Abstract
This study examines recent changes to training teachers in disaster risk reduction in school settings and changes in preservice and in-service teacher training between the 1995 Kobe disaster and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and after the 2011 disaster. Evidence from the 2011 disaster suggests that schools are important to disaster risk reduction education, community-based disaster preparedness, and as emergency shelters during disasters. Based on lessons from the 2011 disaster, Japanese policymakers and educators are focusing on the numerous roles that schools could fulfill and calling for preservice and in-service training in disaster risk reduction. This study outlines the policy changes related to training teachers at schools, students in teacher-training programs, and future orientation toward more institutionalized training programs.
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- 1.
MEXT has published several guidebooks and materials related to DRR, which have been distributed to public schools nationwide.
- 2.
Supplementary reading materials have been published by the Kochi, Miyagi, and other prefectural boards of education and by municipal boards of education, such as Sendai.
- 3.
Among other successful evacuation stories, the most well known is “the miracle of Kamaishi,” which emphasized the role of preparedness in saving children’s and local residents’ lives.
- 4.
The Sports and Youth Bureau’s School Health Education Division administers the working group; the report is important to national policymaking for DRR education.
- 5.
Several of the practices presented here have appeared in the proceedings of the Japanese Association of Safety Education annual meeting and workshop held in Sendai, Miyagi, on September 13–15, 2014.
- 6.
Law for Special Regulations Concerning Educational Public Service Personnel stipulates these two mandatory trainings for all public school teachers in Japan.
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Oda, T. (2016). Schools, Teachers, and Training in Risk Reduction After the 2011 Tohoku Disaster. In: Shiwaku, K., Sakurai, A., Shaw, R. (eds) Disaster Resilience of Education Systems. Disaster Risk Reduction. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55982-5_5
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