Children´s conception of death and preschool education

Laura Šturbej (2014) Children´s conception of death and preschool education. Diploma thesis.

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Abstract

In theoretical part I defined the concept of death, I described sadness, loss and grieving. I defined and determined the stages of grieving, how death is understood by children, their emotional reactions and behaviour. I described helping children cope with loss and the role of nursery school in that process. I made the research that included 33 teachers employed in Vrtec Krško and I found out that death is still a taboo subject. Although 97 % of teachers are aware that death is a part of life and that children think of it, more than half of them think that death is a taboo subject. That means that it is a topic we do not want to talk about and we mostly avoid it. Almost half of teachers (45 %) did not find an opportunity to discuss about death, only a few of them dealed with that topic at All Saints' Day. Some of the teachers had to discuss about death because that situation had happened in a group. A third of teachers defined themselves as being well informed about the topic, but their further answers did not prove that. Half of the respondents have not faced with the case of death in a nursery school yet, on the other hand more than a third of them has. Teachers think that nursery curriculum called Kurikulum za vrtce (1999) does not encourage or represent activities associated with death well enough, I also share the same opinion. The vast majority of teachers do not have or do not use professional and children's literature based on the topic of death.

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