How we address the topic of death in kindergarten

Vsak od nas se enkrat v življenju sreča s smrtjo bližnje osebeeni prej, drugi kasneje. Ne glede na to, kdaj se nam to zgodi, nas prizadene in potrebujemo tolažbo, razumevanje in čas, da vse skupaj prebolimo. Kako smrt razumemo in dojemamo, pa je predvsem odvisno od tega, na kakšen način smo jo »spoznali« in kako so nam jo predstavili v otroštvu. Občutki o smrti se iz otroštva prenesejo v odraslost, zato je pomembna predstava smrti v času, ko smo še otroci. Ravno o tem bom govorila v diplomskem delu, ki je sestavljeno iz teoretičnega in empiričnega dela. V teoretičnem delu je zapisano, kako o smrti govorimo v vrtcu in na kakšen način to temo prek kurikuluma vpeljemo v oddelek ter kako se tabu teme vključuje ali izključuje v oddelku. Razložene so otrokove predstave o smrti in na koncu je poudarjena še vloga vzgojitelja pri pogovoru o smrti s predšolskim otrokom. V empiričnem delu predstavim rezultate, ki sem jih izvedla z metodo intervjuja. Intervjuvala sem 6 vzgojiteljic in zanimalo me je predvsem, koliko vzgojiteljice temo smrt vpeljujejo v svoj oddelek, zanimali pa so me tudi načini, kako temo vpeljejo v oddelek, oziroma v nasprotnem primeru, zakaj o tem ne govorijo z otroki. Rezultati so pokazali, da se vzgojiteljice tej temi v večji meri še vedno izogibajo. Smrt v oddelek povečini vključijo takrat, ko nekdo v skupini izgubi bližnjega. Le občasno pa nekatere vzgojiteljice izkoristijo kakšno dejansko situacijo za pogovor o tej temi.Each of us faces the death of a loved one once in a lifetime, one sooner, than other. No matter when it happens to us, it affects us and we need comfort, understanding and time to get over it. How we understand and perceive death depends mainly on the way we face it and how it was presented to us as a child. Feelings of death are transferred from childhood to adulthood, so it is important how death is presented to us in childhood. This topic is exactly what I will talk about in my dissertation, which is consists of theoretical and empirical work. In the theoretical part, it is written how we talk about death in kindergarten and in what way the topic can be introduced into the department through the curriculum. How taboo topics are included or excluded in the kindergarten groups. There are explained child\u27s ideas about death and at the end is written about the role of the educator in the conversation about death with the preschool child. In the empirical part, I present the results that I performed with the interview method. I interviewed 6 educators and I was mainly interested in how and if educators introduce the topic of death in their department and the ways in which they introduce the topic or otherwise why they do not talk about it with children. The results showed me that educators still largely avoid this topic. Death topic is mostly included in the kindergarten when someone in the group loses a loved one. Only occasionally, however, some educators take advantage of actual situation to discuss this topic