Nat Hazards

DOI 10.1007/s11069-017-3004-2

ORIGINAL PAPER

An investigation of disaster education in elementary

and secondary schools: evidence from China

Tian-Tian Zhu1 • Yue-Jun Zhang2

Received: 19 April 2017 / Accepted: 19 July 2017

Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017

Abstract The role of school-based disaster education in mitigating natural disaster has
received extensive emphasis across the world. After the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, the
elementary and secondary schools in China have attached more importance to disaster
education. However, it is unclear about the outcome up to now. Therefore, we conduct a
relatively extensive survey in Beijing, Hunan, Guangdong and Sichuan recently, based on
the perspectives of both students and teachers, so as to explore their attitude, gains, and
expectations. The findings indicate that, first, it is the consensus that school-based disaster
education should be enhanced to raise the awareness and capability of students to address
disasters. Second, school-based disaster education has received overall positive outcome in
recent years, although there are also 18% students expressing that their schools have not
opened disaster curricula or they are unclear about that. Third, almost all the teachers argue
that schools should develop disaster-related curricula, incorporate disaster education cur-
ricula into the compulsory curricula, and design special textbooks for disaster education.
Finally, most teachers insist that the school-based disaster education has limited effect on
students to improve their disaster prevention awareness and capability; in particular, the
disaster education tends to impart knowledge for the most part but lack attractiveness and
local features.

Keywords Disaster education
Elementary and secondary schools
Disaster

prevention literacy
Anti-disaster capability

& Yue-Jun Zhang

zyjmis@126.com
Tian-Tian Zhu
ztt_bnu@126.com
1
Education Science Research Institute, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
2
Business School, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China

123
 Nat Hazards

1 Introduction

The Wenchuan earthquake in China occurred on 12 May 2008 and resulted in tremendous
casualties, property losses, and painful memories for the Chinese people: in the aftermath,
we required urgent assistance, and it was a major alert status event for emergency man-
agement and disaster education teams. After the earthquake, the Chinese Government
proposed the integration of the knowledge of disaster prevention and reduction into the
national education system and appealed to educators to integrate disaster education into the
system of a nationwide sustainable development strategy. In particular, the General Office
of the State Council of China published the National Comprehensive Disaster Prevention
and Reduction Plan (2011–2015). Moreover, the Ministry of Science and Technology of
China compiled the ‘‘12th Five-Year’’ Special Plan of Science and Technology Develop-
ment for National Disaster Prevention and Reduction. In addition, the Chinese Govern-
ment has set 12 May of each year as National Disaster Prevention and Reduction Day since
2009. After the earthquake, elementary and secondary schools in China have gradually
attached more importance to disaster education.
In the past 9 years, great changes have taken place in China’s economic, social, and
educational development; however, what are the new achievements in disaster education
including relevant knowledge, awareness, risk aversion, and disaster prevention capabili-
ties of students in China? What are the new feelings and expectations of teachers and
students towards school disaster education? Whether, or not, there are obvious differences
in disaster education (such as pedagogic forms, attitudes, and effects) in developed and
relatively backward regions? Whether, or not, there are significant differences in disaster
education in neighbouring regions and regions further away from Wenchuan County in
Sichuan province? What are the new trends emerging in school disaster education in China
in recent years and their likely future form? All of these questions are worthy of
consideration.
Since entering the twenty-first century, the role played by school disaster education in
reducing natural disasters has been highly valued by the international community. Disaster
education is also known as education for disaster prevention, or risk and disaster allevi-
ation. It aims to cultivate student mastery of the knowledge of each disaster itself as well as
disaster prevention, reduction, relief, and preparedness planning, to establish the correct
view of disasters and treat disasters as well as their occurrence and development in an
appropriate manner. Moreover, the corresponding activities of disaster prevention,
reduction, preparedness, and relief are carried out correctly, thus developing cultural
education for disaster managers. School is a place for starting disaster education and plays
a significant role in teaching disaster knowledge, cultivating disaster prevention skills, and
developing the right culture for disaster reduction. Furthermore, school is the best place for
disaster education. As mentioned by Shiwaku et al. (2016), school plays a vital role in
disaster issues, both in terms of preparedness and post-disaster recovery. Similarly,
Bernhardsdottir et al. (2016) point out that children are the future, and they must be
empowered with an understanding of natural hazards and actions, so that they can be better
prepared for the next ‘‘event’’. Therefore, with respect to natural hazards, educational
institutions have dual roles of caretakers who must ensure the safety of students in their
charge and teachers responsible for educating students about natural hazards.
Elementary and secondary education proves the basis of school education system, and
the students of elementary and secondary schools are vulnerable group in the education
system in terms of disaster prevention. For instance, it was reported that the students
accounted for 6% among the dead and missing in Sichuan province due to the Wenchuan

