Survey and Analysis of Teachers’ Disaster Risk Reduction Literacy—Basic Knowledge to Improve Disaster Risk Reduction Education Programs—

Abstract

According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, safety education in Japanese schools comprises three domains—disaster safety, traffic safety, and daily-life safety—as defined in the School Health and Safety Act. This study focuses on disaster safety, a foundational issue that influences all three domains and involves large-scale impacts requiring educational intervention. It aims to clarify the structural characteristics of how teachers, who play a central role in school safety, cognitively evaluate diverse crisis events. Teachers who participated in school safety instructor training programs in Miyagi, Okayama, and Niigata Prefectures were surveyed regarding 20 crisis events. Four psychological constructs—perceived likelihood (Q1), perceived impact (Q2), crisis imagery (Q3), and self-efficacy (Q4)—were measured through corresponding questionnaire items, and a risk perception score (R score), calculated as Q1 × Q2, was included in the analysis. The analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between Q1 and Q2, indicating that teachers tend to evaluate the frequency of occurrence and expected degree of damage in an interrelated manner. A significant positive correlation was also observed between Q3 and Q4, suggesting that events that can be vividly imagined tend to enhance self-efficacy. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation between R score and Q4 indicated that both tended to be rated highly for large-scale disasters but relatively low for low-frequency hazards. Self-efficacy was found to be generally lower than risk perception, implying a potential gap between recognition and action. Notably, a “Quadrant IV group,” in which self-efficacy remained low despite reaching a moderate level of risk perception, was identified, and these crisis events were recognized as priority targets for educational intervention. These findings indicate that this analytical framework is effective for comprehensively understanding the psychological structure of disaster risk reduction (DRR) literacy. It can also be applied to assess learning outcomes for both teachers and students, providing foundational insights for improving the “recognition–judgment–action” learning process in DRR education.