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

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Rebuilding schools after the
2010 earthquake, Haiti.
© UNESCO/E. Abramson
With a few exceptions, an assessment of student DRR learning
is thin on the ground. The assessment that does take place
tends to be summative and written rather than formative,
multi-modality, and designed to inform and improve the
learning process. Exciting ideas for DRR-appropriate student
assessment such as self-assessment, peer assessment and
portfolio assessment tend to remain for the most part aspirational
with relatively few examples of their concrete implementation.
Assessment tends to signal curriculum status, while shortfalls
and shortcomings in assessment of student DRR learning leave
the integration project incomplete.
Teacher professional development in DRR also needs advancing.
In a number of cases, teachers are given a manual for teaching
DRR but provided with no training. In other cases, the manual
is linked to training. Most training described in the case studies
is content-focused, i.e., concerned with familiarizing teachers
with the new content they are being asked to deliver. In some
cases, practice in DRR facilitation in the classroom through interactive
processes is given equal weight in the training alongside
the introduction of new content. Across the case studies, however,
the training remains of short duration, usually a one-off event,
with no evident follow-up, aftercare or learning reinforcement.
There is therefore a clear need for more systematized, reinforced
and sustained professional development. No examples of DRR
initial teacher training programmes have been found.
The researchers have discovered no comprehensive, systematic
listing of DRR learning outcomes; there are simply subjectspecific
lists and unit-specific lists. An analysis of the lists
reveals a heavy predominance of knowledge-based outcomes.
Skills-based learning outcomes do feature but they are often
restricted to practical skills and do not respond to the community
engagement and change agency ambitions of DRR. The treatment
of attitudinal and dispositional learning outcomes is, at best,
tokenistic. A comprehensive listing of generic DRR learning
outcomes is included in the report. The list is more than
a summation of the present ‘state of the art’ of DRR learning
outcome development but rather seeks to ‘fill the gaps’
in an aspirational way.
The thirty case studies cover all UNICEF regions and represent
all levels of development. They reflect the wealth and variety
of national initiatives to integrate DRR into school curricula.
There are twenty-five extended case studies with sub-sections
on the following: curriculum development/integration; pedagogy;
student assessment; learning outcomes/competencies; policy
development, planning and implementation aspects. There are
five shorter, synoptic cases.
A checklist of optimal DRR curriculum practice concludes the
report.
Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries