Alabama Funeral Service Licensee’s Perspectives of Funeral Service Education in Alabama as Related to Preparation for Professional Practice

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions that Alabama funeral service licensees had towards their academic preparation for entry-level funeral service careers in a professional field that was changing. More specifically, this study identified and examined specific learning objectives within the American Board of Funeral Service Education’s (ABFSE) curriculum outlines. Those curriculum content areas included: Communication Skills, Cremation, Embalming, Funeral Directing, Funeral Service Psychology and Counseling, and Sociology. A second purpose of this study was to determine what suggestions, if any, Alabama funeral service licensees had towards improving ABFSE curriculum in order to better prepare licensees for entry-level employment. This study was significant because previous research, for various reasons, did not include funeral service licensees from the State of Alabama. To gather data, an online survey was adapted from previous research of LuBrant (2013) that examined similar data on a national level. There were three adult education concepts used as the theoretical framework of this study. They were: 1) Houle’s Typology by Cyril Houle, 2) Andragogy by Malcolm Knowles, and 3) Experiential Education/Learning proposed in several variations by John Dewey, David Kolb, and Roger Fry.