123
Nat Hazards

earthquake1; what is more, of the total death in the education system in Sichuan province
(i.e., 6581 people), there were 6376 students, about 97% of the total,2 and most of them
were elementary and secondary students. Therefore, it is of critical importance to shed light
upon the disaster education in elementary and secondary schools. Since the Wenchuan
earthquake on 12 May 2008, many elementary and secondary schools in cities around
China have paid more attention to disaster education and carried out some education
activities in this cognate area. For example, many schools in Shanghai teach students about
disaster prevention through themed class meetings, team activities, photographic exhibi-
tions, and safety knowledge contests. Moreover, activities, such as safety seminars, fire
drills, and escape drills, in schools have increased in number; however, through surveys,
disaster education in some schools is merely in its initial stages. For instance, disaster
education in many schools in Shanghai remains at the level of consciousness. Although
everyone promises to pay attention to actual practices and experience, the number of
participants remains low. In particular, many school drills just show wonderful scenes, but
the education only remains at the superficial level of regulation, and even some are just a
show to some extent.
Due to differences in economic development, education conditions, and attention from
leaders in various regions, the implementation of disaster education in China is still
unsatisfactory overall (Wei et al. 2013). In particular, the measures taken, and actual
effects, when implementing disaster education are limited in elementary and secondary
schools, which seriously affect the attention paid by Chinese citizens to disaster prevention
knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the main forms
and characteristics of current Chinese disaster education in elementary and secondary
schools, the feelings and attitudes of students to disaster education, and teachers’ under-
standing and further expectations of disaster education. Moreover, it is necessary to learn
more of the implementation status and main shortcomings of disaster education in ele-
mentary and secondary schools in the past few years. On this basis, this work provides
decision-making references for Chinese government, especially education authorities. The
work can enhance school disaster education, increase attention of leaders and teachers of
elementary and secondary schools with regard to disaster education and improve student
awareness of, and ability in, disaster prevention.
In fact, some countries and regions have carried out investigations into disaster
prevention literacy, disaster reduction awareness and risk recognition, which are worth
learning for China. For example, in 2000, Australia carried out such investigations for
students in elementary schools, mainly focusing on the risk perception and preparedness
of students. New Zealand surveyed the activeness of students in participating in disaster
prevention education in 2004. Yeh (2010) investigated the disaster prevention literacy of
students in elementary and junior high schools in the USA, Japan, and Australia and
compared it with that in Taiwan. Japan is one of the countries that have efficacious
disaster education implementation. Schools in Japan pay much attention to activities,
such as disaster preparedness and measures for disaster reduction, to make students
understand the importance of disaster education by learning of the social risks therewith.
Particularly, after the Fukushima earthquake, and subsequent nuclear leak, in Japan on
11 March 2011, the calm response and good order of the Japanese people have been
highly praised across the world (Zhang 2015). Actually, in 2004, a survey had been
conducted in five counties in Japan to investigate the experience and understanding of
1
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/07/content_11330674_1.htm.
2
http://news.qq.com/a/20090508/000217.htm.

123
 Nat Hazards

earthquakes among students in grade one of senior high schools. The results demonstrate
that education about, instead of experience of, earthquakes is the main factor influencing
student perceptions (Shaw et al. 2004).
Meanwhile, some scholars have conducted in-depth academic research based on
surveys. For instance, Shiwaku et al. (2016) assessed school disaster resilience in areas
affected by the East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011. They also argued that, to
enhance schools’ resilience, schools and local governments need to make efforts towards
school disaster management and community-based disaster management planning.
Meanwhile, periodic assessment of the disaster recovery process is required so that
appropriate activities and policies can be adopted, and the results are visible on the
ground. Shiwaku et al. (2007) conducted a questionnaire survey in six selected schools in
Kathmandu, Nepal, to identify those factors enhancing student awareness, promote
action towards disaster reduction and find that current school disaster education, which
can raise risk perception based on lectures; however, it cannot enable students to know
the importance of pre-disaster measures and to take action with regard to disaster
reduction. Recognising the importance of building disaster resilience for the education
sector, Tong et al. (2012) developed a methodology designed to measure the level of
educational resilience to cope with natural disasters which is then applied in central
Vietnam. This provides important insights into enhancing the resilience of the education
system in Thua Thien Hue at provincial, local, and school levels. The Zimbabwean
Government has assigned a national mandate towards disaster risk reduction (DRR) and
its integration in education and awareness programmes in schools and communities.
While the effectiveness of these education and awareness programs among children who
relay DRR knowledge and its effects on risk perception have not yet been evaluated,
Muzenda-Mudavanhu et al. (2016) explored the extent to which the disaster education
programmes influenced risk perception among children in Muzarabani, one of the more
disaster-prone areas of Zimbabwe, and found that children had a good basic knowledge
of the disaster risks they were facing. Besides, Wu et al. (2013) studied the responses of
students in elementary schools in Yushu, Qinghai Province, China, to earthquake dis-
asters and pointed out the importance of disaster education and propaganda. In recent
years, Zhang et al. (2012) and Zhang and Wang (2014) have investigated the disaster
prevention literacy of students and teachers in some provinces and cities in China and
found low disaster prevention literacy among students and teachers, with some good
attitudes to disaster prevention, yet poor skills in disaster prevention, and a shortage of
disaster prevention knowledge.
Compared with developed countries and developing countries where disasters fre-
quently occur, the studies and practices of disaster education in China are not in a leading
position. What causes this? The crux of disaster education is not only education itself, but
also related to many factors, such as society and culture. In a word, owing to words such as
‘‘disease’’ and ‘‘disaster’’ being regarded as taboo in China’s traditional culture, people are
less willing to acquire disaster prevention knowledge and avoid talking about related
issues. Therefore, disaster education is carried out late in China.
After the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, people began to understand disaster risks,
pay more attention to disaster issues and were willing to learn more about disaster
prevention and reduction. Furthermore, due to active promotion by government, school
disaster education changed significantly. Therefore, the status of disaster education in
elementary and secondary schools in China under new situations, and typical problems
and the expectations of teachers and students to school disaster education, need to be
discussed. This has important value in that it further reforms and develops disaster

123
Nat Hazards

education by relevant departments and schools in the future and promotes sustainable
development of schools and society. The contributions of this study are as follows: based
on extensive practical survey data in regions, such as Beijing, Hunan, Guangdong, and
Sichuan, the attitudes, effects and expectations of teachers and students in elementary
and secondary schools around school disaster education are investigated. This provides
important decision-making references for education administrative departments and
elementary and secondary schools to reform their disaster education systems and
improve disaster education.
The rest of this paper is arranged as follows: Sect. 2 outlines the research methods and
data specifications, Sect. 3 presents the survey results and analysis, and the main con-
clusions and suggestions for future change are covered in Sect. 4.

2 Research methods and data

The implementation status of disaster education (that is, teaching students how to deal with
disasters, such as earthquakes, mudslides, floods, haze, typhoons, and fires) in elementary
and secondary schools in China needs to be summarised. For this purpose, 16 elementary
and secondary schools were randomly selected from Beijing, Guangdong Province
(Guangzhou and Shenzhen), Chengdu City in Sichuan Province, and Changsha and
Huaihua in Hunan Province to conduct the survey from October to November, 2016.3 The
schools included three senior high schools, six junior high schools, and seven elementary
schools. In addition, 20–50 students and 3–10 teachers were randomly selected from each
school. Finally, 758 valid student questionnaires and 81 teacher questionnaires were col-
lected and used as samples for analysis.
The questionnaires include student and teacher questionnaires. The former was
designed based on these perspectives: the sources of disaster prevention knowledge for
students, the forms of school disaster education, and students’ attitudes, effects, and
expectations around school disaster education. While the latter was designed to ascertain
the teachers’ attitudes to disaster education, setting of disaster education courses in
schools, teachers’ disaster training, and problems and suggestions for school disaster
education.
It should be noted that in addition to the disaster education of students, the attitudes
and expectations of teachers to disaster education are investigated in this paper, because
teachers play a key role in disaster education. As mentioned by Johnson and Ronan
(2014), teachers are very important to disaster recovery and preparedness, including
targeting evidence-based guidance and teaching resources to schools enrolling displaced
children, dispelling disaster rumours through schools and facilitating peer-mentoring
among teachers. In particular, communities would benefit from teachers being better
equipped to provide emotional support and responsive disaster education to children
after disasters.

