9:00 AM - 9:25 AM
[O05-01] Charecteristics of Natural Disasters and Disaster Prevention in Social Studies Textbooks in Japan
★Invited Papers
Keywords:Social Studies, Geography Education, Disaster Prevention, Textbook
Social studies has played a role as one of the core subjects for disaster education in Japan. Until the early 1990s, except for a period in the early years of social studies, there was little coverage of disaster prevention in the Courses of Study. However, with the heightening concern toward the disaster prevention since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, the content of the Courses of Study on natural disasters and disaster prevention has been enhanced. In particular, the latest edition of the Course of Study for Elementary Schools (2017) required fourth graders to learn natural disasters that occurred in the local prefecture in the past. The Course of Study for Junior High Schools (2018) also emphasized disaster prevention learning in the geographic study of various regions of Japan, and expanded the content of natural disasters and disaster prevention. In addition, disaster prevention learning has been positioned as one of the pillars of study in the new required course “Integrated Geography”. A good environment for systematic disaster prevention learning from elementary school to high school has been prepared.
With the revision of the Courses of Study, the content of textbooks on natural disasters and disaster prevention have naturally been enriched in terms of both quality and quantity. Looking at the content of the latest edition of social studies textbooks, it can be seen that, those textbooks have made significant improvements in their content, emphasizing the importance of self-help, mutual assistance, and public assistance. At the same time, however, there are issues that need to be considered in the future, such as the need to enhance learning at the municipal scale, which makes it easier for children to lead to their appropriate behavior for the disaster, the need for cooperation with the subject of science on the learning of generation mechanism of natural disasters, and the desirable form of disaster prevention learning suited to each development stage in elementary and junior high schools. In particular, enhancing the learning at the municipal scale is desirable, because it is essential to foster children's sense as a subject who confront disasters in order to develop their ability to (1) know their home regional area and prepare for disasters, (2) survive in the event of a disaster, and (3) recover from a disaster, which are the objectives of disaster prevention learning.
With the revision of the Courses of Study, the content of textbooks on natural disasters and disaster prevention have naturally been enriched in terms of both quality and quantity. Looking at the content of the latest edition of social studies textbooks, it can be seen that, those textbooks have made significant improvements in their content, emphasizing the importance of self-help, mutual assistance, and public assistance. At the same time, however, there are issues that need to be considered in the future, such as the need to enhance learning at the municipal scale, which makes it easier for children to lead to their appropriate behavior for the disaster, the need for cooperation with the subject of science on the learning of generation mechanism of natural disasters, and the desirable form of disaster prevention learning suited to each development stage in elementary and junior high schools. In particular, enhancing the learning at the municipal scale is desirable, because it is essential to foster children's sense as a subject who confront disasters in order to develop their ability to (1) know their home regional area and prepare for disasters, (2) survive in the event of a disaster, and (3) recover from a disaster, which are the objectives of disaster prevention learning.