Teachers' interest is a key influencing factor in geography class, development of curricula and writing textbooks and only little is known about it. A cross-sectional study along the lines of interest theory originating from educational psychology was carried out in Germany in the summer of 2015, in which 141 teachers at secondary schools…

Disaster risk management (DRM) education to visually impaired (VI) students has posed a great challenge to worldwide educators. International aid agencies report that people with disabilities have often been excluded from several educational interventions to manage disaster risks. It is, therefore, imperative to ensure that people with…

The limited evidence regarding disaster-related environmental education programs for children indicates that these programs can increase disaster resilience and family preparedness activities, and reduce children's fear and anxiety. However, the literature lacks qualitative studies to provide insights into children's experiences of disaster…

This essay addresses two types of disasters that can affect early childhood classrooms, which deserve more attention during teacher preparation. The first includes such natural phenomena as earthquakes and hurricanes, as well man-made events, such as fires and, incredibly, school shootings. They are almost always unexpected and happen in real…

In this article, we bring attention to absences and deficit assumptions that continue to circulate in relation to environmental education for young Black children in North America. We focus our attention on tracing some of the ways in which racial innocence works to exclude and limit possibilities for young Black children's learning. Our analysis…

Natural disasters can happen at any time. The impact they have on students, their families and the teachers relies on strategic and calm leadership by school principals. As schools are situated within communities, principals not only have a role leading within the school, they are also viewed as community leaders. This paper focuses on six New…

A key feature of positive education is its focus on factors that can help students flourish. In the current study, we examined the role of resilience in promoting optimal mental health of Chinese secondary school students who suffered the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, China. In the earthquake central region, 518 participants recruited in November 2008…

In post-disaster and post-conflict societies, critical threshold events trigger or intensify diaspora mobilization and engagement in their homelands. Taking the 2010 earthquake as a "critical event" that has transformed the course of Haitian society, this study builds on existing research on diaspora influence on homeland development by…

As the developers of "Journey to El Yunque," we have taken a different approach to the process of designing a science curriculum. Rather than start with a specific set of concepts or skills to target as learning outcomes, we started by identifying a specific community of practice to which we sought to connect students. Researchers in the…

Although considerable work has been done around the supposed successes and failures of education reform in post-Katrina New Orleans, concerns about the public/private qualities of new policies are often not discussed explicitly. In kind, this article serves to investigate theoretical conceptions of the public as they relate to education while…

This article is an attempt to develop a theory of peace education through an examination of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. It examines why Japan did not avoid this terrible nuclear disaster. This is an educational issue, because one of the major impacts of Fukushima's catastrophe is that it indicates the failure of peace education. In…

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 work proposes initially to identify the initial conceptions of Moroccan students in the first year of secondary college about the notion of earthquakes. The used methodology is based on a questionnaire addressed to students of life science and Earth in Meknes city, before any official teaching about the said phenomenon. The obtained results…

This article proposes a competence-based learning framework for science teaching, applied to the study of "big ideas", in this case to the study of natural hazards and disaster risk reduction (NH&DRR). The framework focuses on new visions of competence, placing emphasis on nurturing connectedness and behavioral actions toward…

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…