3
The reasons we select these surveyed regions are based on their evident natural disasters; specifically,
there are significant smog and haze in Beijing, typhoon in Guangdong, earthquake in Sichuan, and flood in
Hunan. Meanwhile, all of them face severe pressure of fire hazards.

123
 Nat Hazards

3 Survey results and analysis

3.1 Disaster education for students

(1) The overall situation of the surveyed students

In 785 student questionnaires, the grade, gender, and urban–rural region distribution are
shown in Table 1. The proportions of students in elementary, junior, and senior high
schools are similar, and the proportions of male and female students are similar. Moreover,
the difference in the proportions of urban and rural (town and countryside) schools is small.
We attempt to reveal the current basic trend in, and main problems with, disaster education
in elementary and secondary schools in China as well as the students’ expectations of
future development of disaster education as much as possible through random sampling.
(2) Sources of disaster prevention knowledge for students
The survey indicates that students in elementary schools mainly obtain disaster knowledge
from school education, television or radio programmes, the Internet using computers or
mobile phones, newspapers and magazines, extracurricular reading, and family and friends.
Therefore, such topics are designed for students to select, and the results are shown in
Fig. 1. It can be seen that 71% of the students surveyed obtain knowledge though school
education. Obviously, strengthening school disaster education is very important in
improving student awareness and disaster resilience and even optimising the disaster
reduction environment of the whole of society. Furthermore, with the rapid development of
the Internet, especially mobile communications in China, students in elementary and
secondary schools acquire disaster prevention knowledge mainly through computers or
mobile phones, accounting for 59% overall. In particular, 282 out of 416 students in urban
schools learn about disaster prevention by using computers and mobile phones, accounting
for 68% of all surveyed students in cities. In addition, a few students learn about disaster
prevention through newspapers and magazines. This is correlated with the fact that stu-
dents in elementary and secondary schools have little time to read books and magazines,
the limited availability of book and newspaper resources, and the paucity of disaster
prevention knowledge found in books and magazines.
(3) Main forms of school disaster education
As for school disaster education, the Chinese Government has proposed the incorporation
of the knowledge about disaster prevention and reduction into the national education
system, and many schools have made significant efforts to that end; however, various
forms of disaster education are selected by different schools according to their own edu-
cation conditions and philosophy. Based on the survey, as shown in Fig. 2, 67% of students
are educated through activities including drills, taking up the highest proportion, with other
forms of disaster education such as lectures (28%), disaster education courses (24%),
issuing reading materials, such as disaster prevention handbooks (20%), and themed
activities including contests/competitions over disaster knowledge (14%). In the surveyed
elementary and secondary schools, the practice of disaster education has been recognised
generally; therefore, on the basis of teaching students basic theoretical knowledge, most
schools carried out practical drills to realise better disaster education, so as to improve the
awareness and literacy of students therein. It is worth noting that some lessons and
experience drawn from past natural disasters should be constantly summarised and
implemented in practical drill schemes. Some research points out that not all countries or
regions attach importance to the experience and lessons learned from the past. For instance,

123
Nat Hazards

Table 1 Descriptive summary of student correspondents

Grade Gender Region

Category Size Share (%) Category Size Share (%) Category Size Share (%)

Elementary 262 34.6 Male 376 49.6 City 416 54.9

Junior 267 35.2 Female 382 50.4 Town 243 32.1
Senior 229 30.2 – – – Countryside 99 13.1
Total 758 100 Total 758 100 Total 758 100

80%
71%
70%
59%
60% 56%

48%
50%
42%
40%

28%
30%

20%

10%

0%
School TV & Radio Computer & Magzines Extracurricular Family & Friends
Mobile reading

