Educating children about death: Scottish primary school teachers’ experiences in delivering bereavement, loss, and grief lessons within one school

Death is a fact of life; it has an impact on all children, yet the topic is not routinely covered as part of children’s educational curriculum. The advocation for death education within schools has been supported by various professionals, including teachers, for many years. However, teachers often report a lack of confidence in this area. Limited research has explored the implementation of death education in schools. As such, the current study aims to understand primary teachers’ lived experiences of actively delivering three lessons on bereavement, loss, and grief within one Scottish primary school. Three primary teachers participated in semi-structured interviews after the delivery of the lessons. Braun and Clarke’s (2019) Reflexive Thematic Analysis was employed as the method of data analysis. Through this process of reflexivity, three overarching themes were developed: a place for death in the curriculum, effective implementation, and practitioners’ journeys. Key findings suggest that teachers recognise that it is their role to educate children on death and bereavement and it should be a component within children’s educational curriculum. Effective collaboration with home and further training and development were highlighted as key factors in promoting practitioners’ confidence. The unique journeys of practitioners highlight the flexibility of emotive responses when working within the realms of death and bereavement. Implications for practice were identified including the need for formal supervision and training for teachers when working with bereavement. Implications for research include the potential to consider teachers’ experiences across primary and secondary sectors, as well as exploring children’s voice in relation to the efficacy of bereavement lessons.