Idea Transcript
Public Education for Disaster Management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel
William
Nielsen
Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
KEYWORDS
Phenomenography; phenomenon; public education; community education; disaster; hazard; disaster management; risk; interpretive; experience; understanding.
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
ABSTRACT Many recent developments in education theory and the field of disaster management have left the meaning of public education as applied in the disaster management field fraught
with
uncertainty.
This
thesis
addresses
this
uncertainty
via
a
phenomenographic research study that sheds light on the meaning of public education, despite such uncertainty, by revealing a discrete number of qualitatively different ways in which disaster managers and disaster educators experience and understand public education. Transcriptions of interviews of 25 such senior Australian disaster managers and educators were analysed using phenomenographic methods and revealed a set of discrete, parsimonious and qualitatively different ways of experiencing public education. The referential component of the different ways of experiencing was revealed within ten emergent categories of description for public education: (i) a non-effective process; (ii) a way of managing a public issue; (iii) promoting an issue; (iv) issuing expert instructions; (v) changing individuals; (vi) strategic teaching and training; (vii) collaborative partnerships; (viii) empowering learners to make informed decisions; (ix) negotiation; and (x) element in societal learning. The structural component of the emergent ways of experiencing public education was presented in the form of a phenomenographic outcome space. Linkages between these findings about public education and current literature were made. The results suggested multiple ways to improve public education within the disaster management community and more widely. The need for clarity in communication amongst educators and professionals in regard to public education was confirmed by
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
the research findings. Insights into phenomenography and education were included within the discussion.
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 1 1.0 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH .................................................................................... 2 1.1 AN EMPHASIS UPON PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT................... 5 1.1.1 The Continuing Cost of Disasters ...................................................................... 5 1.1.2 Public Expectations for Safety ........................................................................... 8 1.1.3 Emphasis Upon Public Education for Disaster Safety .................................... 11 1.2 THE FAILURE TO ESTABLISH AN UNDERSTANDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION ............. 14 1.3 TOWARDS A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR DISASTER SAFETY18 1.3.1 A Lack of Existing Insight into Public Education ............................................ 18 1.3.2 Rationale for the Phenomenographic Research .............................................. 22 1.4 THE RESEARCH ........................................................................................................ 24 1.4.1 The Research Problem and Approach ............................................................. 24 1.4.2 The Research Process ...................................................................................... 26 1.4.3 Research Statement and Objectives ................................................................. 27 1.4.4 Model of the Research...................................................................................... 28 1.4.5 Preview of the Research Findings ................................................................... 30 1.5 BENEFITS OF THE RESEARCH .................................................................................... 31 1.6 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................... 35 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 37 2.0 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ................................................................................................ 37 2.1 DISASTERS ............................................................................................................... 45 [] 2.1.1 Definitions of Disaster ................................................................................... 45 2.1.2 The Physical View of Disasters........................................................................ 51 2.1.3 The Social View of Disasters ........................................................................... 59 2.1.4 The Political View of Disasters........................................................................ 73 2.1.5 The Educational Implications of Multiple Views of Disaster .......................... 78 2.2 DISASTER MANAGEMENT ......................................................................................... 81 2.2.1 Responsibility and Authority for Disaster Management.................................. 81 2.2.2 The Development of Disaster Management ..................................................... 84 2.2.3 A Shift to a Social-Oriented Risk Management Approach to Disasters and Emergencies .............................................................................................................. 92 2.2.4 Disaster Management and the Meaning of a Safe Society............................... 99 2.3 THE PUBLIC: A SIMPLE OR COMPLEX VIEW ........................................................... 104 2.3.1 The Relationship of the Public and the Community....................................... 