Fig. 1 Shares of students as for the sources of disaster prevention knowledge

70% 67%

60%

50%

40%
28%
30% 24%
20%
20% 14%

10%

0%
Courses Lectures Themed Drills Disaster
activities handbooks

Fig. 2 Shares of students as for the main forms of school disaster education

123
 Nat Hazards

Ibrion et al. (2015) analysed the three large earthquake disasters (i.e., Tabas in 1978,
Rudbar in 1990, and Bam in 2003) in Iran. They also argued that few lessons from these
earthquake disasters have been consistently applied in earthquake disaster management
practice and have not therefore contributed much to the reduction of earthquake disaster
risks in Iran.
(4) Student attitudes to school disaster education and effects
To learn more of the attitudes of students to disaster education in schools, five topics are
set: whether students are interested in the courses or activities relating to disaster education
in schools, whether students think that disaster education is conducive to dealing with
disasters, whether students are satisfied with their disaster education in schools, whether it
is necessary to carry out school disaster education for students, and whether students hope
to sit more courses or activities relating to disaster education in schools? The survey results
are shown in Table 2. It is found that 86% of surveyed students are interested, or very
interested, in school disaster education, and 68% of students think that school disaster
education is beneficial. Moreover, 90% of students are relatively, or very, satisfied with
disaster education in schools, and 84% of students think that it is necessary to carry out
disaster education. 76% of students hope to sit more courses and undertake activities
related to disaster education in schools. Most of the surveyed students show active
engagement with school disaster education and expect more effective disaster education
opportunities. Furthermore, the data reflect the fact that school disaster education produces
positive effects on the whole.
Furthermore, the degree of attention of surveyed students matches with the amount of
practice. Among the 785 surveyed students, 644 think that they should have some
knowledge of disaster prevention, while 642 think that they should participate in drills for
disaster prevention (85%). This basically fails to match findings about disaster education in
universities in Beijing (Wang et al. 2011): they find that 71.84% of respondents are usually
concerned about the disaster occurring and actively learn about this, while only 10.8%
participate in activities for disaster education organised by schools. In other words,
although college students have a better understanding of the events relating to a disaster,
they do not practice to prevent and reduce the harm caused by a disaster. Therefore, it is
considered that the degree of attention paid by college students to disasters deviates from
that expressed in practice. However, the survey shows that the degree of attention of
students in elementary and secondary schools paid to disasters coincides with that
expressed in practice. On the one hand, this reflects new changes in disaster education in
recent years. On the other hand, the importance and implementation of disaster education
in elementary and secondary schools are much higher than those in colleges. Through the
survey, 34% of students are confident in coping with disasters, while only 5% of students
lack confidence in their ability to prevent disasters. Nonetheless, it is regrettable that 18%
of surveyed students do not think, or do not know, that their schools have engaged in
disaster education, and these students came from all regions surveyed. In disaster educa-
tion in elementary and secondary schools in China, it is necessary to make further efforts to
guide all students towards participation in such education, so as to enhance student
recognition of disasters and their resilience thereto.
It should be pointed out that for students in higher grades, the proportion of students
having the confidence to deal with disasters is not always high as was the proportion of
students believing that disaster education is beneficial for dealing with disasters. Specifi-
cally, of 262, 267, and 229 respondents in elementary, junior, and senior high schools, 42,
29, and 31% of students are confident in their ability to deal with disasters, while 74, 67,

123
 Nat Hazards

Table 2 Student attitudes towards school disaster education

Interest Usefulness Satisfaction Necessity More courses or activities

Category Share (%) Category Share (%) Category Share (%) Category Share (%) Category Share (%)

Very interested 34 Beneficial 68 Very satisfied 48 Necessary 84 Yes 76

Interested 52 Hard to say 27 Relatively Satisfied 42 Hard to say 13 Hard to say 20
No interest 14 No use 5 Unsatisfied 10 Unnecessary 3 No 4
Total 100 Total 100 Total 100 Total 100 Total 100

123
 Nat Hazards

and 62% of students believe that disaster education in schools is conducive to dealing with
disasters. This result is not consistent with the findings of Wei et al. (2013), who focus on
the 2010 Yushu earthquake in China and argue that individuals with little education tend to
have lower response capability and are more vulnerable during an earthquake disaster. The
main reason is that they focus on public respondents and reflect more extensive responses,
while the present study focuses on the effects of students in different grades in elementary
and secondary schools.
Furthermore, students in cities are more confident in their ability to deal with disasters
than those in rural areas, and the proportion of urban students considering that disaster
education in schools is conducive to dealing with disasters is higher. Moreover, boys have
more confidence than girls in dealing with disasters; specifically, of 416 and 342 surveyed
students in urban and rural areas (townships and villages), 40 and 27% of students are
confident in their ability to deal with disasters, and 74 and 61% of students think that
disaster education is beneficial for dealing with disasters. Of 376 boys and 382 girls, 32 and
24% have the confidence to cope with disasters. These results basically confirm those by
Wei et al. (2013), who find that females, or individuals with low family income, may have
a lower response capability and are more vulnerable to disasters.
(5) Expectations of students with regard to school disaster education
As shown in Table 2, 76% of surveyed students hope to sit more courses or activities
involving disaster education in schools: which form of disaster education is most expected
by students remains a key question. The survey demonstrates that, as shown in Fig. 3, in
785 surveyed students, 51% expect disaster education to be carried out in activity course
form (such as comprehensive practice activities and team activities) in schools. However,
33% want to carry out various themed activities such as a lecture imparting disaster
prevention knowledge and drills for disaster prevention. Moreover, 23% of students hope
that disaster education is carried out in subject teaching (e.g., Chinese, Maths, English,
History, Geography, and Politics), while 21% of students think that courses in disaster
education should be carried out independently. A considerable number of students advo-
cate carrying out disaster education through practical activities, while a few students
suggest enhancing disaster awareness through theoretical study, but this cannot be ignored.
Some scholars have recognised this point. For instance, Musacchio et al. (2016) analysed
compulsory school education in three European countries at high seismic risks (i.e.,

60%
51%
50%

40%
33%
30%
23%
21%
20%

10%

0%
Subject teaching Activity courses Disaster courses Themed activities

Fig. 3 Shares of students as for their expected forms of school disaster education

123
Nat Hazards

Portugal, Iceland, and Italy): the results reveal that the crucial aspects of risk education
concerning natural hazards are starting age, incompleteness of textbooks, and lack of in-
depth studies of the pupils upon completion of their compulsory education cycle.
In fact, in the disaster education in elementary and secondary schools in Japan, many
teaching materials covering disaster prevention and self-protection are designed. More-
over, in addition to the courses taught in disaster prevention in schools, government
generally sends disaster prevention advisers to teach disaster prevention knowledge and
organise various disaster prevention activities in schools. For example, such homework is
assigned to students in some schools at the beginning of a new session: a map on which
regions surrounding both school and homes are marked and given to students. The students
are required to mark the important sites such as the police department, public telephones,
watering places, and parks as places of refuge on their way home (Liu 2009). In addition,
schools in Japan often carry out earthquake drills, so students gradually form an awareness
of disaster prevention. These beneficial disaster education patterns are worth learning by
elementary and secondary school teachers in China.
Besides, we also shed light upon the urban and rural difference of students’ expectations
for school disaster education, and the results are shown in Fig. 4. It can be found that, for
one thing, the two main expectations for school disaster education appear the same for
urban and rural students; specifically, activity courses account for the largest share among
their expectations (55 vs. 46%). For another, rural students are more inclined to the themed
activities for school disaster education compared with the urban students (41 vs. 26%).
Based on their distinctive expectations, the schools and education administrators can adopt
targeted education programs to enhance the quality and effectiveness of disaster education.

