Representation of disasters in school textbooks for children with intellectual disabilities in Iran: A qualitative content analysis

Abstract

School textbooks are one of the main sources for teaching and learning in an education system. This study aims to investigate the representation of disasters in school textbooks for the children with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the education system in Iran.This study uses a qualitative content analysis method. All school textbooks for students with ID in the education year 2019-2020 in Iran were collected. Among the whole 164 textbooks, 18 had content about hazards. Data were analyzed qualitatively by MAXQDA 2018 software.Textbooks in most grades cover the topic of disasters triggered by natural hazards including geophysical (earthquakes), hydrological (floods), climatological (extreme temperatures, and drought), meteorological (storms/wave surges) and biological (epidemics and insect/animal plagues). Moreover, there are various topics of disaster risk management in the textbooks including mitigation, preparedness, and response.Natural hazards are well covered in school textbooks for students with ID in Iran. However, more content about sheltering in disasters, reunification, as well as disasters' response and recovery will help children with ID in Iran to perform better during and after disasters. Moreover, the textbooks in several grades provide some debates on the prevention and the spread of infectious diseases for preparedness against epidemics. The COVID-19 pandemic and the significance of preparedness of vulnerable groups against pandemics evidence that school textbooks are a key means to transfer the information of preparedness in emergencies of all sorts to all children including children with ID.

Disaster Risk Reduction in Iranian Primary and Secondary School Textbooks: A Content Analysis

“…Recently, the representation of disasters in textbooks for children with intellectual disabilities (ID) was investigated in a study in Iran. 25 Authors of that study indicated that 18 textbooks had content about natural hazards among 164 textbooks for children with ID in Iran. In addition, information about various natural hazards was presented in the textbooks for children with ID, including earthquakes, flood, extreme temperatures, droughts, storms, and epidemics.…”

“…19 Textbooks play a significant role in education, and their role in addressing the disaster effects on children has been acknowledged. 20 Textbooks are important as most teachers rely on them for teaching. 21 Textbooks are the most vital educational sources and reflect the national culture and priorities in the country.…”

Children’s preparedness for disasters

“…For instance, children who live with disabilities may be affected more compared to than children without disabilities during disasters because societal and infrastructural factors limit their abilities 110 to move about. These may include movement disorders, medical needs, sensory disturbances, speech disorders, etc., each of which alone affects the appropriate response to disasters, and if several of these overlap, it increases vulnerabilities of children (Seddighi, Sajjadi, Yousefzadeh, et al, 2021b). Therefore, this group require prioritization special ,and more, training.…”

“…Two studies have previously been conducted on formal education to prepare children for disaster in schools in Iran. After examining students' textbooks and the curriculum of the Iranian educational system, suggest that in all educational levels, information about disasters was included in the curriculum (Seddighi, Sajjadi, Yousefzadeh, et al, 2021b;. In these studies, it was found that students become familiar with the nature of disasters with different origins, including geophysical, hydrological, climatological, meteorological, and biological disasters.…”

“…There is, however, a lack of information about preparedness for other disasters (e.g. flood, storm, extreme weather) in school textbooks (Seddighi, Sajjadi, Yousefzadeh, et al, 2021b;. The existing studies on the role of education in disaster preparedness emphasize that formal training through the education system should be complemented by non-formal and informal education, because increasing both knowledge and skills must be done together.…”