Death education knowledge、attitudes、and perspectives of Irish parents and teachers

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Death Studies, 24: 325-333, 2000 opyright 2000 Taylor& Francis 748l18700312.00+,00 DEATH EDUCATION: KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDES AND PERSPECTIVES OF IRISH PARENTS AND TEA CHERS MARGUERITA McGOvERN and MARGARET M. BARRY National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland This article reports on a cross-sectional suroey of the knowledge, attitudes and perspectives of irish parents and school teachers concerning children's grief and the oncept of death education. T he sample comprised 119 parents and 142 teachers of Irish Primary-school children (5-12 years of age)who completed a self- administered questionnaire. Both parents and teachers reported high levels of under- standing of the should be discussed with children before they encounter it. Although discussions of death were reported in the classroom and in the home, both teachers and parents, particularly men, reported being uncomfortable talking to children about death here was general support for the inclusion of death education in the school curric- ulum, with both teachers and parents supporting the need for further leacher training to undertake its delivery. There were few significant differences between the xpressed attitudes of parents and teachers. Howvever, teachers were more likely than parents to agree that death education would take away from parental responsibility The implications of the findings for further work in this area are considered. This article examines the attitudes of parents and teachers concern ing death education and childhood grief in an Irish context. Once described by O'hEithir(1986) as". one of the most funeral con scious countries in the world"(p. 152), the social dimension of coping with death has been valued highly in Irish culture. Tradi tional wakes in the family home offered an important opportunity for sharing with children an understanding of the passage between life and death. However, with our changing social and economic Received 20 October 1998; accepted 27 September 1999 Address correspondence to Marguerita McGovern,willowbrook House, Clybaun Road, Galway, Ireland. E-mail: margueritamcgovern@nuig.ie Copyright@ 2000. All rights reserved

M. McGovern and M. M. Barry climate, the Irish social rituals surrounding death and grieving are also changing. The traditional house wakes are being replaced with a more clinical approach to death, allowing little partici- ation for children in death rituals. Increasingly, schools are being asked to provide educational and counseling support to students xperiencing situations involving death, suicide, or grief trauma. A number of handbooks and support materials for schools in dealing with adult and child bereavement have been circulated by statu- tory and voluntary agencies. Placing death education on the Irish educational agenda requires that the perspectives of both teachers and parents be explored fully. However, to date there have been few published empirical studies on attitudes to death education in an Irish setting. Existing studies on death education in a North American context have underscored the critical role of parental and teache attitudes to the development and success of childrens death educa tion programs(Crase Crase, 1982; Jones, Hodges,& Slate 1995).While the majority of studies suggest that parents and teachers are supportive of death education programs in theory, it appears that personal attitudes and anxieties concerning death and dying significantly influence their level of support. Jones et al (1995)report that greater knowledge of death and grief has been found to relate to greater support for death education. They also suggest that increasing parental knowledge will, therefore, help to increase parental support In a study exploring the perceptions of parents toward early childhood death education, Crase and Crase(1982)explored par ental anxieties concerning children being scared by the concept of death being explained to them. Concerns were also expressed regarding teachers' philosophical and religious values about death being conveyed to their children. McNeill(1983 )investigated par- ental concerns around discussing the topic of death with the children and reported that while the majority of women had dis cussed death within their families, they reported great unease in doing so. In one of the few European studies available, Kuterovac- Jagodic (1996), in a study carried out in Croatia, also reports that while a majority of parents do want their children to be taught about death in school, they expressed reservations that this might Copyright@ 2000. All rights reserved

Attitudes to Death Education in ireland 32 Clearly this research points to parental concerns around where the primary responsibility for death education should lie, high- lighting the need for cooperative efforts between the home and school. The role of teachers'attitudes has also been highlighted and Cullinan ( 1990) points to the need for teacher training in death education in order that the necessary skills to deal with grieving students may be acquired. The focus of the present article is concerned with parents' and teachers'knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives concerning death education and childhood grief in an Irish context. with this aim in mind, a cross-sectional survey was arried out on the views of parents and teachers of 5- to 12-year old children currently attending Irish primary schools Method The study population consisted of 142 teachers and 119 parents of primary school children from the Republic of Ireland. A random sample of 200 teachers was selected from the current list of members of the National Teachers Organization, which is the rep- resentative body for 21,000 primary school teachers in Ireland. From the 200 questionnaires sent by post, a response rate of 71% was achieved. The teacher sample comprised of 102 women and 40 men ranging in age from 20-59 years(mean=38 years). Of the sample, 35% taught 4-to 7-year-old children, 35% taught 8-10 year olds and 16% were involved with 11-13 year olds. With average Irish class size of approximately 30 pupils, the teachers this study were in contact with approximately 4, 260 children. The sample of parents was recruited fre om dele gate members of the Irish National Parents Council while attending their Annual National Conference. The National Parents Council-Primary, is a representative body of parents from the various Primary School Parents' Councils throughout Ireland. It supports parents in their role as partners in their childrens education and meets annually to he management and educational systems in schools. At this Conference(attended by y approximately Copyright 2000. All rights reserved

