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Classroom responses of New Zealand school teachers following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake

journal contribution
posted on 2017-12-06, 00:00 authored by V Johnson, Kevin Ronan
Following a damaging magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealandon February 22, 2011, an unprecedented number of displaced school children were enrolled temporarily or permanently in new schools throughout New Zealand. This study utilized accounts from primary school teachers in New Zealand, derived from focus groups scheduled in March and April 2011 for an evaluation of a disaster preparedness teaching resource, to examine how these disasters impacted individuals and schools outside of Christchurch. The educators’ focus group accounts provide an illustration of classroom responses including providing emotional support to displaced children, informal classroom discussions, curricular responses, addressing disaster rumors, and information seeking through peers. Some recommendations are provided on ways to support teachers’ important roles in disaster recovery, including targeting evidence-based guidance and teaching resources to schools enrolling displaced children, dispelling disaster rumors through schools and facilitating peer mentoring among teachers. An overarching lesson is that communities would benefit from teachers being better equipped to provide emotional support and responsive disaster education to children after disasters.

Funding

Category 3 - Industry and Other Research Income

History

Volume

72

Issue

2

Start Page

1075

End Page

1092

Number of Pages

18

eISSN

1573-0840

ISSN

0921-030X

Location

Netherlands

Publisher

Springer

Language

en-aus

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • No

External Author Affiliations

Massey University; School of Human, Health and Social Sciences (2013- ); TBA Research Institute;

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Journal

Natural hazards.