School Safety and Emergency Management: A Working Paper on Pennsylvania School Leader Sensemaking

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Research on Teacher and School Leader Preparation: Alternative Certification, Intercultural Competencies, Retention, and Emergency Management (Table 13)

Abstract

This revelatory case study explores how school safety leaders' backgrounds and organizational roles, along with social and physical resources, influence how they interpret policy related to school safety and emergency management. School leader sensemaking on school safety is an understudied concept with wide reaching impacts. School leaders make the final decision on implementing practices in complex, varying school safety policy environments. This study uses knowledge analysis to unpack school safety leader conceptualizations of school safety and emergency management for the practical use of decision making. Preliminary findings have yielded two themes: (a) non-technical definitions and (b) internal and external relationships for sensemaking. This study's findings are impactful for school safety policy, educational leadership, and educator preparation programs.

Author

• Jennifer Classen, Dalhousie University