104 2.4 PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC EDUCATION .................................................................. 109 2.4.1 Public Education beyond Formal Education................................................. 109 2.4.2 The Rise of a Broader View of Education...................................................... 111 2.4.3 Education across the Lifespan ....................................................................... 117 2.4.4 Media and Public Education.......................................................................... 121 2.4.5 Research Regarding the Goals of Public Education...................................... 127 2.5 PUBLIC EDUCATION PROCESSES ............................................................................. 129 2.5.1 The Failure of Quantitative Research to Link Education and Behaviour ..... 129
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2.5.2 Beyond Awareness Raising, Experience and Attitudes .................................. 134 2.5.3 Towards a Qualitative Understanding of Public Education.......................... 144 2.6 SUPPORT FOR AN INTERPRETATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION ....................... 150 CHAPTER THREE: THE RESEARCH APPROACH ............................................ 153 3.0 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH APPROACH ............................................................. 153 3.1 THE RESEARCH PARADIGM .................................................................................... 154 3.1.1 Research Paradigms ...................................................................................... 154 3.1.2 Research Paradigms and Phenomenography ................................................ 159 3.2 PHENOMENOGRAPHY.............................................................................................. 162 3.2.1 The Origins and Evolution of Phenomenography.......................................... 162 3.2.2 Phenomenography: Describing Different Ways of Experiencing Phenomena ................................................................................................................................. 168 3.3 SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 178 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................ 180 4.0 RESEARCH DESIGN OVERVIEW............................................................................... 180 4.1 THE PHENOMENOGRAPHIC STUDY: DISASTER MANAGERS' WAYS OF EXPERIENCING PUBLIC EDUCATION ..................................................................................................... 181 4.1.1 Identification of the Research Issue and Selection of Phenomenography ..... 182 4.1.2 Piloting of Research Procedures ................................................................... 184 4.1.3 Selection and Recruitment of Disaster Managers.......................................... 186 4.1.4 Data Collection .............................................................................................. 191 4.1.5 Data Analysis and Presentation of Findings ................................................. 195 4.2 ENSURING RIGOUR OF THE RESEARCH ................................................................... 205 4.3.1 Inter-Judge Reliability (Replicability) ........................................................... 208 4.3.2 Aiding Replicability through a Detailed Research Summary ........................ 210 4.3.3 Interpretative Awareness (Truthfulness)........................................................ 210 4.3.4 Obtaining Phenomenographic Validity ......................................................... 212 4.3.5 Adopting a Phenomenological Attitude ......................................................... 214 4.3 DISCUSSION OF WAYS OF EXPERIENCING PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR DISASTER SAFETY ..................................................................................................................................... 215 CHAPTER FIVE: WAYS OF EXPERIENCING PUBLIC EDUCATION IN A DISASTER MANAGEMENT CONTEXT................................................................. 216 5.0 OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH FINDINGS ....................................................................... 216 5.1 CATEGORIES OF DESCRIPTION: REFERENTIAL COMPONENT OF WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING ‘PUBLIC EDUCATION’ ...................................................................... 218 5.2 OUTCOME SPACE: STRUCTURAL COMPONENT OF WAYS OF EXPERIENCING ‘PUBLIC EDUCATION’ ................................................................................................................ 241 5.3 REPLICABILITY OF EMERGENT CATEGORIES .......................................................... 244 5.4 DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION UNDERLYING EXPERIENCE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION ... 245 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION................................................................................... 258 6.0 OVERVIEW OF DISCUSSION..................................................................................... 258 6.1 EXPERIENCING “PUBLIC EDUCATION”.................................................................... 259 6.1.1 The Referential Aspect of ‘Public Education’................................................ 261
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