3.2 Disaster education for teachers

(1) The overall status of the surveyed teachers

The teaching grade, gender, and area of school of the 81 teachers in the survey are shown
in Table 3. It can be seen that teachers in elementary and junior high schools account for
more than 80 and 64% of all surveyed teachers are female. Moreover, the proportions of
teachers in urban and rural schools are 65 and 35%, respectively. In a word, these randomly

60%
55%
Urban students Rural students
50% 46%
41%
40%

30% 26%
25%
20% 20% 21%
20%

10%

0%
Subject teaching Activity courses Disaster courses Themed activities

Fig. 4 Difference between urban and rural students’ expectations for school disaster education

123
 Nat Hazards

Table 3 Descriptive summary of teacher correspondents

Grade Gender Region

Category Size Share (%) Category Size Share (%) Category Size Share (%)

Elementary 30 37.0 Male 29 35.8 City 53 65.4

Junior 37 45.7 Female 52 64.2 Town 20 24.7
Senior 14 17.3 – – – Countryside 8 9.9
Total 81 100 Total 81 100 Total 81 100

selected teachers can comprehensively reflect the main situation of teachers in elementary
and secondary schools in China to a large extent.
(2) Attitudes of teachers to disaster education
To learn about the attitudes of teachers to school disaster education, the survey questions
are set from multiple perspectives: whether teachers are concerned about disasters in
China, whether teachers receive training in disaster education, whether schools should set
courses relating to disaster education, whether it is necessary to set disaster education as a
required course for students, and whether it is necessary to develop special teaching
materials for disaster education? The survey results are shown in Table 4. We can find that,
firstly, 99% of teachers are occasionally, or very concerned, about disaster events occurring
around the country. One the one hand, this reveals the good quality of the surveyed
teachers and their concern for social development. On the other hand, this benefits from
more channels available from which to obtain news of such events and the fact that it is
convenient to obtain relevant information nowadays.
Secondly, 88% of surveyed teachers have received training in disaster education, which
is a gratifying new situation in recent years. Owing to the surveyed regions including
regions with many natural disasters, such as Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and Guang-
dong, and regions with few disasters, such as Beijing and Changsha, no matter where
schools are located, teachers have been trained in disaster education. However, less than
half of the teachers were trained on more than three occasions, so efforts need to be made
in the future to enhance training of disaster educators.
Thirdly, 90% of surveyed teachers consider that courses relating to disaster education
should be set. In particular, 86 and 93% of teachers think that it is necessary to set courses
in disaster education as compulsory courses for students and develop special teaching
materials for disaster education. This can allow advanced disaster education and improve
student awareness and capabilities around disaster prevention. This reflects the high
attention, urgent expectations, and broad consensus of teachers to disaster education.
(3) Views of surveyed teachers on channels and forms of school disaster education
The views of teachers about children’s access to disaster education are summarised in
Fig. 5. Most of those teachers surveyed agree that school education, media education,
community education, and family education play important roles in disaster education,
accounting for 93, 78, 69, and 77%, respectively. In particular, 93% of surveyed teachers
identify that school education plays a key role for students in elementary and secondary
schools when receiving disaster education. This offers guidance to government to increase
investment in disaster education strategy across the whole of society.

123
 Nat Hazards

Table 4 Teacher attitudes towards disaster education

Concern for disaster events Disaster education training Disaster courses Compulsory courses Special textbooks

Category Share (%) Category Share (%) Category Share (%) Category Share (%) Category Share (%)

Very concerned 59 [3 times 46 Necessary 90 Necessary 86 Necessary 93

Occasionally 40 1–3 times 42 Do not care 7 Do not care 7 Do not care 5
Never 1 Never 12 Unnecessary 3 Unnecessary 7 Unnecessary 2
Total 100 Total 100 Total 100 Total 100 Total 100

123
 Nat Hazards

100% 93%
90%
78% 77%
80%
69%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
11%
10%
0%
School Media Community Family Self

Fig. 5 Channels for disaster education in the society

Meanwhile, by working in tandem with the main channels through which surveyed
students obtain their disaster knowledge as shown in Fig. 1, it can be seen that school and
media education account for high proportions. On the one hand, this reflects the fact that
the status of disaster education for students in elementary and secondary schools basically
matches student demands: on the other hand, social media plays an important role in
disaster education. As mentioned by Xiao et al. (2015), social media data are increasingly
used in disaster management for information dissemination, establishment of situational
awareness of the ‘‘big picture’’ of the disaster impact and emerging incidences over time,
and public peer-to-peer backchannel communications. Therefore, it is necessary for rele-
vant departments to strengthen their management of social media, such as We-Chat, which
is very popular among young people in China. Therefore, social media should be guided to
positively contribute to disaster education.
It is particularly worth mentioning that most of the surveyed teachers, whether from
urban or rural areas, agree on the important role of the community in disaster education.
Actually, this view is supported by much research elsewhere. For instance, Ostad-
taghizadeh et al. (2016) argued that the concept of community disaster resilience (CDR)
has become one of the most popular terms in disaster literature. Nahayo et al. (2017) used
disaster risk reduction in Rwanda as a case study, and argued that natural disaster losses are
predicted to rise, unless early warning systems, full stakeholder and community involve-
ment in the mitigation, adaptation, and risk reduction stages are engaged. Zhang et al.
(2013) reviewed the community-based disaster management situation and held that China
has advanced community-based disaster management (CBDM) capacity. Meanwhile, a
community is the bottom unit of society, and CBDM proves the foundation for societal
disaster management systems in China. Shiwaku et al. (2016) applied the school disaster
resilience assessment (SDRA) system in Japan’s 31 schools in the city of Kesennuma, in
the Tohoku Region of Japan, which was heavily affected by the East Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami of 2011. The results indicate the importance of strengthening the relationship
between school and community, and enhancing the involvement of various stakeholders in
the planning process. Similarly, Shiwaku et al. (2007) argued that community plays the
essential role in promoting students’ actual actions towards disaster reduction, and con-
tinuous community involvement is the most important factor affecting school disaster
education. However, it should also be noted that we often see that, in most cases,

