Embedding local knowledge into school education builds real community disaster resilience, study finds
Monash University
According to new international research led by Monash University, embedding empathy, local culture and active community engagement into school curriculum is key to increasing resilience to disasters.
The study, published in British Educational Research Association (BERA) Review of Education, examined school-based disaster resilience education initiatives across global disaster contexts, including Japan, Indonesia and the United States.
The findings come at a crucial time as international climate negotiators prepare for COP31 in Türkiye, where building community adaptation and disaster resilience will be a key topic of discussion.
The study enlisted some of the world's leading education experts on disaster resilience and environmental education to identify new insights into how schools can educate students about disaster resilience in a meaningful way that offers hope and collective agency for building resilience in their local communities.
The findings revealed that traditional education methods, such as applying textbook knowledge and other standardised teaching methods, are not as engaging to learners and teachers for this topic as they can lack meaning and relevance. Real meaning was found when an education program took into account the local contextual and human impacts of disaster, and education extended beyond the school boundary and into the local community.
Monash University researcher, Belinda Davis, based in the Faculty of Education, said disasters and community responses to them are fundamentally a reflection of human society.
“Traditional education methods that focus solely on transmitting textbook knowledge or running safety drills don't build long-term community resilience,” Ms Davis said.
“To build future resilient citizens, education must foster empathy, collective agency and active social participation. By shifting our educational focus from individual survival to collective care and empathy, we build individual agency and strengthen the social fabric of our communities before, during and after disasters.”
The research highlights that understanding the diversity of local contexts is critical in addressing the human dimensions and impacts of a disaster. These include taking into account the relevance of local cultural practices and beliefs, as well as unique contextual factors surrounding the disaster itself.
Each disaster has unique impacts upon communities. Community mapping after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake helped students connect with real-world human impacts and foster hope and collective action by reconnecting them with their local community and identifying opportunities for rebuilding.
Whereas in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami on Nias Island, Indonesia, integrating safety messaging into traditional Maena dance lyrics overcame local taboos about discussing disasters, incorporating local cultural practices and enabling intergenerational learning between children and parents.
Professor Alan Reid, also from the Faculty of Education at Monash University, highlighted the need for collaboration between local community groups, disaster response experts and multidisciplinary teams.
“The successful initiatives we examined in the study all showcase a collaborative response to disaster, in which schools were able to adapt programs dynamically to meet real community needs,” Professor Reid said.
“Relational and socialised forms of education generate an ethic of care in learners in ways that standardised textbook drills simply cannot. We need educational frameworks that empower students to co-create goals with their communities.”
Co-author Professor Ilan Kelman, from University College London and UiT The Arctic University of Norway, stressed the value of cross-cultural insights.
“Disaster risk is not uniform, and neither are the ways communities interpret risk, memory and recovery,” Professor Kelman said.
“Whether dealing with tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan, or flooding in the United States, effective resilience education places learners, teachers and local residents on an equivalent footing. Mutual learning exchanges across different cultures demonstrate that true resilience is a process rooted in local trust and local knowledge.”
The authors call for a move to more transformative and meaningful forms of education for disaster resilience that involve the fostering of democratic structures that engage young people and schools in formulating goals, not just realising them.
Read the research paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.70208
MEDIA SPOKESPEOPLE
- Belinda Davis, Monash University Faculty of Education
- Professor Alan Reid, Monash University Faculty of Education
- Professor Ilan Kelman, Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction / Institute for Global Health, University College London and UiT The Arctic University of Norway
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