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 reservedCopyright © 2000. All rights reserved