Published works

Natural and human-made hazards threaten societies. This is the rationale for the United Nations’ invitation to governments to align their policies and national strategies to the global framework of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Policies for DRR stipulate the inclusion of different perspectives and their integration to the global framework towards building a culture of resilience against disasters. While there have been varying levels of response to this call, less attention had been directed towards a critical reflection of the epistemological features of ‘knowledge’ that undergird DRR, including its expressions in education. In this doctoral dissertation, I engage the lenses of decolonial thinking and practice and critical pedagogy of place in examining cognitive justice; I do so through investigation of the rhetoric of epistemic inclusion and integration in the policies and practices for DRR in cyclone-exposed communities in Australia, the Philippines, and Vanuatu.

With an investigative structure patterned after the comparative case study approach, I followed the biography of DRR policies and their inflections across multiple sites, scales, and time frames. I engaged in ethnographic techniques in conjunction with layered data collection methods, including rhetorical policy analysis, interviews, and participant observation. The insights from the research showed that as the rhetoric of DRR policies endeavoured for inclusion, the texts also contracted, as ‘knowledge’ ultimately becomes delineated by ‘science’ and as fitting the DRR framework. Place-based knowledges are marginally involved in both policies and practices, and only as an accessory, even as they are ostensibly considered valuable and necessary. The concluding discussion offers recommendations towards equitable and effective approaches to disaster education - a valuable resource in DRR and disaster education governance at the local, national, and international levels.