Assisting the Recovery of School Educationin Natural Disaster Emergencies:
Roles of a Local Teacher Training University in Tohoku

Takashi ODA

Bulletin of Center for Disaster Education & Recovery Assistance
Miyagi University of Education Vol.3
2015宮城教育大学 教育復興支援センター紀要

第３巻 (2015)

Assisting the Recovery of School Education in Natural Disaster Emergencies－ Roles of a Local Teacher Training University in Tohoku
Takashi ODA*
Abstract: This paper reports the actions taken by the Miyagi University of Education, the only national
teacher training college in Tohoku, following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The present work
discusses how the university utilized its existing resources and focused on international networking as an
educational institution to incorporate itself into several volunteering programs. The paper also examines
the lessons the university learned from the disaster, including the promotion of disaster risk reduction (DRR)
education in pre-service teacher training.
Keywords: disaster recovery, university, pre-service training, ESD

Introduction
This paper presents the actions taken by the Miyagi University of Education (MUE) after the 2011 Great East Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami in Tohoku, a northeastern area of Japan. MUE played an important role in assisting the recovery ofschool education immediately after the disaster and has reformed itself as an institution by presenting important lessons for its
own students through volunteering activities and the inclusion of disaster risk education programs in the curriculum over the
past four years. Based on the lessons learned since the disaster, we discuss the roles of this teacher training university locatedin the disaster-hit area and its new institutional orientation following the calamity.

MUE and 2011 disaster
The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (magnitude 9.0) caused more than 20,000 casualties in Japan, a country withrelatively strong natural disaster preparedness. Miyagi was the hardest-hit prefecture, and the coastal Tohoku prefectures of
Iwate and Fukushima also suffered signiﬁcant losses. In terms of school-related damage, Miyagi prefecture incurred many
casualties. Miyagi borders Fukushima prefecture to the south, which experienced additional issues pertaining to the nuclear
power plant accident caused by the earthquake and tsunami. As the social, economic, and political center of the Tohoku region,
the city of Sendai, the capital of Miyagi prefecture, has attracted many residents and businesses, and it has served as a leadingcity for the recovery of Tohoku.
MUE, located in Sendai, is Tohoku's only national teacher training college and was established by becoming independent
from the teacher training function of the Tohoku University Faculty of Education in 1965. Over the past 50 years, MUE has
dedicated itself to the training of pre-service teachers and leaders in broader areas of society related to education, particularlyin the Tohoku region. In the latter half of this 50-year history, MUE has contributed to addressing global issues such asenvironmental concerns and sustainability, as later presented in detail.
This tradition continues to date: of freshmen students at MUE, 70 percent aim to become teachers, with lesser proportions
hoping to become civil servants or work in other education-related businesses, according to a recent survey. Of the 2013
* Center for Disaster Education & Recovery Assistance, Miyagi University of Education－ 15 －

Assisting the Recovery of School Education in Natural Disaster Emergencies － Roles of a Local Teacher Training University in Tohoku

graduating class, 60 percent actually became teachers.

Approximately 90 percent of MUE students are from the Tohoku

area. Among those who actually became teachers, 70 percent were from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, the prefectures mostaffected by the 2011 disaster. Therefore, it is highly likely that these students became involved in the recovery process after
their graduation. Over the past ﬁve decades, MUE has nurtured partnerships with the local education community, including
schools and prefectural and municipal boards of education, and it maintains strong ties with these institutions, as well as with
its alumni. These ties allowed MUE to develop its assistance program, as will be mentioned later.
Many members of the campus community suffered from the 2011 disaster. Table 1 shows the results of surveys conducted
over the past four years asking what kind of damage the students endured from the disaster. Some students lost immediatefamily members, while others have faced economic hardship as a result of parental unemployment, housing damage, andevacuation from the nuclear accident security zone. It should be noted that this survey does not reﬂect the damages to faculty
and staff members or their relatives. Considering such ﬁgures would increase of the signiﬁcant impacts of the disaster on themembers of the community.
Table 1. Damage to students at the Miyagi University of Education
All students in
2011, including
graduate students(master course)

New students
entered in 2012
(current 3rd graders)

New students
entered in 2013
(current 2nd
graders)

New students
entered in 2014
(current 1st graders)

Family dead within the 2nd degree

24

3

4

6

Householder lost his/her job

22

1

5

2

Householder ordered to stay homeover 3 months

4

3

0

0

Signiﬁcant decrease in family
income caused by the disaster

64

12

5

3

Moderate decrease in family income
caused by the disaster

40

3

12

7

Slight decrease in family income
caused by the disaster

79

11

18

7

Temporary relocation from thestudent's family home

98

10

4

6

Family still staying in temporary
accommodations

34

8

3

8

Residence completely destroyed

53

16

14

17

Residence half destroyed

141

25

28

27

Residence partially destroyed

343

92

55

38

Residence located within the security
zone (20 km from Fukushima No.1
nuclear power plant)

