Crisis Management In Schools

Statement of the Problem

Historically, schools have had to deal with and are susceptible to all types of crisis situations. Unfortunately, today’s crisis situations seem to have become more common, and are potentially more dangerous and life threatening, and many schools are not prepared to handle these crises effectively. Parallel to this, Harper (1989) found that school administrators realize that if schools were ever “islands of safety,” they are no longer (p. 2). She further noted that the reality of modern society, including its academic institutions, is that there are few places where one can assume to be safe (p. 66). The ineffectiveness of crisis management planning is also made possible by denial, image concerns, and political influence,

Accordingly, this framework will allow for the opportunity to examine knowledge management in the institution’s crisis management plan for unexpected events. From this viewpoint, “the crisis management plan in an organization is a formally recognized community of practice”. To develop the capacity to create and retain knowledge in this community of practice, the institution needs to understand the process by which this learning community evolves and interacts.

The “Communities of Practice” Framework. Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better (or deepen their knowledge and expertise) as they interact regularly (Wenger, 2007). This follows that collective learning is mirrored by individuals who are engaged in joint pursuits, interacting with each other, and molding relations with each other, engendering shared

The public and private dimensions of a community are interrelated. When the individual relationships among community members are strong, the events are much richer. Because participants know each other well, they often come to community events with multiple agendas: completing a small group task, thanking someone for an idea, finding someone to help with a problem. In fact, good community events usually allow time for people to network informally. Well-orchestrated, lively public events foster one-on-one connections. The key to designing community spaces is to orchestrate activities in both public and private spaces that use the strength of individual relationships to enrich events and use events to strengthen individual relationships.

Five, focus on value. Communities thrive because they deliver value to the organization, to the teams on which community members serve, and to the community members themselves. Value is essential to community life, because participation in most communities is voluntary. Frequently, early value mostly comes from focusing on the current problems and needs of community members. As the community grows, developing a systematic body of knowledge that can be easily accessed becomes more