Disaster Risk Reduction in the Primary & Elementary Curricula in Turkey
Author(s):
Elanur Yilmaz (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
03. Curriculum Innovation
Format:
Paper

Session Information

03 SES 06 A, School Curriculum and the Integration of 21st Century Skills

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-09
15:30-17:00
Room:
415.Oktatóterem [C]
Chair:
Jan Berkvens

Contribution

Disaster education defined as any learning process or activity that builds community resilience to natural disasters (Dufty, 2008) aiming at reducing risk of and vulnerability to disasters through teaching how people can best protect themselves, their property and livelihoods from disasters (UNISDR, 2012). Disaster education is being taught formally and informally in different countries, and its objectives, themes and instruction methods can vary greatly depending on the specific characteristics of each country and students’ age group. While some countries reveal the power of formal education in disaster risk reduction through integrated into all curricula or some related curricula for all age or through extra-curricular activities, there are other countries established specialized courses at specific grade levels.

In the disaster education literature, the power of education on raising awareness and on being prepared for disasters has been questioned. Several researchers tried to support this argument and showed that schools have an important role in disseminating important disaster safety and preparedness information to students and parents, and maintained that education on disaster risk reduction is an essential way to ensure that learners respond appropriately to a disaster when they are faced with it (Adiyoso & Kanegae, 2012; Hosseini & Izadkhah, 2006; Johnston, et al., 2011; Ozmen, 2006; Petal & Izadkhah, 2008; Ronan & Johnston, 2005; Shaw & Kobayashi, 2001; Shaw, Shiwaku, Kobayashi, & Kobayashi, 2004; Shiwaku, Shaw, Kandel, Shrestha, & Dixit, 2007; Shiwaku & Shaw, 2008).

On the other hand, the situation in Turkey has been changing, and disaster education has been recently emphasized as a part of disaster mitigation measure. Although there are a few researchers focusing on the current status of disaster education, it can be said that related research studies in Turkey are scarce. Therefore, there is an urgent need to examine the current status of disaster education in Turkey.

The purpose of this study is to examine the current status of disaster education in Turkish primary and elementary curricula, and to determine major issues on several themes, which are learning objectives, implementation of disaster education, and the content of disaster education. 

The specific research questions are following:

  1. How does disaster risk reduction take place in primary and elementary curricula in Turkey?
  2. What are the major problems about learning objectives of disaster education
  3. What are the major problems about content of disaster education?
  4. What are the major problems about implementation of disaster education?

Method

The study was designed as a document analysis, which is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents to produce rich descriptions of a single phenomenon, event, organization, or program (Bowen, 2009). Firstly, in this study, major curricula in the primary and elementary (Life Sciences, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Turkish) including learning objectives related to disaster risk reduction will be examined thoroughly. While reviewing of the document, the information from the documents will be organized into categories related to the research questions. Also, the researcher will take a closer look at several related research studies conducted in Turkey and obtain further information.

Expected Outcomes

Disaster education in Turkey is implemented through infusing into some major course curricula at primary and elementary grade level, such as social studies, life sciences, science and technology, etc. However, there is thought to remain several barriers for teaching disaster-related issues existed in the literature, such as lack of teacher training, lack of allocated time in formal school curricula, lack of teaching materials, lack of parent involvements, etc. Teachers mostly feel themselves inadequate regarding content and pedagogical knowledge while they teach disaster-related issues. Hence, the need of teacher training focusing on both content and pedagogical knowledge and the need of learning materials and activities to guide teachers in the learning process are reflected in the previous research studies. Furthermore, because of overloaded curriculum, especially disaster risk reduction and prevention education has not much time to be allocated in the formal education in the schools. The most common way of disaster education through schools is to integrate disaster-related issues into major courses. The major downside of this integrating approach is related to not sparing enough time for disaster-related issues and related to the fact that teachers have difficulties in making connection these issues with major subject matter. In addition, disaster-related issues are not main focus of the major courses, and although there is limited number of learning activities conducted within the curricula, it was revealed from the literature that disaster education is underestimated and is not paid attention as sufficient as it should be.

References

Adiyoso, W., & Kanegae, H. (2012). The effect of different disaster education programs on tsunami preparedness among school children in Aceh, Indonesia. Disaster Mitigation of Cultural Heritage and Historic Cities, 6, 165-172. Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27 - 40 Dufty, N. (2009). Natural Hazards education in Australian schools: How can we make it more effective? Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 24(2), 13-16. Hosseini, M., & Izadkhah, Y. O. (2006). Earthquake disaster risk management planning in schools. Disaster Prevention and Management 15(4), 649-661. Johnston, D., Tarrant, R., Tippler, K., Coomer, M., Pederson, S., & Garside, R. (2011). Preparing schools for future earthquakes in New Zealand: Lessons from an evaluation of a wellington school exercise, The Australian Journal of Emergency Management 26(1), 24-30. Ozmen, F., (2006). The level of preparedness of the schools for disasters from the aspect of the school principals. Disaster Prevention and Management 15(3), 383−395. Petal, M. A., & Izadkhah, Y. O. (2008). Formal and Informal Education for Disaster Risk Reduction, Paper presented at the International Conference on School Safety. Ronan, K.R., & Johnston, D. M. (2005). Correlates of hazard education programs for youth. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 23(2), 97-127. Shaw, R., & Kobayashi, M. (2001, Nov.). Role of schools in creating earthquake-safer environment. Disaster Management and Educational Facilities, Greece. Shaw, R., Shiwaku, K., Kobayashi, H., & Kobayashi, M. (2004). Linking experience, education, perception and earthquake preparedness. Disaster Prevention and Management, 13(1), 39-49. Shiwaku, K., & Shaw, R. (2008). Proactive co learning: A new paradigm in disaster education. Disaster Prevention and Management 17(2), 183-198. Shiwaku, K., Shaw, R., Kandel C., Shrestha S., & Dixit, A., (2007). Future perspective of school disaster education in Nepal, Disaster Prevention and Management, 16(4), 576–587. United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. (2006). World Disaster Reduction Campaign Disaster Risk Reduction Begins At School. Paris: UNISDR.

Author Information

Elanur Yilmaz (presenting / submitting)
Middle East Technical University
ANKARA

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