Individual Resilience and the Environmental Education for Sustainability as a Base of Community Resilience. A Case Study with High School Teachers

Abstract

This text describes the methodology and first results of a case study on the community resilience of cities that are recurrently affected by floods in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. A problem arising from the changes in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones resulting from climate change which mainly affects populations in poverty and those settled in high risk areas. It has been documented that populations resist, recover and even transform themselves in the face of adversity, which has been called community resilience. Community resilience is based on individual resilience and the latter can be developed through education. For this, a significant figure is needed, among other things, to provide relevant models of resolution as well as leadership. The case study confirms that young people can play a determining role during the floods; therefore the significant figure can be originated with theirs teachers. So, teachers with resilient characteristics are necessary to strengthen resilience in their students. Then, students could share individual resilience with their friends, family and neighbors, to create a social belt of transmission of resilience permeated by environmental education for sustainability. For this it is necessary to have resilient teachers. Therefore, this research identifies the individual and community resilience of high school teachers to provide a diagnosis to be considered in actions that improve their capacities of prevention, recovery and transformation to floods.