Assessing school teachers’ perception of disasters: Insights from a socio-environmentally stressed mediterranean area (Attica, Greece)

Abstract

Disasters usually endanger the lives of teachers and students causing serious disturbance to educational processes and forcing educational units to shut down for short (or even longer) times. In the last decades, Southern Europe experienced multiple disasters and their increased impact on local communities justifies a specific investigation of the perception of teachers toward multiple hazards, delineating the role of local contexts (urban vs rural) and the importance of individual socio-demographic attributes. Using EM-DAT hazard classification, this study presents the results of a questionnaire survey carried out between May and December 2019 on a representative sample of (secondary and primary education) teachers from two Greek regions (an urban district including the northern municipalities of the Greater Athens' Area and a rural district in Western Attica) displaying distinctive socio-environmental vulnerability to multiple hazards. Teachers' feeling of safety was investigated using a 5-degree Likert scale considering hazards separately, and results were analysed through multivariate statistical techniques. The empirical findings of this survey showed how earthquakes (a typical natural hazard) and crime (a typical social hazard) have impacted teacher's feeling of safety more strongly than the other examined hazards. Technological and biological hazards exerted, on average, a less intense impact on teacher's feeling of safety. Decision-makers should carefully consider these results and their implications for policies and prevention measures should be incorporated in future risk management plans directed toward school communities.