Capacity development of school teachers in disaster recovery process

The East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (EJET) in 2011 attacked the vast area of Japan and Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture which is one of the worst-affected areas. It is required to improvement of teacher training programs for future disaster risk reduction, considering the current situations in the recovery process since the teachers’ roles are important. This chapter suggests the concept of teacher training in the disaster-affected areas with the purposes: (1) to identify school disaster management system and capacity development in Miyagi Prefecture and Kesennuma City, (2) to identify the support activities to schools and teachers, (3) to identify the problems and challenges on school disaster management in the recovery process, and (4) to develop, implement, and evaluate teacher training program. In Kesennuma City, the NGO and the university worked and support school teachers to develop education materials and assess the school disaster resilience. Based on these activities, the new concept of teacher training in Kesennuma City was developed for the three pillars; (1) promotion of disaster education with “DRR Education Sheet”, (2) enhancing school-community linkage, and (3) periodical assessment through School Disaster Resilience Assessment which is an assessment tool on school disaster resilience. The training program was implemented and enhanced teachers’ understanding on school disaster resilience. Teacher training in the areas during the recovery process requested the teachers to understand the significance of school-community linkages and periodical comprehensive assessment/evaluation.