Citation

Kitamura Y. IATSS Res. 2014; 38(1): 40-47.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.iatssr.2014.05.004

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper studies modes of safety education, that is, education required for the development of a safe and secure society (i.e., a resilient and sustainable society), particularly in the context of Japan. In addition, this paper aims to verify what kind of safety education should be provided through the new educational concept of "Education for Sustainable Development" (ESD). In recent years, Japan has suffered a number of serious incidents in school zones, cases of children being kidnapped or killed, as well as the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake & Tsunami of March 11, 2011, and other natural disasters. Consequently, the safety and security of children has become the responsibility of society as a whole, not just of educators. Based on this awareness, this paper will discuss a new mode of safety education that can contribute to the design of mobility for the coming age. There are two main findings from this study. First, the paper identifies the need to provide multiple software support for existing safety education. Few safety education programs have sufficiently incorporated the perspective of understanding safety in a comprehensive manner, instead focusing on a particular area of traffic, disasters, or daily life. In light of this issue, this paper recognizes the importance of incorporating the perspective of problem-solving and participation-oriented ESD into a holistic understanding of safety education. Second, awareness surveys conducted by the author on parents and teachers revealed that the respondents demonstrated a high interest traffic safety relative to other safety education areas. It would thus appear to be possible to make "traffic" the starting point for safety education and then broaden the scope to daily life and disasters. The survey also clarified that related parties considered raising children's awareness to be the most important aspect in safety education. This paper concludes that it is imperative to make continued research efforts to present a new mode of safety education, an initiative that represents one of the important efforts in designing mobility for the future.