Understanding teacher perceptions of school safety drills: Risk mitigation, preparedness, and response.
First Presenter's Institution
Laura Forbes
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Forbes has been a youth and adolescent researcher for nearly 20-years with inquires into many different subject areas. She is a seasoned academician with areas focused on social and emotional learning, that includes substance use, truancy, particular settings (i.e. schools) and diverse audiences. With collaboration across disciplines and partnerships with school systems.
Second Presenter's Institution
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Second Presenter’s Email Address
lynnve@uab.edu
Second Presenter's Brief Biography
Ms. English is a doctoral student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham under the mentorship of Drs. Forbes and Bodine Al-Sharif pertaining to the topic of school safety drills and student perceptions. Ms. English has also served as an instructor for the Community Health and Services Program.
Third Presenter's Institution
university of Alabama at Birmingham
Third Presenter’s Email Address
drbas@uab.edu
Third Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Bodine Al-Sharif is a faculty member in the Higher Education Administration Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Prior to the joining the UAB faculty she has served in high level administrative positions across the country in student affairs. She has a strong background in school safety and advocacy for students, policies, and future safety recommendations.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
School Safety
Relevance to Primary Strand
The relevance of this presentation is to the primary strand of school safety. The focus was to explore school safety planning from the teacher perspective as it relates to severe weather drills, fire drills, and active shooter drills. Management of students and their responses to these safety drills may differ if there were a perceived threat rather than a routine drill. The collaboration between the school and community stakeholders performing the drills, specific school policies in place to ensue stable and supportive environments during these stressful times was assessed.
Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics
School Safety
Brief Program Description
Our study presents teachers perceived understanding of the roles and impact of district leaders, school administrators, counselors, and community in creating and implementing school safety drill procedures. We explore how teachers interpret their responsibilities during safety drills and the support they are provided, as well as the support that they need across differing entities within and outside of their schools.
Summary
There is a dearth in the research on perceptions of school safety drills (severe weather, fire, and active shooter) from the teachers’ perception. Classroom teachers hold the responsibility of not only educating young minds, but also ensuring their safety during crisis. Little is known about their perceptions of the influence or voice they have on the processes and policies that they are required to implement when crisis present.
Our study presents teachers perspectives from one urban school district located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Utilizing case study as our qualitative methodology, semi-structured interview questions for data collection, and Braun and Clarke’s (2015) thematic analysis to attain our findings, we present to our audience the support needs of these teachers as well as an instrument that they can utilize to assess their own roles and responsibilities during safety drills.
The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model and Social Ecological Model were both utilized to assess teachers’ perceptions of school safety drills and needed actions for altering school and district policy for improvement. Attendees will take away strategies for classroom management, communication with students, parents, administrators, school counselors, and their districts concerning safety drills, and practical suggestions derived from the teacher experience that are important for shaping the administration of future safety drills.
It is our hope that the results of our research can help to better inform teachers, administrators, school counselors, and community members of ways to support each other in times of crisis and give voice to teachers needs and perspectives.
Evidence
A thorough literature review of teacher perceptions of school safety drills, policy, and procedures was performed, an assessment of current practices was gathered, and these elements informed the design of the semi-structured interview guide. The qualitative interviews build upon the current body of knowledge and inform future practice when collaborating with community partners, communicating with school administrators, and ultimately adding to what is known about the teacher experience while identifying a gap from which to alter current practices or implement new safety drill practices. The instrument being provided during the session is the result of our literature review, alignment with our selected theoretical lens, and the findings of our case study.
Learning Objective 1
Describe the differences between the three types of school safety drills.
Learning Objective 2
Summarize the teacher-student interactions that take place during school safety drills.
Learning Objective 3
Compare and contrast the perceptions of teacher experiences with school safety drills and current literature.
Learning Objective 4
Assess one’s own perceptions of school safety drills and ability to provide feedback within their districts.
Recommended Citation
Talbott-Forbes, Laura L.; English, Lynn v.; and Bodine Al-Sharif, Mary Ann, "Understanding teacher perceptions of school safety drills: Risk mitigation, preparedness, and response." (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 33.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/33
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Understanding teacher perceptions of school safety drills: Risk mitigation, preparedness, and response.
There is a dearth in the research on perceptions of school safety drills (severe weather, fire, and active shooter) from the teachers’ perception. Classroom teachers hold the responsibility of not only educating young minds, but also ensuring their safety during crisis. Little is known about their perceptions of the influence or voice they have on the processes and policies that they are required to implement when crisis present.
Our study presents teachers perspectives from one urban school district located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Utilizing case study as our qualitative methodology, semi-structured interview questions for data collection, and Braun and Clarke’s (2015) thematic analysis to attain our findings, we present to our audience the support needs of these teachers as well as an instrument that they can utilize to assess their own roles and responsibilities during safety drills.
The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model and Social Ecological Model were both utilized to assess teachers’ perceptions of school safety drills and needed actions for altering school and district policy for improvement. Attendees will take away strategies for classroom management, communication with students, parents, administrators, school counselors, and their districts concerning safety drills, and practical suggestions derived from the teacher experience that are important for shaping the administration of future safety drills.
It is our hope that the results of our research can help to better inform teachers, administrators, school counselors, and community members of ways to support each other in times of crisis and give voice to teachers needs and perspectives.
