Expanding and Entangling Parallel Professional Histories in Developing School Safety Leaders

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Innovating Professional Development for Educational Leaders (Table 7)

Abstract

During crises, school leaders are expected to lead in ways that shift and surpass normal practices. School leaders with crisis response backgrounds draw on those experiences during these critical times in ways that connect school stakeholders with resources and highlight schools’ role within larger community crisis response. Employing educational leadership literature on leader backgrounds and development, this case study explores how school safety leaders draw on their professional experiences as a part of making sense of school safety for implementing policy. Participants’s parallel backgrounds in education and crisis response entangle as a part of their present sensemaking. Further, societal histories, such as the Columbine High School shooting, layer into participant sensemaking through a complex reflection and decision making.

Author

• Jennifer Classen, Dalhousie University