Browsing by Author "Salminen, Iina"

The aim of this study was to examine literature on grief in general, grief of children and the role of the school in supporting a grieving child. This study examines the views on grief, grief from perspective of a child and also the opportunities of the school and teachers to acknowledge and support a grieving child. The study deals with the grief through concepts of grief work, stage model of grief, comprehensive grief and the new concept of grief. Additionally the study examines the mediators and special characteristics of a child´s grief, the meaning and opportunities of school in the life of a grieving child and instructions for schools regarding acknowledging and supporting a child in grief. The study was conducted as a descriptive literary review. Relevant scientific literature and few notable written guides on grief were used as source material. The findings of the study showed, that while general research on grief is moving towards to concepts of comprehensive grief and the new concept of grief, the research on the grief of a child is still leaning heavily on the more traditional concepts of grief work and the stage model of grief. However, grief experienced by child appeared as a complex phenomenon with multiple mediators. The role of the school in supporting a child in grief was significant. By supporting a grieving child the teacher and the class community had an opportunity to create a space for grieving. Also the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014 enabled discussing the matters of death and grief in school, while the Finnish legislation on student wellbeing (1287/2013) required schools to organize support for grieving children when needed. The instructions provided by the Finnish National Agency for Education offer the teachers practical guidelines on how to discuss grief with a child, and how to support child in grief.