9

1

1

1

Residence located within the
deliberate evacuation zone

4

3

0

2

Residence located within theemergency evacuation preparation
zone

14

6

5

2

No speciﬁc effect

662

163

175

204

Other

52

15

10

22

28

34

16

1643

400

373

368

Unanswered
TOTAL

Compiled from the students career committee's new student questionnaires in 2012, 2013, and 2014, and research on the actual student situation in2012 at the Miyagi University of Education－ 16 －

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MUE itself suffered approximately 500 million yen in property damage, including the university's coastal ﬁeld seminar
facility located at the southern border of Miyagi prefecture, which was completely washed away by the tsunami. On the main
campus in Sendai, the damage included building cracks, fallen ceilings, and broken equipment.
Many lives and living environments were destroyed by this disaster, and its personal and institutional affects led us torecognize the importance of providing individual assistance, both direct and indirect, to those who were affected. This
realization drove the establishment of recovery assistance programs for the educational communities in Miyagi. The programs
launched at MUE made full use of its relatively small and closely networked campus community, consequently also providing
learning and human development opportunities to this community.

2011 disaster and schools
Here, we discuss the impacts of the 2011 disaster on local schools. Many schools and teachers played important roles in saving
lives throughout Tohoku during and after the 2011 disaster. Table 2 summarizes the effects of 3.11 on school environments androles that such schools played.
Table 2 Effects of 3.11 on school environments
Human Casualties as of Sept 1, 2014
Deaths: 19,074
Missing: 2633
Injuries: 6,219
School-related
Students deaths (K-high school): 617 （see Kazumi 2013）
Casualties due to school building collapse: None
School Facilities
Schools with some damage: 7,988 (22 prefectures, from Hokkaido to Wakayama)
Public Schools with some damage: 6,284 (K-high school and special needs)
Severe damage (rebuilding or major restoration necessary): 193
Inundated by tsunami: 131
Schools with students present at the time: 113
Schools projected in inundation zone of hazard map: 53
Schools projected in non-inundation of hazard map: 69
Schools not on hazard map: 935% evacuated to high ﬂoor or roof, 32% backyard hill or higher ground
31% designated evacuation center
Evacuation Shelter
Schools used as evacuation shelters: 622 (maximum on March 17, 2011)
Sources: National Institute for Educational Policy Research (2012), Kazumi (2013)－ 17 －

Assisting the Recovery of School Education in Natural Disaster Emergencies － Roles of a Local Teacher Training University in Tohoku

Schools in Japan are often designated as primary evacuation sites and shelters for the following reasons: 1) schools havea more even geographic distribution in communities than do other public buildings, and 2) schools have larger grounds andstricter building structures than do private properties. Among the over 20,000 casualties from the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami,
617 schoolchildren were lost, and many teachers were killed by the events. Among the 7,988 schools in 22 prefectures
reportedly damaged by the 3.11 disaster, 193 schools suffered severe damage requiring rebuilding or major restorations.
Most building damage were found with old building code (pre. year 1981). A total of 131 schools were inundated by thetsunami, including 113 schools in which students were present at the time of the disaster. Of these schools, 53 were includedin the tsunami inundation zone on the governmental hazard map, while 69 were not included in this zone. According to one
survey, 35 percent of schools evacuated children to a high ﬂoor or school roof, 32 percent to a backyard hill, and 31 percent todesignated evacuation centers.
For example, Arahama Elementary School in Sendai survived as the only strong and tall building in the coastal Arahama
community. Photo 1 shows evacuees on the roof of this school; approximately 320 evacuees, including many from the local
community, spent up to two days on the roof.

Photo 1. Sendai City Arahama Elementary School
Source: City of Sendai
Japanese schools contributed to saving many lives after 3.11, with 622 school facilities used as evacuation shelters at thepeak of the aftermath on March 17, 2011. While some school buildings survived the disaster, other damaged schools had to
be closed or relocated, and some of their students have been placed in temporary housing. Some evacuated children had to－ 18 －

宮城教育大学 教育復興支援センター紀要

第３巻 (2015)

study in the gymnasia of other schools: the picture below shows junior high school classes in a school gymnasium in Sendai,
with different simultaneous classes divided by cardboard walls (photo 2). The stability of the learning environment was vastly
compromised, and students had to cope with these conditions.

