Support in principle, reactive in practice: Emotional labour and the enactment gap in primary teachers’ death education

Death education remains marginal in primary schooling despite children's encounters with dying, death and bereavement. This cross-sectional mixed-methods survey examined death-related teaching among 148 practising primary teachers in Scotland and British Columbia. Although 77.0% reported having addressed death-related topics, this included bereavement support and context-specific discussion. Among 147 timing respondents, 15.0% selected proactive or anticipatory teaching. Reflexive thematic analysis of open-text responses, informed by emotional labor as a sensitizing lens, suggested negotiated situational legitimacy: bereavement, pupil questions and classroom events provided openings for discussion, while teachers described navigating family expectations, professional boundaries and available support. We interpret this pattern as a gap between support for death education and anticipatory capacity to introduce it before an immediate event prompts engagement. The findings highlight teacher preparation, family-school communication and institutional support as priorities for supporting planned death education.