions. The results showed that while the teachers were aware of the need to educationally address death and health, they lacked or did not have initial or continuous training for doing so, and had not thought about it as a normalized aspect throughout their teaching career. We believe it is necessary to offer more training on Pedagogy of Death in the area of HE at universities and continuous education centers, so that it can ultimately be implemented in Primary Education classrooms.

Keywords: Death education; Educational innovation; Educational needs; Grief; Teacher training.