Fumiyo Kagawa, PhD, is Research Director of Sustainability Frontiers. Her expertise includes holistic and transformative education theory and practice concerning climate change, disaster risk reduction and management, peacebuilding, environmental sustainability and the rights of the child. Fumiyo is a Japanese citizen.
Fumiyo Kagawa, PhD, is Research Director of Sustainability Frontiers. Her expertise includes holistic and transformative education theory and practice concerning climate change, disaster risk reduction and management, peacebuilding, environmental sustainability and the rights of the child. Fumiyo is a Japanese citizen.
Fumiyo has undertaken a wide range of education research and development initiatives in diverse sociocultural contexts and has extensive experience of conducting sector-wide educational research. She has also engaged in curriculum review and development initiatives. She is noted, too, for the development of teaching and learning materials and capacity development programs for the education sector. Her participatory, interactive and action-oriented pedagogies integrate gender responsive and inclusivity dimensions. Through her research, curriculum and pedagogical development work, Fumiyo seeks to strengthen the voice, agency and decision-making power of those who are most marginalized and disadvantaged.
In partnership with David Selby, Fumiyo has made a number of pathfinding contributions to the development of theory and practice of climate change, disaster risk reduction, sustainability and peacebuilding education. Published outcomes include: Education and Climate Change: Living and Learning in Interesting Times (Routledge, 2010), the first comprehensive treatment of climate change education globally; the ground breaking collection, Sustainability Frontiers: Critical and Transformative Voices from the Borderlands of Sustainability Education (Barbara Budrich, 2015); the UNESCO climate change teacher education program, Climate Change in the Classroom (UNESCO 2013); the first comprehensive case study volume mapping out disaster risk reduction curricula from around world, Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula (UNICEF/UNESCO, 2012); the technical guidance tool, Towards a Learning Culture of Safety and Resilience (UNESCO/UNICEF, 2013); and a critical review of UNICEF child-friendly education theory and practice through a peacebuilding lens, Child-friendly Schooling for Peacebuilding (UNICEF, 2014).
Most recently, Fumiyo has been lead consultant for a regional study of impacts of and responses to climate change across the education systems of South Asia on behalf of UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia. The product of this research is The Heat is On! publication series consisting of eight country-specific reports, a regional synthesis report and a tool for reflection, dialogue and progress assessment for Ministries of Education and their national and sub-national partners.
Fumiyo has spoken at numerous international conferences and gatherings and has facilitated participatory workshops and training sessions for education policy makers and practitioners in a number of countries.
Her ongoing research interest is developing forward-looking and transformative theory and practice for resilience building education that faces the challenge of runaway nature of climate change and promotes actions towards greater social and environmental justice.