123
Nat Hazards

government authorities initiate their disaster management programme to community by

inviting them to voice their opinions and concerns. However, the community then tends to
be over-dependent on donors and governments (stakeholders) thus will consequently fail to
take ownership of the problem (Samaddar et al. 2015). This brings about the challenge of
putting the community in the driving seat instead of only inviting them for consultation on
an existing plan about a predetermined issue.
Furthermore, we also investigate the most effective forms of disaster education in
schools as recognised by teachers, and the results are shown in Fig. 6. It can be found that,
firstly, the forms of school disaster education expected by teachers are highly consistent
with those expected by students and four effective forms selected exhibit similar propor-
tional sequences. Secondly, 83% of surveyed teachers consent to integrate the contents of
disaster education into activities (such as comprehensive practice activities and team
activities), which accounted for the highest proportion of the four effective forms of
disaster education recognised by teachers. Thirdly, the other three forms of education are
highly recognised. Specifically, 64% of surveyed teachers agree to carry out disaster
education through special activities including various lectures or drills for disaster pre-
vention. 54% of teachers think that the contents of disaster education should be integrated
into subject teaching (such as Chinese, Maths, English, History, Geography, and Politics).
Moreover, 41% of teachers support the independent establishment of courses for disaster
education.
Therefore, school managers or designers of disaster education curricula should for-
mulate, and deploy, content in disaster education by combining it with practical charac-
teristics of disaster events to design more activities and practical drills relating to disaster
events. On the one hand, this reflects the aspirations and expectations of the majority of
teachers and improves the practical ability and independence consciousness of their stu-
dents (Zhu 2016). On the other hand, this makes the contents of disaster education
interesting and useful. In fact, some studies have confirmed that, on the whole, participants
who have experience in coping with unexpected safety events appear to adopt more rea-
sonable response behaviours during a disaster (Wei et al. 2013).
(4) Major problems in implementing and managing school disaster education
For a long time, China’s disaster prevention and mitigation education has been weak with
large gap and a lack of any effective system with which to prevent, and respond to, sudden

90% 83%
80%

70% 64%
60% 54%
50%
41%
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Subject teaching Activity courses Disaster courses Themed activities

Fig. 6 Shares of teachers as for their expected effective forms of school disaster education

123
 Nat Hazards

disasters. Moreover, a long-term mechanism has not been formed for education about
disaster prevention and risk reduction for people and training and drills for disaster pre-
vention and risk reduction in government departments: schools and the society do not pay
enough attention to disaster education. In the end, this results in weak national disaster
awareness, limited popularisation of scientific knowledge about disaster prevention and
risk reduction, and a poor ability to realize self-rescue and provide mutual help in disaster
prevention and relief.
Under this general background, we try to learn about the current problems facing the
implementation and management of disaster education for students in elementary and
secondary schools through use of questionnaires. Firstly, the surveyed teachers are asked
whether their school pays attention to activities relating to disaster education, and the
results are shown in Fig. 7. Of all surveyed teachers, 96% think that their schools attach
some, or much, importance to disaster education and the degree of attention in elementary
and secondary schools in cities is similar to that in townships and villages. This indicates
that, as the Chinese Government incorporates knowledge of disaster prevention and risk
reduction into the national education system, disaster education has been deeply rooted in
popular thinking and a consensus has been obtained thereof in schools.
Secondly, due to the differences in school conditions and educational philosophies, each
elementary and secondary school faces inconsistencies in its implementation and man-
agement of disaster education. Considering this, various problems facing disaster educators
in elementary and secondary schools are explored from the perspective of teachers, and the
survey results are shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen that 62% of surveyed teachers think that
the awareness and ability of students with regard to risk aversion and disaster prevention
are not improved significantly. Moreover, 59% of surveyed teachers consider that the
education content is mainly based on knowledge and lacks attractiveness, which are the
two main problems identified by these teachers. This objectively reveals an expectation
gap in disaster education in elementary and secondary schools in China and thus forms a
direction for future efforts of education authorities and schools. In fact, these problems are
closely associated with the weak teaching team and limited education resources for disaster
education in most of China’s elementary and secondary schools, especially in rural regions.
Furthermore, nearly half of the surveyed teachers think that disaster education lacks
local characteristics and is remote from real life (49%). Moreover, 47% of teachers believe

100% 4% 2% 8%

80%
44% 43%
46%
60%

40%

52% 55%
20% 46%

0%
All the teachers City teachers Non-city teachers

Highly appreciated Appreciated Unappreciated

Fig. 7 Extent of appreciation of schools from teachers’ perspective

123
Nat Hazards

70%
62%
59%
60%

49%
50% 47%

40%

30%
30%

20%

10%

0%
Mere formality Impart knowledge General & Unrealistic Insignificant effect Lack assessment system

Fig. 8 Main problems of school disaster education from teachers’ perspective

that disaster education pays attention to forms and is merely regarded as a chore. In fact,
this is a common problem for educational content except for the core subjects, such as
Chinese and Maths in elementary and secondary schools across the mainland of China.
This indicates that it is a pressing matter to improve the quality, intentions, and actual
effects, of disaster education and propose new requirements for disaster education fit for a
new era. In particular, there is a diversity of natural disasters and various disasters may
occur in different regions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop disaster education with
local characteristics.
Actually, this idea has been investigated and specifically embodied in the design of
disaster education programmes in Taiwan (Yeh 2012). Due to the different disaster
characteristics of different places in Taiwan, the educational courses for disaster prevention
in local areas are planned by townships and local teachers and thus are inclined to be
accepted by people locally. In this way, disaster prevention education is popularised by
schools across the whole of society. Similarly, Zhang et al. (2015) emphasised the
importance of strengthening local disaster management capabilities to cope with risks more
effectively and argued that, despite the occurrence of the Wenchuan (in 2008) and Lushan
(in 2013) earthquakes, local disaster management capacities in China remain largely
unexplored. After interviewing 32 townships executives, they found that although sub-
stantial progress has been achieved in strengthening overall disaster management capacity
in townships by 2013, prominent challenges remain.
In addition, 30% of surveyed teachers think that school disaster education lacks an
assessment system. Although this is felt by a small proportion of teachers, it reflects a key
direction for reform and development of disaster education. Only when the contents of
disaster education are incorporated into school assessments and teacher evaluation index
systems, can schools and teachers devote enough energy to design and implement scientific
education programmes. Thus, this extends the context of disaster education and improves
the quality thereof while promoting the literacy and ability of students to resist disasters. In
fact, the absence of the assessment system is attributed to the popular education mode in
China’s basic education, which is focused on the enrolment rates to high schools or

