Abstract
The purpose of this research is to compare the scheme of scientific knowledge of seismology
held by citizens between Japan and Mexico. The authors first reviewed the compulsory education
curriculum in each country, followed by fieldwork of disaster education at a university in Mexico
City and schools in a city along the Pacific coast where a huge tsunami is expected to hit in near
future. As a result of analyzing the data obtained through a series of practices, the authors found:
(1) Mexican curriculum is characterized by an intention to organize the knowledge of earthquake
systematically on the basis of plate tectonics theory, whereas Japanese curriculum emphasizes
the combination of empirical knowledge apart from the comprehensive idea of plate tectonics;
On the contrary, (2) citizens’ perception in practical context show that, in Japan earthquake is
generally recognized as wave transmitted from the epicenter, whereas in Mexico earthquake is
understood just as ground motion on the spot. Based on this comparison, the authors provide
arrangements of knowledge to teach in schools in Mexico, adapting scientific theory to local
social and cultural context. This process is appreciated as “cultural tuning” which allows us to
link experts’ knowledge to effective disaster education.
