Better conversations: embedding death education in higher education as a pedagogical and public health responsibility

Death education remains unevenly embedded within higher education despite professional and civic relevance. This article presents the conceptual rationale and pedagogical design of Better Conversations, a two-week undergraduate intervention integrating public health palliative care (Kellehear), constructivist staging (Yang et al.), and life-death education frameworks (Phan et al.). Drawing on trauma-informed and culturally reflexive pedagogy, the model positions death education as relational, dialogic practice supporting both professional competence and civic responsibility. This design-led account foregrounds theoretical synthesis and pedagogical decision-making rather than evaluation. The article demonstrates how emotionally literate teaching can be embedded within mainstream programmes, articulates institutional conditions required, and extends death education scholarship beyond clinical disciplines. It offers transferable principles for programmes where students encounter loss or vulnerability, contributing to debates on relational pedagogies and positioning death literacy as essential graduate capability. As a design-led account, it establishes foundations for subsequent empirical evaluation.