Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
20.5.2.1
Presentations at Academic Conferences
GESJ held their annual conference in August 2011, at Akita in northeast Japan.
The deadline for the call for presentations was very soon after the disaster, so there
was only one geography lesson plan presentation that addressed it. The presenter
was a secondary school geography teacher in Sendai City, who suffered from the
aftermath of the disaster alongside her students. In the conference, she fi rst reported
on damage to schools and students, and said geography education should confront
this pressing situation with special care to affected students. She then proposed her
geography lesson plan for third year of senior high school. This lesson effectively
incorporated students' own disaster survival experiences into the Japanese high
school geography curriculum.
In the subsequent GESJ annual conference in July 2012, there were three presenta-
tions that examined disaster prevention education. The themes were: (1) A theoretical
framework for disaster prevention education in geography; (2) an analysis of lessons
learned from the controversial issue of “radioactive contamination and region” to foster
consensus building and social skills; and (3) a challenge to create a disaster-resilient city
through fi eldwork and map use. Disaster-related geography education presentations
have also been increasing at AJG and Social Studies educators' conferences.
20.5.2.2
Publications in Journals
GESJ's academic journal
Shin Chiri
(The New Geography) published their 60th anni-
versary special issue on the “New Offi cial Guideline for School Teaching and Strategy
for Geography Education” in April 2012. This issue consists of various ideas for
implementing the new National Curriculum Standards, with many references to disas-
ter prevention education.
Kiyoshi Yoshikai, who was involved in this curriculum revision procedure at
MEXT, stated that substantial disaster prevention education is an urgent issue for
the government. He supports that geography be the core subject for promoting this,
partly due togeography education's earlier achievements (GESJ
2012
). In response,
many researchers and educators discussed how geography contents and strategies
contribute to disaster prevention education.
The monthly journal
Chiri
(Geography), published by the Kokon Shoin
Corporation for geography readers such as school teachers, quickly released a spe-
cial emergency issue in June 2011. The journal has since produced many articles and
information concerning the disaster and affected areas. For example, a special issue
titled “Japanese Society after the Disaster of 3.11” was published in January 2012.
In this issue, a geography professor from an affected area described signifi cant roles
of geography education in disaster prevention education, through practices such as
hazard map learning, awareness of local geography for survival, and workshops for
raising disaster prevention consciousness (Murayama
2011
). A group of high school
geography teachers published the article “Geography Education Confronts Disasters”
after the January 2012 issue, regarding their view that a disaster is a comprehensive
social phenomenon that involves restoration.
