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

Abstract. 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. The authors use the content analysis in combination with quantitative and qualitative research methods. This study includes all secondary curricula published by the regional educational ministries from 2014. 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. A look at the terms will mostly provide the term natural catastrophe, followed by the term natural event. A close look at the kind of natural catastrophes mentioned in the curricula indicates that such catastrophes are not really relevant in the context of Germany