Evaluation of teachers' disaster preparedness awareness levels and their opinions on disaster preparedness in schools

Earthquakes are among the natural disasters that cause the most loss of life and property in the world and in our country. Individuals should be prepared to minimize the damages that may occur after natural disasters. The importance of disaster training in preparation for disasters cannot be denied. While the lifelong learning approach offers significant and significant benefits in the field of disaster education, it enables individuals to develop a deeper awareness and receive comprehensive education on how to behave before, during and after a disaster. This approach contains critical elements that encourage continuous learning and turns disaster education into a lifelong, dynamic and evolutionary process. It is important to provide disaster awareness training to different segments of the society, starting from an early age. Schools are one of the places where such studies are best carried out. Teachers are the most important element in increasing the disaster awareness levels of future generations in schools. The aim of the research is to determine teachers' disaster awareness perception levels and their opinions about disaster preparedness activities carried out in schools. In this study, mixed method was used and the study population in the quantitative part of the study consists of 2104 permanent teachers working in public schools in the 2023-2024 academic year in the Central District of Bartın Province under the Ministry of National Education. In the quantitative part of the study, the sample group consists of 330 teachers working in public schools, and in the qualitative part, the study group consists of 20 teachers. The numerical data obtained from the teachers who participated in the study were statistically analyzed according to their socio-demographic characteristics and the results are presented as a table under the title. According to the results obtained in the quantitative part of the study; It has been concluded that teachers' general awareness levels of disaster preparedness have a very high level of awareness in the sub-dimensions of perceived sensitivity, perceived seriousness, perceived benefits and perceived obstacles for disaster preparedness, while their perception levels remain at a lower level in the sub-dimensions of action takers and self-efficacy. According to the results obtained in the qualitative part of the research, the fact that the activities carried out for disaster preparedness in schools and personnel training are inadequate by the teachers coincides with the perception level of the teachers' self-efficacy within the scope of disaster preparedness. The results obtained from the research are considered important in terms of contributing to the literature in terms of identifying areas that require personal development regarding the disaster preparedness awareness levels of teachers, who are the educational leaders of the society. Keywords: Disaster, disaster awareness, disaster preparedness, school, teacher