UNESCO/UNICEF Integrating DRR into the Curriculum Technical Guidance Tool

Following upon their September-December 2011 UNICEF/UNESCO Mapping of Global DRR Integration into Education Curricula consultancy, Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby are acting as consultants to a follow-on UNESCO/UNICEF initiative focussed on preparing technical guidance to ministries and educational jurisdictions globally on integrating DRR into education policies, curriculum, assessment and teacher professional development.  In keeping with UNESCO and UNICEF approaches to DRR in education, the guidance tool will promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as the framework for teaching DRR in both the primary and secondary school.  The international guidance tool will:

• Offer a rationale explaining the benefits of introducing DRR into the curriculum within an ESD frame
• Include a typology and discussion of different approaches and strategies for integrating DRR in the curriculum
• Give guidance on the formulation of DRR curriculum goals and grade-related learning objectives
• Demonstrate alternative teaching approaches, alternative ways of sequencing knowledge, skills and attitudinal development, and different ways of progressing learning materials development
• Provide benchmarks and reference standards for monitoring and evaluating student progress
• Develop relevant planning, assessment, review and discussion tools relating to DRR curriculum development
• Provide case study examples of successful integration of DRR into school curricula and practice
• Develop links and synergies with worldwide DRR in education initiatives
• Offer guidance and advice to teachers and learning communities on development of curriculum materials
• Guidance on scaling up of DRR curriculum initiatives within education systems

The consultancy will involve working with the DRR in education community globally and with cases studied countries in particular.

Fumiyo and David will present their draft guidance tool to a reference group meeting at UNESCO headquarters, Paris, in the first week of July 2012.  The tool will be launched and presented at the Fourth International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC), ‘Integrative Risk Management in a Changing World – Pathways to a Resilient Society’ in Davos, Switzerland, 26-30 August.