Photo 2. Junior high school classes in Sendai being temporarily conducted in a school gymnasium
Source: City of Sendai

New role for recovery in emergency in education
The stability of the learning environment is a serious concern among educators in recovering Tohoku, and those engaged involunteering programs hope to positively impact these children. The results of an MUE survey (table 3) conducted immediately
after the disaster in 2011 show that over half of the student population became involved in some sort of volunteering activities,
providing help from debris removal to the operation of evacuation shelters.
Table 3. Miyagi University of Education student engagement in volunteering in 2011
Support school operation

26%

Wreckage disposal

15.5%

Operate evacuation centers

12.3%

Sort relief supplies

12.3%(Of these volunteers, 42.4% did their recovery assistance in Sendai.)Among these volunteers, roughly a quarter provided assistance to school operations. Due to the growing demand formore systematic student volunteering programs, the Center for Disaster Education & Recovery Assistance was established－ 19 －

Assisting the Recovery of School Education in Natural Disaster Emergencies － Roles of a Local Teacher Training University in Tohoku

in June 2011. The center consists of a volunteer assistance division and a research and development division. In addition tounderstanding the continuously changing situation of the disaster-hit areas and looking into their recovery support needs, theResearch and Development Division conducts a variety of research to examine the school experiences of the disaster anddisseminates these insights for future disaster risk reduction at schools by publishing researcher reports, including this Bulletin.
The center has published, although mostly in Japanese, more than 30 reports related to schools and the 2011 Tohoku disasteri.
More practically, the center coordinates several assistance programs to help local schools recover. To date, in collaboration
with teacher training universities all over Japan, MUE has coordinated over 4,500 student volunteers in the disaster-hit areas.
The most popular volunteering program engages pre-service education students in student tutoring at elementary and juniorhigh schools in the areas hit by the Tohoku disasters (Photo 3). The volunteers also include visitors from other teacher training
programs nationwide. The center coordinates school visits, arranges travel and accommodations, and manages safety (including
insurance coverage) for these volunteers.
From a more educational perspective, pre-volunteering seminars are provided to instruct students how to interact withaffected children. For example, students should not actively ask children questions about their experiences of the disaster,which would remind them of the calamities in 2011. Some students have the opportunity to provide feedback to their peers andfaculty after volunteering. The center hired several retired school principals as coordinators to arrange school visits, as well as
to provide advice to volunteering students before and after their service.
These programs were possible thanks to existing MUE partnerships with the local education community. To implementa variety of educational programs such as open seminars, joint research and practices, and practicums, and more recently,
training for renewing teaching licenses and in-service training, MUE has established Memoranda of Understanding and/or Agreement with many education-related organizations. Through these official partnerships, the faculty and staff havedeveloped close working relationships with other institutions, which contributed to the coordination of post-disaster recovery
assistance programs.
The student participants also visit severely affected coastal
areas to listen to principals and teachers of schools thatwere damaged or used as emergency shelters about theirexperiences and decision-making during the crisis.

Hence,

this volunteer program both assists affected schools andprovides essential disaster risk reduction (DRR) lessons for
future professional educators.
MUE, as the only national teacher training college in
Photo 3. Students tutoring volunteers at a school
Source: Center for Disaster Education & Recovery Assistance,
Miyagi University of Education

Tohoku, has valued the positive educational effects of the
program on its students and visitors who will become teachers
in the future. Interacting directly with children and teachers

affected by the disaster gives these volunteers unforgettable unique experiences in their pre-service capacity building process.

Shifting gears toward DRR education in pre-service training
Although special attention must be given to student survivors, who may suffer psychological impacts from involvement inthese volunteering programs, we observed that students with actual disaster experience, including those who lost friends andi More details can be found at http://fukkou.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/report/report.html－ 20 －

