PICTURE BOOKS AND BOARD GAMES: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT DEATH AT SCHOOL

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.929432408052

• Palavras-chave: Educación para la muerte; libros álbum; juegos de mesa

• Keywords: Education for death; picture books; table games.

• Abstract:

  Although death is a universal human experience, it remains a distant
  topic from conversations in the school context. Educational institutions and
  teachers do not feel prepared to address the issue. However, communities
  recognize the importance of talking about death. Teachers, parents, and students
  see this as a possibility to prepare for death and support grief.
  Experts affirm that it is necessary to address death from the earliest educational
  levels. This is how students will be able to understand death early and be
  prepared to deal with it empathetically. In-depth treatment through mediation
  practices must be prioritized, and different voices and cultural contexts must be
  validated in understanding death (Pfeiffer, 2003; Eyzaguirre, 2006; Bolkan et al.,
  2015). Therefore, it is imperative for school institutions to support and guide
  students.
  This work reports two studies on education for death where conversation is the
  key. The first study refers to conversations that begin with reading books in
  primary education; the second, conversations based on a board game in high
  school. The results allow us to affirm that death is a topic that worries students,
  and that, in turn, they are available to address it. Furthermore, the use of
  educational devices, such as books and games, places the difficulty of the topic in
  a non-personal space. By separating it from life experiences, complexity is
  mitigated, and death becomes an approachable topic.
  The work constitutes a contribution to pedagogical spaces as it shows concrete
  ways to address situations of death, in a scenario where there is still
  precariousness in approaches and methodologies.