Annual Meeting Recorded Sessions

Teaching That Matters: Death Education & Interdisciplinarity

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As death educators, thanatologists have long recognized the importance of interdisciplinarity. Acknowledging the value of this approach does not ensure the ability to be interdisciplinary. This symposium will explore several key issues of interdisciplinarity in death education from the perspective of four academics from diverse educational backgrounds. The panelists will consider what is meant by interdisciplinarity, the goals of an interdisciplinary thanatology course, structural barriers and opportunities, and ways in which interdisciplinary thanatological material may be embedded into non-interdisciplinary courses. This symposium will conclude with recommendations for a graduate-level interdisciplinary thanatology course developed collaboratively by the presenters.

Learning Objectives:

1. Generate several definitions and models of interdisciplinarity in death education.
2. Relate key problems and issues involved in developing interdisciplinary thanatological courses and programs.
3. Use the presented material to develop and incorporate interdisciplinary approaches into one's own death education courses.

About your instructors:

Dr. Barbara Thompson, OTD is a licensed clinical social worker, licensed occupational therapist, and has a certificate in advanced graduate studies in the expressive arts.   She is a full time associate professor of occupational therapy at The Sage Colleges in Troy, NY

Jane Moore, Ed.D., FT is an Associate Professor at National-Louis University in Chicago. She teaches death education online for both National-Louis and the University of Western Ontario. Jane has facilitated children's grief groups for the Good Mourning program at Rainbow Hospice in Park Ridge, IL for over 16 years. She is co-author with her husband, The Rev. Dr. Clint Moore III, of a chapter on talking with children about death in Children's Encounters with Death, Bereavement, and Coping. Jane serves on the Executive Committee of the ADEC Board of Directors as its Secretary.

 Illene C. Noppe, PhD, a graduate of Temple University, is a Professor of Human Development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She developed the Dying, Death & Loss course on her campus over twenty years ago, and is the founder of the campus Death, Dying and Bereavement Institute, providing outreach education for professionals in Northeast Wisconsin. Illene's research has focused on college student bereavement, adolescent grief, death education and death in child care centers. She also founded Camp Lloyd, a day camp for grieving children.  She is a board member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and is president-elect of ADEC for 2012.

Darcy Harris, R.N., M.Ed. (Counselling), R.S.W. Certificate, Palliative Care & Thanatology, Ph.D. , FT
Professor Harris is the Co-ordinator of the Thanatology Program, and has taught in the Thanatology program for 12 years.

Professor Harris worked in the United States with cancer and hospice patients before moving to Canada in 1993. She completed the Certificate Program in Palliative Care and Thanatology at King's University College at The University of Western Ontario and then obtained a Master's of Education in Counseling Psychology through the University of Western Ontario and completed doctoral research in the area of infertility and perinatal loss. She also has a private clinical practice with a specialization in bereavement counseling. Professor Harris is also an author and lecturer with a focus on issues that affect professional caregivers and loss-related issues.

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Updated: April 20, 2010