The purpose of this study was to examine crisis preparedness at Christian-affiliated institutions of higher education. Second, this study examined Christian-affiliated institutions of higher education presidents’ perspective of their institution’s ability to prepare for crises based upon the four critical indicators of organizational crisis preparedness as described by Zdziarski (2001): a) the types of crisis institutions prepare for, b) the phase of crisis prepared for, c) the systems in place to respond to crisis, and d) the stakeholders involved and considered in preparations. Implications from this study provided recommendations for crisis preparedness that are specific to Christian-affiliated colleges and universities. A total of (n=77) presidents of Christian-affiliated institutions of higher education completed the Campus Crisis Management Questionnaire. Overall, results indicated that presidents of Christian-affiliated colleges and universities perceived their institutions to be well-prepared to respond to campus crises. This study adds to the crisis preparedness literature in higher education on how smaller private, specialized institutions with limited resources prepares for crisis.

The opinions and expertise of disabled people are often absent from emergency preparedness planning. As a result, when emergencies occur disabled people’s needs may go unmet. While there have been recent efforts to acknowledge the need for disability inclusive planning processes (in, for example, the development of a Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction framework), more research is needed to understand how efforts to include the perspectives and experiences of disabled people work (or do not work) in practice. In this research, I examine the development of a disability-inclusive emergency preparedness plan in Ontario, Canada. I use semi-structured interviews with key informants from the provincial government and disability organizations to unpack the planning and consultation process. The analysis indicates that while the plan represents an important attempt to include disabled people in emergency preparedness planning, it falls short in a number of ways not least because it rests on a narrow conception of disability as physical limitation. In particular, people with intellectual disabilities are absent from the planning process and final plan, a fact that reflects their broader marginalization within society. I draw on interviews with a small sample of self-advocates living with intellectual disabilities to identify how the plan could be revised to recognize the views and experiences of this population. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

A review of literature on the preparation and training for assistant principals showed that there are gaps in the current support structures in place to encourage them to be effective in their position or prepared to assume other leadership roles (Armstrong, 2009; Barnett et al., 2012; Morgan, 2018). The role of assistant principal is an important area of educational leadership that has historically been underrepresented in the literature, and it is "one of the least researched and least discussed topics in educational leadership" (Weller and Weller, 2002, p. xiii). The researcher adapted the quantitative methodology techniques and survey tool of Inabinett's (2015) study titled, The Nourishment of Assistant Principals: The Effective Development of Future School Principals in Alabama. The researcher focused on assistant principals' beliefs about their preparedness for the principalship and how their real and ideal development compared to one another. Specifically, the study considered the five elements (professional development, mentoring, aspiration, networking, and experiences) from the Assistant Principal Development Framework as being instrumental in preparing assistant principals for the principalship. The purpose of this study was to identify assistant principals' self-reported perceptions regarding their job experiences as defined by the Assistant Principal Development Framework. This study reported assistant principals' perceptions of their ideal development compared across each of the five domains of the Assistant Principal Development Framework. Additionally, this study identified specific professional development that assistant principals perceive they need to become future principals and determined which components of the Assistant Principal Development Framework were currently utilized in their leadership practice. This study sample included assistant principals in one PK-12 school division in Virginia. The research questions guiding this study were: 1) What are the self-reported perceptions of assistant and associate principals' levels of preparedness for the principalship based on their real job experiences? and 2) How do their self-reported perceptions compare to their ideal development across each of the five domains in the Assistant Principal Development Framework? The research method included a researcher-adapted survey titled the Assistant Principal Perceptions Survey. The survey instrument consisted of 63 items: 11 demographic questions, 51 Likert-scale questions, and one open-ended question. Descriptive statistics, including a paired sample t-test, were used to analyze the data and identify findings and implications. Results from this study revealed that assistant principals perceived a difference between their current job experiences and what their ideal experiences should be to prepare them for the principalship. Participants reported the need for readily accessible professional development, opportunities for networking with other administrators, formal mentoring, and more experience in the areas of curriculum and instruction, organizational management, student achievement, and professional and ethical behaviors. Furthermore, the findings provide educational leaders with relevant research and awareness related to assistant principals' perceptions of their preparedness for the principalship. / Doctor of Education / The purpose of this study was to identify assistant principals' self-reported perceptions regarding their real job experiences as defined by the Assistant Principal Development Framework. Additionally, the study also reported assistant principals' perceptions of their ideal development compared across each of the five domains of the Assistant Principal Development Framework as defined by Inabinett (2015). In this quantitative study, a survey research design was used. The study was conducted in one PK-12 public school division in Virginia. The research questions guiding this study were: 1) What are the self-reported perceptions of assistant principals' levels of preparedness for the principalship based on their real job experiences? and 2) How do their self-reported perceptions compare to their ideal development across each of the five domains in the Assistant Principal Development Framework? Results from this study revealed that assistant principals perceived a difference in their current job experiences opposed to what their ideal experiences should be to prepare them for the principalship. Participants reported the need for readily accessible professional development, opportunities for networking with other administrators, formal mentoring, and more experience in the areas of curriculum and instruction, organizational management, student achievement, and professional and ethical behaviors. Recommendations for future studies and implications for practice were provided.

