Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies ... - Unicef

17
Section 3.
Disaster Risk Reduction in the Curriculum
Disaster risk reduction should be
systematically treated across the
curriculum and through the grade levels.
The treatment must extend beyond
the basic science of hazards and safety
measures to consider prevention,
mitigation, vulnerability and resilience
building.
A review of DRR-related educational documentation and
of the 30 case studies featured in this report reveals a range
of approaches to the inclusion of disaster risk reduction in
school curricula.
The most frequently found approach is that of infusion or
permeation whereby DRR themes and topics appear within the
curriculum of specific school subjects. This usually happens
following a curriculum review whereby the curriculum is
scrutinized for its DRR relevance and potential. The nature
of the scrutiny ranges from the literal (i.e., a discussion of earthquakes
in the Geography curriculum provides an opportunity
for DRR) to the holistic (i.e., identifying opportunities for DRR
not necessarily grounded in manifest disaster-related topics
in a syllabus but in the intrinsic potential of the subject itself,
e.g., seeing the opportunities for reinforcing a culture of safety
through, say, drama, mathematics or music).
A literal reading of curriculum tends to result in limited infusion,
i.e., DRR is integrated into a narrow band of subjects, typically
the physical sciences (Geography and Science) in which study
of natural hazards has a longstanding place. A holistic reading
of curriculum potential opens up the possibility of DRR integration
within and across all or most subjects.
Limited infusion is more likely to expose DRR to the cultural
assumptions and confines of the restricted range of subjects
in which it appears. With Geography and Natural Science the
most regularly chosen carrier subjects, the culture of the
classroom is likely to orient learning outcomes towards the
acquisition of knowledge and limited skills (i.e., skills traditionally
associated with those subjects). This in turn may well preclude
the realization of the practical and community-linked disaster
mitigation and resilience goals and dispositions of DRR.
Values and attitudes associated with DRR are also less likely
to receive a thorough airing within a subject culture of ‘objectivity’.
Limited infusion more often than not relies on the presence of
pre-existing disaster-related topics in the curriculum, thus lending
an arbitrary rather than a holistic or goals-derived orientation
to DRR curriculum development strategies.
Holistic infusion can help overcome the tramlines of specific
subjects by giving the student a range of different lenses
through which to perceive and articulate DRR. The question
then follows as to how learning within different subject frames
is interfaced. In the country case studies researchers have
reviewed, little evidence has surfaced thus far that DRR learning
in different subjects is happening in an interdisciplinary and
systematic way in which what is learned in one subject is
linked to, built upon and fed into what is being learnt in other
subjects. There is, moreover, no evidence of student exposure
to DRR being mapped, monitored and capitalized upon across
the curriculum to ensure reinforcement of key messages,
knowledge, skills and attitudes. A comprehensive and systematic
approach seems absent 5 .
While horizontal synergies between subjects within one grade
level are not being achieved, structured vertical reinforcement
of DRR learning outcomes through the grade levels also
appears to be a rare occurrence. A notable exception can,
however, be found among countries reviewed such as France
(case study 16). Nevertheless, the notion of a DRR spiral
curriculum, the cumulative reinforcement, deepening and
refinement of knowledge, conceptual understanding,
5
The same is also true of manifestations of limited infusionist curricular
responses to DRR even though cross-fertilization between generally closely
associated subjects might be readily effected.
Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries