Talking about Death: the Thanatological Perspective of Polish Teachers’ Language and Literature

Abstract

Research on thanatopedagogy a subdiscipline of pedagogy is constantly developing. In Polish educational research, the prevailing position is that the category of death is not present in education. The aim of the article is to present the results of the empirical research on the experiences of Polish language teachers in dealing with this subject. The survey method was chosen to achieve the goal, and the main research question was: what are the teachers' experiences in dealing with this subject? The research was conducted in July 2023 and covered over 145 teachers. Teachers' declarations were collected on the frequency of talking to students about the death or loss, the declared level of preparation for conducting this type of class, students' reactions, and the barrier in these conversations. Respondents were asked to assess the usefulness of talking about death, as well as the benefits of discussing this topic. The conclusions emphasized that although thanatopedagogical education is conducted on a large scale by Polish language teachers, further attempts should be made to assess its quality.