Didactics of death

Abstract

The inclusion of death as educational content should follow a series of principles such as coherence, exemplarity, and self-education. From this perspective, it is essential for the educational community to receive training aimed at addressing death with maturity. It is also important to propose interventions based on building knowledge by reflecting upon the topic and its significance. In this context, we present the “Caterpillars and Colorful Butterflies on Our School Desks” project, a teaching proposal developed for training the educational community of the compulsory education schools of the Canary Islands, Spain. The main objective was to promote the development of a comprehensive education for life that considers death as a formative, educational, and curricular dimension and contributes to the growth and wellbeing of the entire educational community. Regarding the results of the project implementation, from its inception (2013) to the present, the project has progressively become consolidated and become an educational service. This is evidenced by the increasing demand from schools for support and advice to deal with situations of loss, as well as direct requests for help and advice from families affected by the death of loved ones. This training has gradually permeated educational projects, coexistence projects, action plans for form teachers, etc. In conclusion, through this training proposal, training on death education brings a new perspective on the dimension of loss and its formative potential for life. For this reason, we consider that death should be included as a priority issue in education and addressed consciously and carefully to achieve true education for life.