Teaching and learning about disasters: Contributions from historical and  social studies of science

Call for Papers (closed)

According to a recent UN report, an estimated 4.03 billion people worldwide were affected by disasters related to natural hazards such as floods, storms and earthquakes between 2000 and 2019 (CRED & UNDRR, 2020). Besides these natural hazards, individuals and societies are also increasingly exposed to technological and human-made hazards (e.g., radiological, chemical, transport) that are induced by human activities and choices. What is the role of science education in addressing disasters? In 2015, the UN adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) which highlighted the role of education in preventing, responding to, and recovering from disasters (United Nations, 2015). This special issue aims to provide a platform for exploring how science education (including engineering and environmental education) can contribute to, and benefit from, historical and social studies of science and technology to tackle regional and global disasters. Papers are solicited from an international network of science educators, historians of science, STS scholars, and disaster researchers instigated by a project supported by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK, focused on disaster education in the UK and South Korean contexts. Different national contexts including UK, South Korea, USA and Germany are represented in the issue.

The special issue is inspired by the sustained emphasis on action-oriented approaches in science education (Bencze & Alsop, 2014; Hodson, 2009) and the growing social significance of disasters accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and anthropogenic climate change (United Nations, 2022). In science education literature, various disasters have been used as contexts for science learning—the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Wong et al., 2009; Wong et al., 2010), the Taiwan earthquake (Tsai, 2001), the Chernobyl (Cross et al., 2000; Lijnse et al., 1990; Wilson, 2013) and Fukushima (Neumann, 2014; Neumann & Hopf, 2013a, 2013b) nuclear disasters, the Flint water crisis (Davis & Schaeffer, 2019), and the COVID-19 pandemic (Archila et al., 2021; Herman et al., 2022; Saribas & Çetinkaya, 2021; García-Carmona, 2021; Ha et al., 2022; Stapleton & Meier, 2022). A broad range of issues has been explored in relation to these disasters, such as socioscientific reasoning, environmental justice, worldviews, and risk perception, in relation to science education. Different research traditions, including socioscientific issues education (Sadler & Zeidler, 2003), environmental and health education (Williams et al., 2017), and risk education (Hansen & Hammann, 2017; Schenk et al., 2019; Pietrocola et al., 2021; Kolstø, 2006; Christensen & Fensham, 2012), have underpinned these studies. 

Yet, there is limited discussion in the literature about how different types of disasters could be understood and taught holistically in the context of science education, particularly using the lenses of historical and social studies of science and disasters. The papers in this issue will draw on theoretical lenses such as socioscientific issues, the nature of science and engineering, environmental literacy, science and technology studies, and disaster studies to explore how science education can contribute to reducing disaster risk and building resilience across different types of disasters. That is, the issue will create an opportunity for ‘thinking across disasters’ (Fortun & Morgan, 2015) from the perspective of science education. It will exemplify how historical and social studies of science could contribute to addressing urgent problems in society, both theoretically and empirically. 

One central question for the issue to address is the scale and scope of disasters and their implications for teaching about disasters. For example, disasters can be caused by natural triggers (e.g., geophysical, hydrological and meteorological hazards) and/or technological system failures (e.g., oil spills, infrastructure collapses, nuclear accidents and chemical explosions). This variety means that different categories of disasters may necessitate different curricular and pedagogical considerations. In addition, the temporal (sudden-onset, slow-onset) and spatial (regional, national, global) scale of disasters can influence how disasters are taught with sensitivity, care and relevance and how they relate to science education. For example, the issue will consider how global and slow disasters such as climate change would need different approaches than local disasters from technological failures, in terms of disaster prevention, mitigation, response and recovery in the context of science education. The issue will cover a number of case studies including historical disasters (e.g., the Titanic disaster) as well as contemporary and ongoing disasters (e.g., climate change).

Alongside the nature of disaster itself, the issue also aims to initiate discussions on different curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching about disasters in science education at various levels and settings. The papers will showcase and analyse educational initiatives around the world and what possibilities and challenges are there for teaching disasters in different science education settings (e.g., primary and secondary schools, teacher education, undergraduate science and engineering courses). In considering approaches to disasters in science education, issues of inequalities and injustices relating to race, class, ethnicity and gender will be developed and problematised (Preston, 2012; Waight et al., 2022).

Specifically, the special issue will include papers addressing the following questions arising from the intersection of science education and disaster research:

• What is the relationship between science and disasters?

• How can concepts and framework from disaster studies such as hazard, vulnerability and resilience interact with the aims of science education? 

• What is the role of science education in reducing disaster risk and building the resilience of individuals and societies?

• How can different types of disasters in terms of the triggering hazards (natural, technological, combined) and the speed (sudden-onset, slow-onset) of disaster be taught in science education?

• How can the study of past and current disasters inform our response to future disaster through science education?

• How are disasters related to key issues within science education, such as the nature of science and technology, socio-scientific issues, and activism?

• How can insights from the historical and social studies of disasters be mobilised to inform how we teach about disasters in science education?

• How can science educators design effective learning experiences about disasters at various levels of education? (e.g., school, teacher education, higher education)

• What possibilities for science educators are there to collaborate with other school subjects (e.g., history, ethics, social studies) to teach about disasters?

• What are some ethical issues that can arise from addressing disasters in science education and how could they be mitigated?

By soliciting papers from science educators, environmental educators, environmental scientists, anthropologists and historians of science and technology, the issue will resonate with the mission of Science & Education that promotes collaboration between science education and adjacent disciplines. The four guest editors represent different academic backgrounds (Grace and Park in science education; Hutton in environmental science; and Knowles in history of technology) and, accordingly, different approaches to disaster education ranging from socioscientific issues, nature of science and technology, disaster science and disaster history. This diversity will enable soliciting and editing manuscripts from a diverse range of authors and reviewers, which in turn will lead to a rich discussion about teaching disasters in science education at the school, teacher education, and university levels. At the same time, the common focus on disaster studies will allow for a discussion that can lead to a coherent and comprehensive account that synthesises various contributions. The papers address disaster education in a range of national and comparative contexts. Methodological approaches will range from theoretical and historical studies to participatory, classroom-based and ethnographical studies.