123
 Nat Hazards

universities (Zhu et al. 2017) but often ignores the education activities irrelevant to the
focus, such as disaster education.
Overall, we have to face up with these dominant problems of school disaster education,
and consider which problems should be and can be solved soon. In our opinions, among the
problems mentioned above, two of them are the most urgent of the moment and can be
relatively easily solved, i.e., too general disaster education activities without enough local
characteristics, and the absence of related assessment system. If the local education
administrators make efforts to solve these problems, immediate results may be obtained, so
as to promote the enthusiasm of teachers and the advance of school disaster education.
(5) Expectations of surveyed teachers of school disaster education
The purpose of learning of the implementation status of, and main problems facing, dis-
aster education in elementary and secondary schools is to improve the current status of
disaster education and its efficacy. In view of this, the future direction in which to improve
school disaster education, as expected by the surveyed teachers is investigated, and the
results are shown in Fig. 9. Two improvement directions most commonly proposed by the
surveyed teachers are the fusion of school disaster education with school, community, and
family (79%) and the combination of school disaster education with regional environ-
mental knowledge (75%). In particular, both urban and rural teachers place higher shares
of expectations for them; specifically, 79% of urban and rural teachers call for multi-party
efforts for the disaster education, while 72% of urban teachers and 82% of rural teachers
propose the local characteristics for disaster education. In fact, multi-party cooperation in
disaster education in Japan has obtained significant results. For example, Zhou et al. (2013)
introduce the case study of disaster education in Maiko Senior High School in Japan. This
school has first established a special course in disaster prevention in school education and
effectively linked it with society, school, and family in the teaching activities of disaster
prevention, thus changing the mode of delivery of disaster prevention education in schools
as previously separated from society. Various resources are used in this linkage to improve
the efficiency of disaster prevention and risk reduction education in the school.

80% 75% 79%

70% 67%
63%
60% 57%
51%
50%
40%
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Local features Multi-party School-based Themed Student Theory & School
efforts courses activities interests Practice assessment

Fig. 9 Expected improving directions of school disaster education from teachers’ perspective

123
Nat Hazards

Furthermore, 51 and 63% of surveyed teachers consider that schools should pay
attention to developing school-based courses about disasters and run activities relating to
disaster education, respectively. Moreover, 57 and 67% of surveyed teachers argue that
schools should attach importance to the combination of disaster prevention effects and
student interests and combine such course teaching with actual drills, respectively. In
particular, we find that both urban and rural teachers emphasise the practice property of
school disaster education; specifically, 66% of urban teachers and 68% of rural teachers
argue that the classroom teaching of disaster education should be combined with the
practical activities.
In addition, 40% of surveyed teachers think that education administrative departments
and school leaders should pay more attention to disaster education, which should be
reflected in the school assessment system especially in the rural regions. As shown in our
survey, 64% of rural teachers insist that school disaster education should be brought into
the assessment system of schools; comparatively, only 26% of urban teachers share this
expectation. School disaster education should show Chinese characteristics as led, and
even determined, by the assessment system. Therefore, the relevant departments should
make best use of the situation to optimise the assessment system and carry out school
disaster education on a firmer footing. Moreover, disaster education should be started from
childhood, to improve the literacy of disaster prevention throughout society.
In conclusion, the surveyed teachers proposed high requirements of the contents, sub-
jects, forms, and assessments required in disaster education. These expectations provide
important references for carrying out in-depth disaster education in elementary and sec-
ondary schools in China in the future, overcoming current dilemmas in disaster education,
promoting the context of disaster education, and enhancing student awareness of, and
relevant skills in, disaster prevention.

4 Main conclusions and suggestions

The survey produced data about disaster education in elementary and secondary schools in
China from the perspectives of teachers and students, cities and rural areas, as well as
different genders and grades. To sum up, some main conclusions are drawn as follows:
Firstly, strengthening school disaster education is the approach most commonly
recognised as improving the awareness and ability of students around disaster resistance:
more importantly, it is a common expectation of teachers and students. Furthermore, as
computers or mobile phones have become the main channels through which students in
elementary and secondary schools glean knowledge of disaster prevention, the relevant
departments should make the best use of the situation.
Secondly, school disaster education has, in general, achieved positive results, and the
extent of the attention paid by the surveyed students to disasters basically matches that
espoused in practice. However, 18% of surveyed students do not think, or do not know that,
there is disaster education in schools, and these students came from all surveyed regions
(including cities and villages),and so this should be acted upon.
Thirdly, students in cities are more confident of their ability to cope with disasters than
those in villages, and the proportion of urban students thinking that school disaster edu-
cation is conducive to dealing with disasters is higher. Moreover, boys have more confi-
dence when dealing with disasters than girls.

123
 Nat Hazards

Fourthly, most of the surveyed teachers agree that school education plays a key role in
the disaster education of students in elementary and secondary schools. They also think
that schools should set up courses relating to disaster education, and it is necessary to list
these courses as compulsory course for students and develop special teaching materials
dedicated to disaster education.
Finally, the majority of surveyed teachers consider that school disaster education has no
obvious effect on improving student awareness and ability of risk aversion and disaster
prevention. Disaster education is mainly based on knowledge and lacks attractiveness and
local characteristics. This highlights the gap in current disaster education as provided in
elementary and secondary schools, and is expected to provide a direction for future edu-
cation efforts in such schools.
Based on the above conclusions, some policy suggestions are proposed for Chinese
education administrative departments and elementary and secondary schools with which
they can reform their disaster education provision and improve its quality and
effectiveness.
On the one hand, government departments are asked to force elementary and secondary
schools to implement disaster education programmes through legislation and the estab-
lishment of special funds for disaster education. Government should support the combi-
nation of disaster education in elementary and secondary schools with that in communities
and families. Moreover, government should support schools to develop school-based
teaching materials and disaster education programmes that suit local areas and show-case
local school characteristics by tailoring their efforts to suit prevailing local environmental,
and disaster, characteristics. By doing so, disaster education can be carried out with a
definite object in view, so as to improve the awareness and ability of teachers and students
of disaster prevention and risk reduction.
On the other hand, through multiple modes of delivery (e.g., comprehensive practical
activities, curriculum education, and regular drills), schools are asked to reflect the value
orientation proposition innate to disaster prevention and risk reduction in education.
Besides, the training in disaster education for teachers needs to be enhanced to constantly
enrich teachers’ knowledge regarding disasters and risks as well as educational concepts in
this cognate area. The disaster education focus should change from emergency statuses to a
conventional status that can nip in the bud, popularise, and render routine, such education,
while making teacher ability in disaster resistance a core skill. In addition, the awareness of
how to resist disasters is expected to become a basic competency during the growth of
children, so as to improve the overall societal context of school disaster education.
In the future, we can further enhance the relevant research on school disaster education
from many aspects. For instance, the structural equation model can be employed to make
some quantitative analysis on the influence of students’ and teachers’ attitude towards
disaster education on the effectiveness. Meanwhile, besides survey research, when the big
data techniques become gradually popular, more information of disasters and individuals
can be fast gathered and provides greater assistance for school disaster education research.

