Supporting Sustainable Development Through Early-Life DRR Learning Opportunities: UK School Insights

Maciej Pawlik () and Kaori Kitagawa
Additional contact information
Maciej Pawlik: Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Kaori Kitagawa: Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme environmental phenomena mandate further actions to protect the most vulnerable groups, especially children. Traditionally, children have been excluded from conversations about disasters; however, this exclusion is reductive and perpetuates false ideas about children’s capacity to engage with safety information and materially manifest sustainable practices in their life. Such a reality is also impractical because early exposure through learning opportunities can yield engagement in sustainable development in adulthood. This research sought to improve understanding about children’s capacity to engage in DRR information. This study reviewed posters created by 7-year-old children at a primary school in the UK. These were produced as part of prior climate change workshops and included an illustration of a flood safety kit with items children would choose to have with them if there was an emergency (e.g., flooding event). Items included were counted and tallied to identify trends. The results demonstrated the capacity of children in this age group to select practically useful items for their safety in flooding emergencies. Based on findings, this study advocates for greater inclusion of children within disaster preparedness activities and the production of more tailored DRR learning opportunities to engage children within their school environment.

Keywords: disaster risk reduction; UK; primary school children; flooding; safety perceptions; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/13/5671/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/13/5671/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:13:p:5671-:d:1683218

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().