Reconsidering the ‘positionality’ of teachers in disaster education: From the perspective of the ‘voyager’ and the ‘Kyôji-sha (person who concerns jointly)’

Numerous catastrophes and disasters experienced throughout human history have led to practices aimed at constructing memories of those events and transmitting them to later generations. Jun Yamana, a Japanese scholar in the philosophy of education, notes that education is inherently committed to these practices, as they involve passing down facts and lessons (Yamana & Yano, 2017, p.i). However, he also argues that education and these practices cannot be easily aligned. Education fundamentally aspires to nurture children’s growth, whereas teaching about catastrophes and disasters may invoke anxiety or sorrow in children, potentially dampening these aspirations. Furthermore, discussing or expressing what occurred during catastrophic events is itself extremely difficult. This difficulty, I suggest, is closely related to the ‘positionality’ of the person in charge of disaster education, and can generate serious ethical conflict. This may make it difficult to speak about the disaster at all, and in some cases may lead teachers to avoid speaking entirely. Nevertheless, I believe that teachers in this situation can still meaningfully contribute to disaster education. In particular, they may play an important role in helping transform experiences into shared memories and transmitting them to future generations. I explore this point in this article.