“Death Education” at School for Counselors Who Work in Elementary School

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to examine counsellors’ perceived competence, about providing help to children who have faced with death, loss and mourning, before the “death education” and how the new information they acquired reflected to their perceptions of competence. This is a qualitative study based on phenomenological design. The participant group consisted of 14 voluntary counsellors who participated in the seminar titled as “Death Education in Schools” which was prepared and presented by the researchers in line with the literature and the field experience in the spring term of 2016-2017 academic year. The data of the study were collected by semistructured interviews from the participants before and after the “death education” seminar. Data analysis was performed by inductive content analysis. The findings of the analysis were structured under the themes as “professional inadequacy”, “beliefs about children's perceptions of death”, “personal feelings“, and “attitude towards giving ‘death education’ at school”. The themes occurred
as a result of this study are thought to contribute to the field in developing and presenting more
comprehensive programs.

Keywords

• Death education,loss and grief,counselor,children

Temel Eğitim Düzeyinde Çalışan Psikolojik Danışmanlar İçin Okullarda “Ölüm Eğitimi”

Öz

Bu araştırmada ölüm, kayıp ve yasla karşılaşan çocuklara yardım sunan psikolojik
danışmanların aldıkları “ölüm eğitimi” öncesinde konu ile ilgili yeterlik algıları ve eğitim
sonrasında edindikleri bilgilerin yeterlik algılarına nasıl yansıdığını incelemek amaçlanmıştır. Bu
çalışma, fenomenolojik desene dayalı nitel bir çalışmadır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu 2016-2017
eğitim öğretim yılı bahar döneminde literatür ve deneyimler doğrultusunda araştırmacılar tarafından,
hazırlanan ve sunulan “okullarda ölüm eğitimi” başlıklı seminere katılan, araştırma için gönüllü 14
psikolojik danışman oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanın verileri, çalışma grubu ile “ölüm eğitimi”
semineri öncesinde ve sonrasında yapılan yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşmeler ile toplanmıştır. Veri
analizi ise tümevarımsal içerik analizi yöntemiyle yapılmıştır. Analiz sonuçları “mesleki
yetersizlik”, “ çocukların ölüm algılarına dair inançlar”, “kişisel duygular” ve “Okulda “Ölüm
eğitimi” verilmesine ilişkin tutum ” olarak temalandırılmıştır. Bu çalışma sonucunda oluşturulan
temaların daha kapsamlı programların geliştirilerek sunulmasında alana katkı sağlayacağı
düşünülmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ölüm eğitimi,kayıp ve yas,psikolojik danışman,çocukların ölüm algıları

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