1. A Global Mapping of Disaster
Risk Reduction Curriculum
4th International Disaster and Risk Conference, Davos, 27 August 2012
David Selby & Fumiyo Kagawa

2. Research Aims
 To capture key national experience
in the integration of DRR in primary
and secondary school curricula
 To identify good practice and
current gaps in provision
 To review DRR learning outcomes

3. Research Methodology
• Meta-research of available
documentation
• (Documentary) case study research

4. Choice of Case Study Countries:
Criteria (1)
Countries where:
• curricula respond to a range of disaster hazards
• there are primary level and secondary level DRR
curricula
• DRR appears across a range of subjects
• there is cumulative/spiral DRR curricula
• there are noteworthy and innovative learning and
teaching approaches

5. Choice of Case Study Countries:
Criteria (2)
Countries where:
• there are innovative approaches to assessment of students’
DRR learning
• there are documented policies for DRR in the curriculum
• there is structured and systematic training and guidance to
teachers in their delivery of DRR curriculum
• there are curriculum links to Education for Sustainable
Development, Climate Change Education, Emergency
Education, Environmental Education, Child Friendly School
initiatives and/or Life Skills Education

6. The 30 Case Study Countries
Angola Kazakhstan
Armenia Lao PDR
Bangladesh Lesotho
Benin Madagascar
British Virgin Islands Malawi
Cambodia Maldives
Chile Myanmar
Costa Rica Nepal
Cuba New Zealand
Egypt Nicaragua
Fiji Nigeria
France Peru
Georgia The Philippines
Indonesia Russian Federation

7. DRR Curriculum Development and
Integration
• Limited subject carriers for DRR
• The problem of thematic scope
• Lack of horizontal and vertical
integration
• The problem of curriculum/co-
curriculum interface
• Infusion ? Dedicated subject?

8. DRR Curriculum Development and
Integration
• Textbook-driven approach
• Pilot project approach
• Centralized competency-based
approach
• Centrally developed special subject
approach
• Symbiosis approach
• ‘Special event’ approach

9. Pedagogical Landscape of
DRR
• Medium is the message
• Interactive learning
• Inquiry learning
• Experiential and action learning
• Socio-affective learning and
imagination-based learning at the
margins

10. DRR: Student Learning
Assessment
• Thin evidence of DRR learning
assessment
• Issue of balancing formative and
summative assessment little
addressed
• What is being assessed? Learning in
the subject? Or, DRR learning?
• Green shoots of portfolio assessment
• But, unimaginativeness of most DRR

11. Teacher Professional
Development in DRR
• Where training exists, it often lacks
scope and ambition
• Lack of reinforcement and aftercare
• Little evidence of socio-affective
training
• Limited leadership training for
principals and district education
officers

12. DRR Learning Outcomes
• No comprehensive list of DRR-
related knowledge, skills and
attitudinal learning outcomes
• Lists of outcomes connected to
specific subject-based courses
exist in a few countries

13. DRR Learning Outcomes:
Knowledge and Understanding
• Self and others
• Hazards and disasters
• Key DRR concepts and practice
• Basic safety measures
• Disaster management mechanisms and practices
• The environment and the environmental/human
society interrelationship
• Climate change
• Differential and disproportionate impacts of hazards
on people
• The conflict/disaster risk reduction interface
• Human rights/child rights aspects of disasters

14. DRR Learning Outcomes:
Skills
• Information management
• Discernment and critical thinking
• Coping, self-protection and self-management
• Communication and interpersonal interaction
• Affect (responding to/with emotion)
• Action
• Systemic skills

15. DRR Learning Outcomes:
Attitudes/Dispositions
• Altruism/valuing
• Respect
• Compassion, care and empathy
• Confidence and caution
• Responsibility
• Commitment to fairness, justice and
solidarity
• Harmony with the environment

16. Movement to Scale

17. Key Question
How can the commitment of the
ISDR Global Platform for Disaster
Risk Reduction to integrate DRR
into school curricula worldwide by
2015 be realized?