Acknowledgements We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Education Science Planning
Fund of Hunan Province in China (No. XJK016BGD010), Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry
of Education in China (No. 16YJC880117), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in
China (No. 10532201737). We also would like to thank the Editor Professor T. S. Murty and two
respectable reviewers for their great help.

123
Nat Hazards

References
Bernhardsdottir AE, Musacchio G, Ferreira MA, Falsaperla S (2016) Informal education for disaster risk
reduction. Bull Earthq Eng 14(7):2105–2116
Ibrion M, Mokhtari M, Farrokh Nadim F (2015) Earthquake disaster risk reduction in Iran: lessons and
‘‘Lessons Learned’’ from three large earthquake disasters—Tabas 1978, Rudbar 1990, and Bam 2003.
Int J Disaster Risk Sci 6(4):415–427
Johnson VA, Ronan KR (2014) Classroom responses of New Zealand school teachers following the 2011
Christchurch earthquake. Nat Hazards 72(2):1075–1092
Liu XQ (2009) The disaster prevention awareness. Econ Mon 4:118–119
Musacchio G, Falsaperla S, Bernhardsdóttir AE, Ferreira MA, Sousa ML, Carvalho A, Zonno G (2016)
Education: can a bottom-up strategy help for earthquake disaster prevention? Bull Earthq Eng
14(7):2069–2086
Muzenda-Mudavanhu C, Manyena B, Collins AE (2016) Disaster risk reduction knowledge among children
in Muzarabani District, Zimbabwe. Nat Hazards 84(2):2215–2239
Nahayo L, Mupenzi C, Kayiranga A, Karamage F, Ndayisaba F, Nyesheja EM, Li L (2017) Early alert and
community involvement: approach for disaster risk reduction in Rwanda. Nat Hazards 86(2):505–517
Ostadtaghizadeh A, Ardalan A, Paton D, Khankeh H, Jabbari H (2016) Community disaster resilience: a
qualitative study on Iranian concepts and indicators. Nat Hazards 83(3):1843–1861
Samaddar S, Choi J, Misra BA, Tatano H (2015) Insights on social learning and collaborative action plan
development for disaster risk reduction: practicing Yonmenkaigi System Method (YSM) in flood-
prone Mumbai. Nat Hazards 75(2):1531–1554
Shaw R, Kobayashi KSH, Kobayashi M (2004) Linking experience, education, perception and earthquake
preparedness. Disaster Prev Manag 13(1):39–49
Shiwaku K, Shaw R, Kandel RC, Dixit AM (2007) Future perspective of school disaster education in Nepal.
Disaster Prev Manag 16(4):576–587
Shiwaku K, Ueda Y, Oikawa Y, Shaw R (2016) School disaster resilience assessment in the affected areas of
2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami. Nat Hazards 82(1):333–365
Tong TMT, Shaw R, Takeuchi Y (2012) Climate disaster resilience of the education sector in Thua Thien
Hue Province, Central Vietnam. Nat Hazards 63(2):685–709
Wang HG, Liu BT, Li ZL, Wang SW (2011) A survey study on university disaster education in Beijing. Soc
Sci Rev 26(2):277–278
Wei B, Su G, Liu F (2013) Public response to earthquake disaster: a case study in Yushu Tibetan Auton-
omous Prefecture. Nat Hazards 69(1):441–458
Wu HJ, Wei BY, Tian Q, Liu FG (2013) Analysis of present situation on response to earthquake disaster of
elementary school students in Yushu area, Qinghai province, China. J Catastro 28(2):166–171
Xiao Y, Huang Q, Wu K (2015) Understanding social media data for disaster management. Nat Hazards
79(3):1663–1679
Yeh SC (2010) Report for the disaster prevention literacy test and effectiveness evaluation plan for teachers
and students. National Kaohsiung Normal University, Kaohsiung
Yeh SC (2012) The development of disaster education in Taiwan. J Educ Stud 8(5):59–64
Zhang Y (2015) Survey on status survey of school disaster education and its implications. J Catastro
30(1):161–166
Zhang Y, Wang M (2014) Survey of teachers’ quality, practice of teachers’ training and its self-examination.
City Disaster Reduct 2:15–18
Zhang Y, Wang M, Li F, Li N, Zhang PT (2012) An investigation on the disaster prevention literacy of
China’s middle students. J Catastro 27(2):100–104
Zhang X, Yi L, Zhao D (2013) Community-based disaster management: a review of progress in China. Nat
Hazards 65(3):2215–2239
Zhang Q, Lu Q, Hu Y, Lau J (2015) What constrained disaster management capacity in the township level of
China? Case studies of Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes. Nat Hazards 77(3):1915–1938
Zhou Q, Du L, Shi ZY (2013) Exploration of new disaster education in Japanese school–based on Maiko
high school case study. Comp Educ Rev 2:82–86
Zhu TT (2016) Interpreting the value orientation of comprehensive practice activity curriculum. J Educ Sci
Hunan Norm Univ 15(3):96–102
Zhu TT, Peng HR, Zhang YJ (2017) The influence of higher education development on economic growth:
evidence from central China. High Educ Policy. doi:10.1057/s41307-017-0047-7

123