The impacts of recurring disasters on vulnerable urban societies have been tragic in terms of destruction and fatalities. However, disaster risk education that promotes risk mitigation and disaster preparedness has been shown to be effective in minimizing the impacts of recurring disasters on urban societies. Although the recent integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) into school curricula in developing countries has improved public awareness about hazards and potential disaster risks, its effectiveness in reducing the impacts of future disasters remains uncertain. This article stresses the potential role of disaster prevention education and argues that, even after substantial effort, significant financial, cultural, and technical barriers remain to integrating DRR into school curricula. This critique provides detailed examples that shed light on both the achievements and the challenges that hinder the integration of disaster risk education into school curricula, focusing on the case study of DRR education in Lebanon.
AleskerovF.SayA. I.TokerA.AkinH.AltayG. (2005). A cluster-based decision support system for estimating earthquake damage and casualties. Disasters, 29, 255-276.
2.
AlexanderD. (1991). Natural disasters: A framework for research and teaching. Disasters, 15, 209-226.
3.
AlexanderD. (2007). Misconception as a barrier to teaching about disasters. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 22, 95-103.
4.
AmbraseysN.MelvilleC. R.AdamsR. D. (1994). Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea: A historical review. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
5.
ArthurO.SheffrinS. (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
6.
BaytiyehH.NajaM. K. (2014). Can education reduce Middle Eastern fatalistic attitude regarding earthquake disasters?Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 23, 343-355.
7.
BilhamR. (2009). The seismic future of cities. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 7, 839-887.
8.
BilhamR. (2010). Lessons from the Haiti earthquake. Nature, 463, 878-879.
9.
BrauchH. G. (2003). Urbanization and natural disasters in the mediterranean: Population growth and climate change in the 21st century. In KreimerA.ArnoldM.CarlinA. (Eds.), Building safer cities: The future of disaster risk (pp. 149-164). Washington, DC: The World Bank.
BrownF. J. (1932). Knowledge of results as an incentive in school room practice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 23(7), 532-552.
12.
ChenC. Y.LeeW. C. (2012). Damages to school infrastructure and development to disaster prevention education strategy after Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 21, 541-555.
13.
CoburnA.SpenceR. (2006). Front matter. London, England: John Wiley.
14.
DeggM.HomanJ. (2005). Earthquake vulnerability in the Middle East. Geography, 90, 54-66.
15.
DunneP.MhoneG. (2003). Africa’s crises: Recent analysis of armed conflicts and natural disasters in Africa (No. 5). Geneve, Switzerland: International Labour Office.
16.
EliasA.TapponnierP.SinghS. C.KingG. C. P.BriaisA.DaeronM.. . .KlingerY. (2007). Active thrusting offshore Mount Lebanon: Source of the tsunamigenic A.D. 551 Beirut-Tripoli earthquake. Geology, 35, 755-758.
17.
Ghafory-AshtianyM. (2009). View of Islam on earthquakes, human vitality and disaster. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 18, 218-232.
18.
HoughS. E.BilhamR. (2006). After the earth quakes. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
19.
IzadkhahY. O.HosseiniM. (2005). Towards resilient communities in developing countries through education of children for disaster preparedness. International Journal of Emergency Management, 2, 138-148.
20.
Masters of Disaster. (2008). Teachers’ handbook: Disaster management and earthquake preparation. Suva, Fiji: Ministry of Defence.
21.
McEntireD. A.MathisS. (2007). Comparative politics and disasters: Assessing substantive and methodological contributions. In McEntireD. A.MathisS. (Eds.), Disciplines, disasters, and emergency management: The convergence and divergence of concepts, issues and trends from the research literature (pp. 178-188). New York, NY: Charles C Thomas.
22.
NajaM.BaytiyehH. (2014). Towards safer public school buildings in Lebanon: An advocacy for seismic retrofitting initiative. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 8, 158-165.
23.
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. (2008). Costs of inaction on environmental policy challenges (Report ENV/EPOC(2007)17/REV2). Washington, DC: Author.
24.
PetalM. (2008). Disaster prevention for schools guidance for education sector decision-makers. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
RichardD. E.McGarrityJ. (1994). Early adolescents’ perceptions of relative risk from 10 societal and environmental hazards. The Journal of Environmental Education, 26(1), 16-23.
27.
SelbyD.KagawaF. (2012). Disaster risk reduction in school curricula: Case studies from thirty countries. New York,NY: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
28.
ShawR.TakeuchiY.GweeQ. R.ShiwakuK. (2011). Disaster education: An introduction. In ShawR.TakeuchiY.GweeQ. R.ShiwakuK. (Eds.), Disaster education (Vol. 7, pp. 1-22). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
29.
StrömbergD. (2007). Natural disasters, economic development, and humanitarian aid. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21, 199-222.
30.
TalebianM.FieldingE. J.FunningG. J.GhorashiM.JacksonJ.NazariH.. . .WrightT. J. (2004). The 2003 Bam (Iran) earthquake: Rupture of a blind strike-slip fault. Geophysical Research Letters, 31(11), 1-4.
United Nations International Strategies for Disaster Reduction. (2014). Progress and challenges in disaster risk reduction: A contribution towards the development of policy indicators for the post-2015 framework on disaster risk reduction. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.
YenC. L.LohC. H.ChenL. C.WeiL. Y.LeeW. C.HoH. Y. (2006). Development and implementation of disaster reduction technology in Taiwan. Natural Hazards, 37(1), 3-21.