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6.1.2 The Structural Aspect of ‘Public Education’ ................................................. 284 6.1.3 Other Phenomenographic Research Findings ............................................... 289 6.1.4 Variation in Experience ................................................................................. 292 6.2 INSIGHTS INTO PUBLIC EDUCATION ....................................................................... 303 6.2.1 Trends in Public Education............................................................................ 303 6.2.2 The Relationship of Research Results and Existing Literature...................... 306 6.2.3 The Evolving Meaning of Education.............................................................. 307 6.2.4 Insight into Why Public Education Interventions May Succeed or Fail........ 311 6.2.5 The Legitimacy of Public Education .............................................................. 315 6.3 PHENOMENOGRAPHY.............................................................................................. 317 6.3.1 Comments upon Achieving Parsimony........................................................... 318 6.3.2 Shared Terminology to Describe Multiple Relationships of Individual to a Phenomenon............................................................................................................ 322 6.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .................................................................................. 324 6.4.1 Cautionary Approach to Generalisability...................................................... 324 6.4.2 Limits to applicability of the cohort views ..................................................... 325 6.4.3 Gender imbalance .......................................................................................... 326 6.4.4 Researcher Interpretation .............................................................................. 327 6.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ....................................................... 328 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 335 7.1 ACHIEVEMENT OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ............................................................. 335 7.2 RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................... 337 APPENDIX 1 ................................................................................................................. 341 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 343
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1-1 FIGURE 1-2 FIGURE 1-3 FIGURE 2-1 FIGURE 2-2 FIGURE 2-3 FIGURE 2-4 FIGURE 2-5 FIGURE 2-6 FIGURE 2-7 FIGURE 2-8 FIGURE 3-1 FIGURE 4-1 FIGURE 5-1 FIGURE 5-2 FIGURE 5-3
MAJOR GOALS AND PROCESSES FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................... 17 RECENT CHALLENGES TO UNDERSTANDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION ......... 21 RESEARCH PROCESS AND OBJECTIVES ....................................................... 29 COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO DISASTER MANAGEMENT ....................... 87 THE RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS (SOURCE: STANDARDS AUSTRALIA, 1999) ................................................................................................................... 95 EMERGENCY RISK MANAGEMENT (SOURCE: BOUGHTON, 1999)................ 96 BENNETT AND MURPHY (1997)’S MODEL OF RISK PERCEPTION TO RISK REDUCTION BEHAVIOUR PROCESS ........................................................... 136 ENDERS’S (2001) FRAMEWORK FOR INVESTIGATING EMERGENCY AWARENESS AND PREPAREDNESS ............................................................ 138 ROHRMANN’S (1998) RISK COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK .................... 139 RHODES AND REINHOLDT (1999) PREPARATION FOR HAZARD SAFETY MODEL ..................................................................................................... 140 SMITHSON'S (1989, P.7) TAXONOMY OF IGNORANCE ............................... 142 PHENOMENOGRAPHY AND SIMILAR QUALITATIVE APPROACHES ............. 160 NUMBER OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS BY STATE OF EMPLOYMENT ........ 189 PERCENTAGE OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS BY WAY OF UNDERSTANDING ................................................................................................................. 241 OUTCOME SPACE FOR THE PHENOMENON OF PUBLIC EDUCATION ........... 243 INTER-JUDGE RELIABILITY PERCENTAGE PRE- AND POST- CONSULTANCY ................................................................................................................. 244
_______________________________________________________________________
LIST OF TABLES _______________________________________________________________________ TABLE 2-1 TABLE 2-2 TABLE 2-3 TABLE 2-4 TABLE 5-1
SELECTED DEFINITIONS OF DISASTERS ...................................................... 47 THE PHYSICAL VIEW OF EVENTS, HAZARDS AND DISASTERS .................... 52 COMMUNITY VULNERABILITY INDICATORS ............................................... 68 ADULT EDUCATION AND TRAINING - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPE OF EDUCATION AND PROVIDER ..................................................................... 122 KEY ASPECTS OF THE RANGE OF VARIATION IN WAYS OF EXPERIENCING PUBLIC EDUCATION AS A DISASTER MANAGER OR EDUCATOR ............... 257
_______________________________________________________________________
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
ABBREVIATIONS COAG Council of Australian Governments (High Level Group on the Review of Natural Disaster Relief and Mitigation Arrangements)
EMA Emergency Management Australia (Australia’s Commonwealth Government emergency management agency)
ERM Emergency Risk Management
IDNDR International Decade of National Disaster Reduction (The 1990s as declared by the United Nations in 1989)
PPRR The Comprehensive Approach to Disaster Management: Preparation – Prevention – Response and Recovery.
