Assessing the role of schools in volcanic risk reduction: a SWOT perspective from the Canary Islands

The Canary Islands constitute a volcanically active region where volcanic risk reduction requires not only scientific and operational capacities, but also effective education and social awareness from early stages. In this context, the non-university educational community plays a potentially key role in fostering a culture of volcanic risk reduction.

This study presents the outcomes of a non-university educational community workshop whose main objective was to conduct a SWOT analysis of this sector in order to contribute to volcanic risk reduction in the Canary Islands. This is one of twelve workshops planned for different sectors of society within the framework of the Canary Islands Strategy for Volcanic Risk Reduction project. The workshop brought together 17 teachers from across the Canary Islands, representing elementary, primary, and secondary (high school) education levels.

The SWOT analysis revealed several key weaknesses, including limited teacher knowledge of volcanic risk, insufficient specific training within teacher development programmes, low volcanic risk perception within the educational community, and limited curricular integration of volcanic risk-related content, particularly in vocational training.

Identified strengths highlight the school as an effective environment for raising public awareness, the presence of motivated and committed teachers, and the availability of educational materials, although these are often underused. Participants also noted the inclusion of volcanic-related content in certain educational stages, the existence of vocational programmes linked to safety and civil protection, the value of interdisciplinary work in early educational stages, and the role of teacher training centres as platforms for professional development and experience exchange.

Conversely, the analysis identifies several key threats, including low social and institutional awareness of volcanic risk, misinformation fueled by media sensationalism, limited interaction between the scientific community and the educational sector, the presence of outdated or non-existent emergency plans, and the infrequent occurrence of volcanic eruptions, which contributes to a weak and fragile collective memory of volcanic risk.

Opportunities identified by participants include the use of drills as educational tools, collaboration with volcanology professionals, greater integration of the scientific community into schools, the use of local volcanic heritage and collective memory as educational resources, and the presence of institutional frameworks and programmes that can strengthen volcanic risk education.

Once the internal (weaknesses and strengths) and external (threats and opportunities) analyses were completed, a confrontation matrix was developed to identify strategic actions through which the non-university educational community could contribute to reducing volcanic risk in the Canary Islands. These actions were classified as survival strategies (weaknesses+threats), reorientation strategies (weaknesses+opportunities), defensive strategies (strengths+threats), and offensive strategies (strengths+opportunities).

These results provide a consensus-based diagnosis of the role, limitations, and capacities of the non-university educational community in volcanic risk reduction in the Canary Islands, highlighting schools as key actors in building a knowledge-based and preparedness-oriented culture of volcanic risk.