DEATH AND THE CURRICULUM*

A study to discover why a significant void exists in the area of death education reports on the following objectives: (1) to design a conceptual framework for planning and evaluating death education: (2) to determine existence of a legitimate.need to incorporate death education into elementary and secondary curricula; (3) to evaluate the feasibility of designing curricula on death and dying; and (4) to derive recommendations from this investigation for planning, implementing, evaluating, and disseminating death curricula. A theoretical rationale is represented graphically by a conceptual framework to assess curricular potentialities of death and dying. Procedures utilized to collect, analyze, and evaluate data are outlined in relation to foundations of the curriculum, curricular organizing centers, and teaching-learning interaction. Findings and recommendations report that the conceptual framework is a useful analytic tool for systematically researching the complexities of curriculum development and that the issue of death is a useful vehicle to develop, study, and improve strategies for introducing controversial and innovative curricula. (Author/KSM) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH