Karlene S. Tipler, Ruth A. Tarrant, David M. Johnston and Keith F. Tuffin
– The purpose of this paper is to identify lessons learned by schools from their involvement in the 2012 New Zealand ShakeOut nationwide earthquake drill.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify lessons learned by schools from their involvement in the 2012 New Zealand ShakeOut nationwide earthquake drill.
Design/methodology/approach
The results from a survey conducted with 514 schools were collated to identify the emergency preparedness lessons learned by schools through their participation in the ShakeOut exercise.
Findings
Key findings indicated that: schools were likely to do more than the minimum when presented with a range of specific emergency preparedness activities; drills for emergency events require specific achievement objectives to be identified in order to be most effective in preparing schools; and large-scale initiatives, such as the ShakeOut exercise, encourage schools and students to engage in emergency preparedness activities.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, six recommendations are made to assist schools to develop effective emergency response procedures.
Originality/value
The present study contributes to the ongoing efforts of emergency management practitioners and academics to enhance the efficacy of school-based preparedness activities and to, ultimately, increase overall community resilience.
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WE offer our readers again our best wishes for the joy that appropriately belongs to Christmas. The happy festival comes at the close of one of the most fruitful and useful years…
Abstract
WE offer our readers again our best wishes for the joy that appropriately belongs to Christmas. The happy festival comes at the close of one of the most fruitful and useful years in library history: a year which has seen wide developments—not, indeed, in the establishment of new libraries, though these have not been wanting (the last month of the year, for example, has seen Lord Elgin open the new library at Hendon), but in a drawing together of existing organizations, the creation of a really new Library Association, and a degree of co‐operation which thirty years ago would have seemed difficult.
There appears to be some doubt about the future direction of both the theory and the practice of employment relations. This article therefore speculates about the prospects of the…
Abstract
There appears to be some doubt about the future direction of both the theory and the practice of employment relations. This article therefore speculates about the prospects of the “new” European social model becoming the orthodoxy in the field. This model, which has strong similarities with the UK’s “partnership” agreements, stands up very well to many of the criticisms levelled at the “HRM” paradigm that was the most recent contender. The plausibility of the “new” model is in doubt, however, given the prevailing economic and political context in the UK and other EU countries. Even so, if people are looking for a dominant focus for analysis and policy, this “new” model has much to recommend. In particular, it is especially relevant to handling the implications of the restructuring likely to be the main concern for the foreseeable future.
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The purpose of this article is to consider junior officers' attitudes towards those in senior positions, and the implications that this has for current debates on improving police…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to consider junior officers' attitudes towards those in senior positions, and the implications that this has for current debates on improving police leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
An ethnographic study of policing underpins the article and theoretically the notion of police culture is used to consider the various ways in which frontline police officers are able to resist or circumvent reforms to which they do not subscribe.
Findings
The article finds that frontline officers place great value on being led by senior officers who have considerable direct experience of street level policework. Those officers who have rapidly climbed the promotion ladder, without “serving their time” on the streets, are regarded with some suspicion.
Research limitations/implications
Further analysis of the attitudes of junior officers towards their senior colleagues would be useful, to build on this study to consider the extent to which the attitudes identified here apply to various roles completed by senior officers.
Practical implications
The current agenda of police reform emphasises the benefits to be had from employing leaders who are from outside the British police service. While the suspicion with which such individuals are likely to be greeted by frontline staff is not, in itself, reason to reject such proposals it does indicate that efforts need to be made to bridge the “credibility gap” that seems likely to surround them. The article identifies a number of situations in which junior police officers did not accept the legitimacy of requests made by those of senior rank. It is not argued that leaders and managers were necessarily betraying ignorance of the realities of police work or that they were misguided. However, it is argued that given the continuing high levels of discretion available to police officers in terms of how they interpret their role and operationalise their diverse duties it is important for proponents of police reform to understand the cultural factors that, in part, will determine the ways in which frontline officers will respond to change.
Originality/value
The article presents valuable and original insight into a neglected aspect of debates on police leadership; namely, the perspectives of those who are “followers”. Since British policing has continued to eschew officer‐level entry, the issues raised are vitally important to those seeking to transform police leadership by introducing those from outside the service to senior positions.
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The purpose of the paper is to analyse non‐indigenous student resistance to indigenous history and to improve non‐indigenous students’ engagement with indigenous history.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to analyse non‐indigenous student resistance to indigenous history and to improve non‐indigenous students’ engagement with indigenous history.
Design/methodology
The paper, based on praxis, is a theoretical discussion of the reasons for non‐indigenous student resistance to indigenous history.
Findings
The paper argues that non‐indigenous imaginings of national self creates indigenous history into a “un‐history” (a history that could not be). The paper suggests non‐indigenous teachers of indigenous history may undertake a broader perspective to prepare students for indigenous history, including fostering a critical appreciation of histiography, Australian colonial art, literature and popular culture, to enable a critical understanding of the national imagining of Australians (as non‐indigenous) in order to enable engagement with indigenous history.
Research limitations/implications
The paper's focus and findings do not presume relevance to indigenous educators of indigenous history, as previous research has shown non‐indigenous students’ reactions to an indigenous educator may differ from an to a non‐indigenous educator.
Originality/value
The paper moves beyond discussions about content of indigenous history to issues of resistance and engagement found amongst non‐indigenous students with regard to indigenous history. The paper suggests a twenty‐first century political approach where there is non‐indigenous ownership of the shared history in (indigenous) Australia history, enabling indigenous history to move from the periphery to the centre of Australian colonial history.