Frequently, global disasters occur due to human-induced activities, involving international society's role in attempting disaster risk reduction. This study aimed to examine the current state of Thai disaster education at the school level, which Japan supports, and analyze higher education's role in enhancing school-level disaster education…

Here, I address the call for teacher education programs to feature international elements to help pre-service teachers craft powerful classroom instruction and successfully work with students from culturally diverse backgrounds. I share a qualitative investigation of participants' experiences during a short-term study abroad program in Japan that…

This research seeks to evaluate students' intended behavioural actions in the event of a natural hazard, specifically hurricane, lightning, earthquake, or tsunami. A test instrument, measuring behavioural actions in the event of a natural hazard, and related NOS/NOT beliefs and dispositions, is utilized to collect data in Estonia, USA and Japan…

Students are highly dependent on the emergency planning and evacuation decisions made by policymakers and school personnel when disasters occur. The purpose of this study was to examine selected cases of school-related disasters, highlighting how factors of the school context intersected with natural hazards and subsequently affected…

Both "disaster preparedness" and "public pedagogy" have been broadly defined and diversely utilised. Preparedness has been dealt with in disciplines such as civil engineering, the sociology of disasters, public health and psychology, rather than education. Recently, inquiries into the learning and teaching of preparedness have…

This paper contributes to the conceptual and empirical development of 'preparedness pedagogy'. Preparedness involves learning, thus disaster risk reduction (DRR) should be discussed more in the field of education, particularly its sub-discipline of public pedagogy. Disaster risk reduction education should have an element of "a pedagogy in the…

Preparedness for disaster scenarios is progressively becoming an educational agenda for governments because of diversifying risks and threats worldwide. In disaster-prone Japan, disaster preparedness has been a prioritised national agenda, and preparedness education has been undertaken in both formal schooling and lifelong learning settings. This…

In order to contextualise the articles in this special issue, this introductory article surveys the relevant literature from recent disasters in mostly developed countries in order to explore the wider role of schools in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. The first section argues that as schools are hubs of their communities, it is…

This article aims to describe post-war continuity and change in disaster education in Japan. Preparedness for natural disasters has been a continuous agenda in Japan for geographical and meteorological reasons, and disaster education has been practised in both formal and informal settings. Post-war disaster management and education have taken a…

Purpose: Evacuation drills should be more realistic and interactive. Focusing on situational and audio-visual realities and scenario-based interactivity, the authors have developed a game-based evacuation drill (GBED) system that presents augmented reality (AR) materials on tablet computers. The paper's current research purpose is to improve…

The term "state of exception" has been used by Italian political theorist Giorgio Agamben to explain the ways in which emergencies, crises and disasters are used by governments to suspend legal processes. In this paper, we innovatively apply Agamben's theory to the way in which countries prepare and educate the population for various…

After the March 2011 great East Japan earthquake, school teachers became much more interested in education for disaster prevention. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the extent education for disaster prevention is present in the Japanese National Curriculum. Before March 2011, some elements of disaster prevention education were added to the…

March 11, 2011, began the most difficult natural disaster ever experienced in Japan. Earthquakes, a massive tsunami, and multiple breaches at nuclear power plants have changed the lives of many Japanese people including children, teachers, and parents. Throughout this difficult time, Japanese school psychologists and teachers have been supported…

The authors have worked together with the NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) National Emergency Assistance Team (NEAT) for a decade to help coordinate communications around large-scale crisis response efforts. The massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of Japan and the subsequent response represented…

On Friday, March 11, 2011, one of the worst disasters in the world hit the country of Japan. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, forever changing the lives of the people and the state of the country. Not only were lives lost and homes destroyed, the tsunami that followed caused numerous nuclear accidents around the Fukushima…