Curriculum responses to the Christchurch earthquakes

1 March 2013

Curriculum responses to the Christchurch earthquakes

Victoria University researchers have found that thanks to the quick response of science and geography teachers across New Zealand, most senior secondary school students were learning about the Christchurch earthquakes almost immediately after the event.

The research, which explores the influence of the Christchurch earthquakes on National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) geography and science curricula, is being carried out by Mike Taylor and Dr Azra Moeed from Victoria’s School of Education Policy and Implementation.

As part of the research, they have surveyed secondary school geography and science teachers from across New Zealand, to measure curriculum activity in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake in September 2010.

Initial results show short-term, rapid effects to the school curriculum across New Zealand, with teachers rating the significance and relevance to students as important drivers for teaching about earthquakes.

Teachers who indicated that they did not teach about earthquakes in late 2010 following the September earthquake, strongly agreed that a restrictive curriculum and assessment timeframe was the main reason.

Mr Taylor says the sporadic nature with which disaster education appears in senior school curricula raises questions about whether school-based decision-making gives disaster education the focus it requires.

“Some teachers chose to ignore that the earthquake happened in terms of their teaching, while others used the opportunity to include it in their programmes,” he says.

However, for many geography teachers, it served the purpose of supporting students with NCEA preparation.

“The study of extreme natural events is a foundational NCEA level 1 geography course, and this influenced geography teachers’ decision-making to squeeze it in and include in case study material.”

The next stage of the research will explore how students and teachers think about the respective roles of science and geography in relation to disaster education.

The full paper reporting stage one of the study was published in the Taylor & Francis journal International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education on Tuesday 26 February 2013. The article is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10382046.2012.759693.

ENDS

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