Relationship between Teachers’ Awareness of Disaster Prevention and Concerns about Disaster Preparedness

Abstract

Disaster preparedness in schools is critical for the health and well-being of students and staff. To enhance disaster preparedness, awareness of disaster prevention should be raised among teachers. The aim of the current study was to assess disaster prevention awareness among teachers and to clarify the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness. Teachers from special needs schools, for which disaster preparedness is particularly important, were selected. Study questionnaires were sent to 1310 schools for children with special health care needs across 47 Japanese prefectures. Five-hundred-and-thirty-one complete responses were obtained. The disaster preparedness in the schools was insufficient. Teachers were concerned about child management, life saving, life maintenance, evacuation shelter management, and school management. There was a positive correlation between disaster prevention awareness and concern about disaster (r = 0.217, p-value = 0.000). The disaster awareness scale items “A sense of crisis about disaster” and “Anxiety” were positively correlated with concern about disaster, whereas “Imagining the disaster situation” was negatively correlated with concern about disaster. The current study analyzed the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness, which is relevant for the practice and indicates the importance of imagination strengthening.

Why is didactic transposition in disaster education needed by prospective elementary school teachers?

“…Research on the impact of education on disaster vulnerability in the Southeast Asian region states that through education and learning, individuals acquire knowledge, abilities, skills, and perceptions that enable them to prepare themselves effectively for and cope with disasters [ 22 ]. Subsequently, the research identifies that the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern for disaster preparedness is very relevant, so disaster preparedness education needs to be recommended to prepare teachers to know about disaster mitigation [ 23 ]. Based on other research on disaster resilience learning opportunities in the Australian curriculum, schools are essential for students to learn disaster resilience [ 24 ].…”

Identification of geography teacher competency in the disaster literacy

“…Disaster competence of Japanese teachers is more concerned about child management, life-saving, life maintenance, evacuation shelter management, and school management [12]; the same thing is also experienced by teachers in Taiwan, where disaster prevention skills are better than disaster prevention knowledge [9]. In this study, geography teachers tended to master disaster knowledge from the causes and distribution of disasters to disaster management, while the skills in analyzing disaster information, attitudes, and behavior in anticipating disasters were still lacking.…”

Literacy Profile of Flood and Rob Disaster Mitigation Among Sciences Teachers in Central Java

“…Based on respondents' answers to several survey statement DOI 10.18502/kss.v9i6.15312 items, information was obtained that science teachers' flood and tidal disaster mitigation literacy was not yet satisfactory, as can be seen in table 1. The important role of teachers in disaster mitigation education is not only as agents who carry out learning but also play a role in student safety, effective evacuation, use of safety equipment, effective communication skills, and mental readiness [15,16].…”