328 M. McGovern and M. M. Barry 370 delegates) participants were invited to fill out a research ques tionnaire. With a response rate of 59.5%, the parent sample cluded 109 women and 17 men, ranging in age from 20-59 years (mean= 4l years)with an equal representation of rural and urban dwellers. The mean number of children per adult was 2. 1(39% of whom were in the 4-to 7-year-old age group, and 61% were in the 8- to 12-year-old Measures The questionnaire for both the parents and teachers was adapted from existing measures(Crase Crase, 1982; McNeill, 1983; Cul linan, 1990; Jones et al., 1995; Kuterovac-Jagodic, 1996). The lestionnaire consisted of 37 statements concerning knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives of death education and childhood grief with which the respondent could agree or disagree using a five point Likert-type scale. General information was also requested concerning respondents' demographic details and their personal experiences of loss and bereavement. The questionnaires for the parents and teachers were identical apart from the more specific classroom information requested from the teachers. An open-ended section for written comments was also included at the end of the questionnaire. Results Classroom experiences of children coping with the death or loss of someone close were quite high. Some 35% of teachers reported dealing with the death of a child's parent, 23% with the death of a pupil, and 86% with the death of someone close to the child over the previous five years. Other losses reported included: moving to a new house, changing schools and the most frequent one, loss from separation or divorce in the family(83%). Encouragingly, 64% of teachers reported that they had discussed the subject of death in the classroom, while 72% of parents reported that they had dealt with the effects of loss or bereavement on their children. The per- onal experience of bereavement was considered by both teachers Copyright@ 2000. All rights reserved

Attitudes to Death Education in ireland (62%)and parents(55%)as the most salient influence on their wn personal attitudes to death The responses to the questionnaire items by both teachers and parents are displayed in Table 1. Overall, parents and teachers exhibited reasonably high levels of knowledge concerning the nature and possible effects of children,s grief. There was high awareness by both groups that Irish schools have practically no bereavement support groups. On communicating with children about death, there was generally strong agreement from parents (80%)and teachers(63%)that the concept of death should be discussed with children before they encounter it. However, roughly half the overall sample did agree that it is difficult to explain death to children and 71% of parents and teachers reported they do not feel comfortable talking about loss or death Views on the inclusion of death education in the schools curric- ulum were very positive with 72% of parents and 70% of teachers agreeing that it would be an acceptable subject on a lifeskills program. Only 11% of parents and 21% of teachers were of the view that death education programs would scare children However, 62% of teachers and 50% of parents agreed that death education was best carried out in the home. The majority of respondents disagreed that death education in schools would inter fere with pa sibilities, with only 23% of 40% of teachers being of the opinion that it would interfere with the parental role. Of the total sample, 90% collectively agreed that further training for teachers would be desirable to undertake the teaching of death education Analysis of the influence of demographic variables revealed that in comparison to their male counterparts, both female teachers (t=3.0, p<. 01)and female parents(t=2.55, P<. 01)were less likely to agree that helping a child to get over loss quickly is the best way to help with grieving. Female teachers([=2. 15, p<. 05) and female parents (t=3. 24, P<. 01) in comparison to their respective male counterparts, also perceived themselves as being more comfortable talking about death or loss. Overall, age was not found to significantly influence attitudes. However, younger teachers (i. e, under 40 years of age) were more likely than their older colleagues to agree that children can internalize blame for a death((=3. 17, p<.01)and that they can suffer as much from Copyright@ 2000. All rights reserved

