The Treatment of Natural Events in Geography Curricula for Secondary Schools in Germany

This article explores how the German school curricula for geography in lower secondary schools deal with the term natural event, including hazards, risks, and catastrophes. It relates the selection of Germany’s lower secondary curricula with the idea that geography is only a scoring subject in these schools and that today’s children should be treated as the adults of tomorrow. The organization of German education in 16 autonomy regions is briefly described and their problems noted in relation to the analysis of the curricula on a national scale. The author uses the content analysis in combination with quantitative and qualitative research methods. This study includes all secondary curricula published by the regional educational ministries. After developing a category system, this paper first conducts a quantitative analysis of the terms natural risk and catastrophe, and then investigates the related contents. The outcomes of such curriculum analysis are also presented graphically. The results show that the terms as well as the contents related to them are not implemented in the same manner.