The purpose of this exploratory collective case study is to discover how geospatial education can meet the geospatial workforce needs of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the emerging intelligent web mapping era. Geospatial education uses geographic information systems (GIS) to enable student learning by increasing in-depth spatial analysis and meaning using geotechnology tools (Baker & White, 2003). Bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy theory and geography concept of spatial thinking form an integrated theoretical framework of spatial cognition for this study. Data collection included in-depth interviews of twelve geospatial stakeholders, documentation collection, and supporting Q methodology to determine the viewpoints of a total of 41 geospatial stakeholders. Q methodology is a type of data collection that when used as a qualitative method utilizes sorting by the participant to determine their preferences. Data analysis strategies included cross-case synthesis, direct interpretation, generalizations, and a correlation matrix to show similarities in participants' preferences. The results revealed four collaborative perceptions of the stakeholders, forming four themes of social education, technology early adoption, data collaboration, and urban fundamentals. Four strategies were identified for higher education to prepare students for the emerging geospatial workforce trends. These strategies are to teach fundamentals, develop agile faculty and curriculum, use an interdisciplinary approach, and collaborate. These strategies reflect the perceptions of stakeholders in this study on how higher education can meet the emerging drivers and trends of the geospatial workforce. / Published version / Doctor of Philosophy in Instructional Design and Technology

This thesis demonstrates that it is paramount to develop crisis-preparedness strategies and practices based on empirical research, in order to improve an organisation‘s ability to manage effectively and, ultimately to survive, a high-profile crisis event. Although there are many high-profile crises that have been managed successfully by applying strategies to make organisations more resilient, there is still considerable confusion and uncertainty about the way these crises have been evaluated and the way their success can be measured in relation to other crises.There are no international crisis-preparedness standards in relation to a set of crisis outcomes indicators that could be applied. This lack of empirically proven relationships between crisis-preparedness strategies and their effect on crisis outcomes makes the identification of effective strategies very difficult. Case studies, anecdotal evidence and a limited number of empirical crisis management studies (i.e. effect on share price) suggest a great variability in the effectiveness of certain strategies and practices that have produced inconclusive results. This study analyses the strategies variability to advance knowledge in the field of crisis management. (For complete abstract open document)

This qualitative study explores how crisis preparedness practitioners in Sweden perceive theAgreement on Municipalities' Crisis Preparedness and how the municipalities haveimplemented what is stated in the Agreement on Municipalities' Crisis Preparedness. Drawingon theories about soft governance and policy instruments this has allowed the study to explorehow the agreement might be viewed by those working with it in relation what the theories hasto say. This has been done through performing semi-structured interviews with seven crisispreparedness practitioners at seven different municipalities spread across Sweden. For thisstudy a thematic analysis was performed on the material, based on the interview guide and theindicators, Perception, and Implementation. The result of this study is that agreement is constructed in a way to give freedom to thoseworking with crisis preparedness and is seen as soft by practitioners, which means that theagreement as such can largely be seen as soft governance. However, some practitionersexpressed the notion that they would have liked to see clearer and stricter governmentalsteering. That it could be viewed as soft means that the agreement could potentially takeadvantage of the benefits to using a soft approach, or this would be the case if the studywasn’t able to show that there exist, a problem with crisis preparedness. This problem is thatthere is not enough money to do more than is necessary regarding crisis preparedness. Whythis is could be questioned as the municipalities have taxation rights and it could as such beinteresting to delve deeper into why this is in a future study.

Scholars from various disciplines have long attempted to identify the variables most closely associated with individual preparedness. Therefore, we now have much more knowledge regarding these factors and their association with individual preparedness behaviors. However, it has not been sufficiently discussed how decisive many of these factors are in encouraging preparedness. In this article, we seek to examine what factors, among the many examined in previous studies, are most central to engendering emergency preparedness in individuals particularly for tornadoes by utilizing a relatively uncommon machine learning technique in disaster management literature. Using unique survey data, we find that in the case of tornado preparedness the most decisive variables are related to personal experiences and economic circumstances rather than basic demographics. Our findings contribute to scholarly endeavors to understand and promote individual tornado preparedness behaviors by highlighting the variables most likely to shape tornado preparedness at an individual level.