Attitudes to Death Education in ireland ief as adults do(t= 2.05, p<. 05 ). Younger teachers were also significantly more likely to disagree that children express less motion than adults(t=2. 17, p<. 05)and that their grief lasts a shorter time than adults((=2.98, P<. 01). Personal experience of bereavement was also found to influence expressed views. Parents who had experienced a personal bereavement in the last two years reported being more comfortable talking about death in compari on to those who had not(t= 2.03, P <. 05 ) Likewise, for teachers who had experienced a recent bereavement, they were less likely than their colleagues who did not have such an experience to agree that children express less emotions than adults do after a death (t=207,p<.05) There were few statistically significant differences between the arent and teacher samples in their responses. with regard to knowledge, parents were more likely than teachers to agree that children suffer as much from grief as adults(x= 10.95, p<. 01) while teachers were more likely to agree that children's grief lasts a shorter time than adults(x=5.33, p<. 05). Interestingly, con- cerning death education in schools, teachers were more likely than parents to agree that death education would take away from par ental ity(x=6.68, p<. 01). For the remainder of knowledge, attitude and perspective items, no significant differ- ences between the two groups were found Discussion The findings suggest that the attitudes of the teachers and parents in the present study are generally positive and compare favorably with those reported in previous North American studies. It is clear that both teachers and parents are dealing with childrens loss and grief on a regular basis. Both parents and teachers report high levels of understanding of the possibility of children,s unresolved grief leading to problems in adulthood. However, in keeping previous findings, both parents and teachers, particularly m report being uncomfortable discussing the topic of death with children. The results indicate that parents express quite positive views concerning death education programs. In contrast to Crase and Crase's(1982)study, the same parental concerns with regard Copyright@ 2000. All rights reserved

332 M. McGovern and M. M. Barry to interference with parental values and responsibilities do not emerge from the present study. However, the multicultural context of Crase and Crase's study must be borne in mind in contrast to the more homogeneous nature of Irish society with regard to religi- on and school education policy In keeping with that reported by Cullinan(1990), the present sample of teachers report relatively high rates of classroom experi ences of death and are strongly in agreement that further training of teachers would be needed to undertake death education in schools. In the present study, teachers were found to be more likely than parents to agree that parental responsibility would be taken away if death education was to become a feature in the curriculum of Irish Primary schools. However, it is difficult to determine to what extent teachers' reactions represent a reservation about usurping parental responsibility or reflect a sense of caution about taking on yet another topic onto an already crowded curriculum Further exploration of this issue is needed. The present study provides an interesting insight into the views of Irish parents and teachers on their understandings of childrens grief and their attitudes to death education. However, a number of limitations in the study should be noted. Comparisons with pre- ous studies is somewhat limited due to the different sampling pro- cedures used and measures adopted. The generalizability of the findings from the parents sample, in particular, needs to be con- sidered. As delegate members of the Irish National Parents ouncil, the parents sample may be regarded as being more aware and articulate regarding their children,s education and of having a greater interest in the whole area of curriculum and educational matters. As self-selected respondents, the extent to which they rep- resent the views of the wider population of parents is questioned Different studies have employed different attitude measures, some items from which have been replicated in this study. Use of a stan- dardized attitude scale would permit more valid comparisons to be made between parent and teacher groups across different cultural settings. In this respect, the development of a reliable and measure of the salient dimensions underlying attitudes to education and childhood grief is needed in order that cross-cultural comparisons between groups may be explored. In addition to stan dardized scales, qualitative techniques may also prove useful in Copyright@ 2000. All rights reserved

Attitudes to Death Education in reland 333 exploring in greater detail the nature of parental and teacher con- cerns and expectations concerning death education programs In conclusion, the findings regarding parents'and teachers'atti- tudes towards death education and childhood grief are largely positive. However, while attitudes are supportive of the general concept of death education, views on specific program content have not been examined. The handling of death and grieving in Irish society is in a state of transition and schools are playing an ncreasingly important role in dealing with these issues. Although the justification for death education in schools is strong, death edu- cation programs remain beyond the boundaries of traditional Irish school curricula. The areas of health education and health pro- motion have developed rapidly over the past decade in Irish schools(Dineen Kelleher, 1995 ). However, there still appears to be no overall coordinated approach and to date death education has not featured on the national initiatives. In moving the concept of death education and childhood grief onto the Irish educational genda, gaining the support of parents and teachers is a vitally important consideration. In surveying the views of teachers and parents, this study marks a first step in this direction. The findings provide a useful base from which to develop further research work and to open discussion concerning death education and childhood grief in the Irish school setting References Crase, D,& Crase, D.(1982). Parental attitudes toward death education for young children. Death Education, 6, 61-73 Cullinan, A.L(1990). Teachers'death anxiety, ability to cope with death and perceived ability to aid bereaved students. Death Studies, 14, 147-160 Dineen, M.,& Kelleher, C. C(1995). Survey on Health Education and Health Promotion, Activities by relevant organisations in Ireland. Irish Educational Studies. 15. 1996 Jones, C, Hodges, M.,& Slate, J.(1995). Parental support for death education programs in the schools. The School Counselor, 42, 371-376 Kuterovac-Jagodic,J.(1996). Parental attitudes towards children and death Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb Croatia McNeill,J.(1983). Young mothers'communication about death with their hildren. Death Education, 6, 323-339 OhEithir, B(1986). The begrudger's guide to irish politics. Dublin: Poolbeg Press Copyright@ 2000. All rights reserved

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