Impact evaluation of a school-based disaster education program in a city affected by the 2011 great East Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of a disaster education program implemented by the fourth-grade students at an elementary school affected by tsunami one year after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. Called the “Reconstruction Mapping Program”, it applied a town-watching and map-making approach to disaster education in the disaster reconstruction phase. Emphasizing positive aspects of reconstruction in consideration of the disaster affected children's mental care, the aim of the Program was set as developing children's attitudes towards contributing to the community. The study used mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine the fourth-grade children's responses to the Program before and after the implementation in 2013 and 2014, and 2018. The study found that the Program was a promising approach for the students who had experience disaster because even after walking around the community that was destroyed by the 2011 tsunami, children kept their affection for their community and they became motivated to contribute to the community's reconstruction. The study also found that the ninth-grade students in 2018 who participated in the Program in 2013 perceived the Program experience positively because they thought that working in groups and keeping records of reconstruction were important. The Program experience impacted the ninth-grade students' willingness to contribute to the community for the longer term. However, not much impact was seen for their disaster preparedness and mitigation behavior. The Program helped to foster children as “agents of change” to make a disaster-resilient community.