Existential and identity “displacement” in the areas of high fragility: teachers’ training between skills and strategies to cope with catastrophic events

How does natural disaster relate to the professional skills of teachers and their university education? This chapter is based on the idea that natural disasters can lead to a displacement that undermines the identity, behaviour and attitudes of the individual, impacting on their professional lives. Catastrophic events represent individual, cultural and social changes so acute as to create internal disasters. Traumatic and disruptive for the individual, the experience can undermine collective identity together with cultural and social structures. The chapter examines what this means for teachers, schools and local communities and asks what professional skills and knowledge are needed to be able to adopt strategies for dealing with the emergency in schools and in situations of educational uncertainty in areas of high fragility. Greater attention must be given to the way teachers react to natural disasters in order to understand how to help them adapt to support their pupils also affected by the same circumstances. Studies suggest that after a disaster people unite under common elements such as local identity and are motivated to act almost exclusively in relation to relief and participation in reconstruction efforts. However, in the context of schools, a precise repertoire of skills are needed to adapt behaviour. Research into the impact of disaster on teachers’ perceptions, behaviours and attitudes suggests strategies to create resilience, provide teachers with the internal resources to deal with unexpected emergencies and protect them from being deeply affected by catastrophic events.