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family, played leading roles. One student who lost her mother from the tsunami mentions in a book MUE published that she heals
her mind by actually helping others who suffered and wants to give back by volunteering (MUE Student Volunteers 2014).
At MUE's professional graduate school, a DRR and DRR education course replaced an existing “School Education andTeaching Study” course in October 2014. The program has enrolled approximately 20 pre-service master's students and inservice teachers to learn speciﬁc topics regarding DRR in schools.
A new discussion has begun regarding how a teacher training program can provide DRR education so that future teachers
are prepared. While thousands of lives have been saved by teachers and schools serving as educational institutions and local
shelters, a tragic accident exception occurred in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, contributing to the loss of 74 pupils and 10
teachers. A third-party examination board recommended that the Ministry of Education and teacher training institutions
mandate disaster prevention programs in their pre-service programs. While pioneering examples were limited, MUE began toconsider how best it could utilize the various strengths of the faculty and professionals on its small campus for effective DRR
management and education lessons.
MUE's role in global links
MUE, one of two national universities in Sendai, has developed international networks in the area of education. MUE
has ofﬁcial partnerships with 10 sister schools and 2 educational institutions. Using this existing regional and international
network, the university has tried to share its experience with its international partners. Students, faculty, and staff members
have exchange programs in which they share lessons learned from the disaster.
On an ad-hoc basis, MUE takes various opportunities to share lessons with its international partners. For instance, MUE has
worked with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for its group training, teaching 14 educators from 7 countries
about Japan's educational governance and programs. The trainees of the program had opportunities to learn about the recovery
process and new DRR programs being conducted at the affected schools. The trainees also made site visits to the affectedareas and interacted with survivors living in temporary housing. Through this international program, MUE promoted exchange
between researchers and practitioners in the ﬁelds of DRR education and evacuation shelter operation.
Such activities also have positive impacts on student development; some students themselves experience raised awarenesstoward disaster prevention and recovery due to more global perspectives. In November 2013, students who were actively
engaged in volunteering in Tohoku collaborated in a workshop to provide assistance to people in the Philippines by raisingmoney and donating to Philipino educators affected by the typhoon disaster. The students said they wanted to give back tothose who helped them in 2011.
- New roles of ESD and Post-DESD and HFA MUE's global partnerships have expanded over the past decade since the inception of Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) programs. ESD is a type of education conducted in various ﬁelds, such as environment, development, humanity, peace,multiculturalism, and DRR, to conquer various global issues. ESD has become an important part in the advancement of DRR
education.
MUE has been actively engaged in building a network with the international education community through the initiatives ofenvironmental education and ESD and promoting UNESCO Associated School Project (UNESCO ASP). MUE operates theadministrative functions of an RCE (Regional Centre of Expertise), a hub network to promote ESD regionally. The Greater
Sendai RCE is the only RCE in Tohoku. Based on the successful achievements of Kesennuma, one of the coastal cities
severely affected by the 2011 tsunami, MUE has been dedicated to the promotion of ESD programs through the UNESCO－ 21 －

Assisting the Recovery of School Education in Natural Disaster Emergencies － Roles of a Local Teacher Training University in Tohoku

Associated School Network (ASPnet) since 2008 and has begun and maintained a network of universities that support ASP
schools and universities nationwide.
Disaster-related education has grown as a major component of ESD, particularly since March 2011. At the UNESCO World
Conference to review and commemorate the decade of ESD (DESD) held in November 2014, the Aichi-Nagoya declaration on
ESD was issued, clearly reafﬁrming that ESD can serve as a vital means of DRR implementation.
There is a growing demand for the development of speciﬁc measures and strategies to effectively foster DRR within the ESD
context. Coincidentally, the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) will be held in Sendai on March 1418, 2015. World leaders and high-level policymakers in DRR will review the decade of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA
2005-2015) adopted at the 2nd World Conference in Kobe in 2005.
MUE will co-host a forum on March 16, 2015, “Fostering DRR through Education for Sustainable Development” with
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) and the Japanese National Commission for
UNESCO. The forum will discuss DRR education within the context of ESD.
As leading promoters of ESD, the organizers will present practical DRR educational programs from local elementary, juniorhigh, and high schools. Practitioners in both fields are invited to explore the contribution of ESD to DRR and develop aframework from their common ground to create a better future for children. This program represents a great crossover of DRR
and ESD practitioners accomplished by exercising the history, experience, and strengths of MUE.

Concluding remarks
The unexpected 2011 disaster that hit the teacher training institution caused the campus community a lot of pain and despair,and some are still recovering. While overcoming these predicaments, some important beneﬁcial programs were developed. The
2011 disaster established vital new roles for MUE in disaster recovery and DRR education as a regional hub for educators anda global link in the area of educational practices through its valued networks. Some of the volunteer programs at the affectedschools need to grow as service-learning programs within the broader DRR lessons to be taught for the students at MUE.
Working closely with local and international partners, including neighboring Tohoku University's International ResearchInstitute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), is a great opportunity to develop a new DRR education program for educators. A closer
dialog between ESD practitioners and DRR specialists will also foster the effective implementation of DRR education throughrecovery assistance by this teacher training college in the affected region.

Reference
Considerations about prevention of school disasters caused by earthquake/tsunami in East Japan, the Japanese Journal of
Safety Education, 12-2, Kazumi, Takao 2014
Current status of Center for Disaster Education & Recovery Assistance, Miyagi University of Education, 2014
Educational Reconstruction after the Earthquake Disaster, National Institute for Educational Policy Research, Shinano
Publishing, 2012
Kakehashi: watashitachini-dekirukoto, MUE Volunteer Students 2014
Mobius for Sustainability toward sustainable environmental future, http://rce.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/panf/Mobius_e04.pdf , Miyagi
University of Education, 2010
Roles of Schools in Disaster Risk Reduction following the 2011 Tohoku Disasters in Japan: DRR Education in Pre-service
Teacher Training and In-service Professional Development, 17th UNESCO-APEID (Asia-Pacific Programme of
Educational Innovation for Development International Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, Oda, Takashi, 2014－ 22 －