Aktualumas. Didžiausia dalis mokslinių, metodinių publikacijų nagrinėja suaugusių boksininkų rengimą ir mažai analizuojama jaunųjų boksininkų atrankos, technikos mokymo, treniravimo, varžybinės veiklos problemos (Cтрелников, 2000; Полиевский и др., 2002; Морозов, 2004). Šiuolaikinė praktika rodo, kad būtent ankstyvojo rengimo etapais (pradinio rengimo, sportinių įgūdžių ugdymo, pradinės specializacijos) būtina formuoti racionalią judesių techniką, atsižvelgiant į jaunųjų boksininkų greitumo, jėgos—greitumo kaitos dėsningumus (Суслов, Холодов, 1997; Новиков, 1999; М��розов, 2004). Mažai nagrinėjama ir aktuali problema jaunųjų boksininkų atletinis ir specialus fizinis parengtumas pradinio rengimo etapu. Tyrimo tikslas — ištirti 14—16 metų boksininkų atletinio ir specialiojo parengtumo kaitos ypatumus per metinį pradinio rengimo ciklą. Uždaviniai: 1. Išnagrinėti boksininkų rengimo vyksmo struktūrą ir turinį per pradinio rengimo vienų metų ciklą. 2. Ištirti pradedančių boksininkų kūno sudėjimo rodiklių kaitą per vienų metų rengimo ciklą. 3. Ištirti boksininkų atletinio parengtumo kaitą per vienų metų pradinio rengimo ciklą. 4. Ištirti boksininkų specialiojo parengtumo kaitą per pradinio rengimo metinį ciklą. Tyrimo metodai: teorinės analizės ir apibendrinimo, treniravimo planų analizė, testavimas, matematinė statistika. Tyrimo organizavimas. Buvo atlikti trys testavimai: pirmas testavimas — 2005 10 14 — 2005 10 25 dienomis; antras testavimas — 2006 01 30 — 2006 02 07 dienomis... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Topicality of the research. The majority of scientific publications and teaching materials devoted to methods of research deal with training of adult boxers. Little attention, however, is given to selection of young boxers, their training and teaching the technique of boxing, problems of competitive activities included (Cтрелников, 2000; Полиевский и др., 2002; Морозов, 2004). Current practice shows that it is in the early stages of training (elementary training, the period of developing sports skills and primary specialization) that the technique of rational movements with respect to the dexterity of boxers and the regularities of changes in force — dexterity complex should be formed (Суслов, ���олодов, 1997; Новиков, 1999; Морозов, 2004). Insufficient attention has also been given so far to the athletic and special physical preparedness of young boxers during the stage of initial training. The aim of the research — was to study the peculiarities of changes in the athletic and special physical preparedness of young boxers during the yearly cycle of initial training. The tasks set were as follows: 1. To investigate the structure and content of the training process of boxers during the one—year cycle of initial training. 2. To study the changes in the indices of body composition of beginners boxers during the one—year cycle of initial training. 3. To study the changes in athletic preparedness of boxers during the one—year cycle of initial training. 4. To study the changes... [to full text]

This study examines the sense of preparedness of preservice special education teachers (PSETs) to instruct English language learners. Pre- and post-survey measures were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for a group of PSETs as they engaged in their second semester of student teaching experience. To explore emerging themes, a post-qualitative analysis was performed using focus groups. Quantitative results revealed no statistical difference except for the Self-Efficacy subscale. Focus group data showed increased confidence levels resulting from the student teaching experience. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare pre-survey results between PSETs who had and PSETs who had not taken advanced coursework or participated in student teaching. With the exception of the subscale, Attitude Towards ELs in the Classroom, results revealed no statistical difference between the two groups. At the same time, qualitative, open-response questions revealed PSETs who had participated in advanced coursework and student teaching seemed to have a deeper understanding of ELs' instructional and linguistic needs. Contributions to the literature are presented which may help in designing teacher preparation programs to increase PSETs' sense of preparedness to better serve ELs with disabilities.

Crisis preparedness is the responsibility of every person, business, and leader, and leadership behavioral skills are an essential characteristic of crisis preparedness. The purpose of this case study was to explore the decisions of elected leaders along the Gulf Coast during Hurricanes Katrina and Ike in order to understand their leadership behaviors in crisis preparedness. The conceptual framework was based on the emergency management theory presented by McEntire in 2004, which helped to define the necessary components for leaders' successful crisis preparedness. Data were collected through interviews with 5 members from the National Emergency Management Agency along with a document review of elected leader responses and decisions during both Hurricanes Katrina and Ike from government reports, previous studies, and scholarly articles. Data were interpretively analyzed by listing out several leadership models and the behaviors that identify them and then by reviewing the document study information in 2 matrices for methodological triangulation and data saturation. The findings highlighted 5 emerging themes named as the five Cs of crisis preparedness: compassion, continuity, communication, common sense, and confidence. This study may contribute to social change by identifying key leadership traits that governors and other elected leaders should use in crisis preparedness, which may contribute to the safety, health, and well-being of constituents during a natural disaster.