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP
The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
Signature: ___________________________________________
Date: _______________________________________________
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my Principal Supervisor, John Lidstone, for his guidance throughout the period of my candidature. Similarly, Brian Hansford is thanked for his role as Associate Supervisor during the first several years of my candidature. Thanks are also due to the School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education for supporting this thesis and to the participants in the research project from the various Australian disaster agencies. I would like to thank Shirley Gregg for assisting in development of several of the figures in this document. On a personal level, I would like to thank family and friends for their patience and support while I have completed the thesis.
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION “Almost daily we are reminded of the threat of natural disasters. We cannot stop the forces of nature, but we can and must prevent them from causing major social and economic disasters.
Natural disasters profoundly affect our efforts to achieve sustainable development. By their powerful impact on the supply of primary commodities, they disrupt market stability, leading to steep declines in national revenue. In many developing countries, five per cent of gross national product may be lost to natural disasters each year.
We can no longer afford, financially or socially, to rely only on the expectations of emergency relief when disaster strikes. Much greater attention must be paid to preventative strategies aimed at saving lives and protecting resources and assets before they are lost. The programme [sic] for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, adopted by the United Nations General assembly in 1989, has taken up this battle, combining resources, advanced scientific and technological development, information dissemination, human resource management and risk assessment in an integrated package. Agencies of the United Nations system such as the World Meteorological Organization, UNESCO and the World Bank have been particularly active in contributing their technical expertise.
As the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction comes to a close, it is essential that the aims of this initiative are continued. As more and more countries incorporate disaster prevention policies into national development plans, they are trying to enlist the help of educators, non-governmental organizations, civil society institutions and private sector enterprises. Indeed, prevention begins with information...”
(Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1999, p.v)
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
1.0 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH Research literature and disaster management agencies, manuals and brochures from the last couple of decades document a generally high regard by disaster managers for public [1]
education
[2]
disaster
as a particularly effective strategy at the preparedness end of a spectrum of
prevention - preparedness - response – recovery (e.g. AusAID, 2002;
Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983; Boughton, 1990; COAG, 2004a; Lambley, 1997; Lucas-Smith and McRae, 1993; Lystad, 1988; Quarantelli, 1988, 1999; Press, 1989; Rodda, 1999; Rouhban, 1997; Goudie and King, 1999). As such, public education has been routinely incorporated into Australian disaster management plans and practice (e.g. AusAID, 2002; COAG, 2004a, 2004b; Emergency Management Australia, 2003b, 2004a). For example, one of twelve key commitments to reform Australia’s natural disaster management proposed by the Council of Australian Governments High Level Group on the Review of Natural Disaster Relief and Mitigation Arrangements (2004a, p.29) was “improved national practices in community awareness, education, and
1 As a major aim of this research is to explore the various ways which public education is experienced, understood and onceptualised by disaster managers, no attempt is made to establish a single and working definition to guide this research. Instead, until findings emerge from this research, public education for disaster safety is considered in a broad sense as any form of education about any aspect of disaster involving at least one individual in the public and one educator. Other terminology including community education, adult education and community engagement is commonly used in the literature sometimes to the exclusion of public education, though often synonymously with that term. Possible limitations, similarities and differences related to each term are presented and discussed twice within this thesis. Firstly, prior usage of the terms within the literature is presented within the literature review of this thesis. Secondly, the usage of the terminology in practice is critically discussed in Chapter 6 in light of findings that emerged from this research. 2The term disaster is ambiguous in that it has both a narrow and a general meaning in the literature. The narrow view is exclusive of other processes beyond the disastrous event itself. However, given the theoretical and practical interweaving of disaster with hazard, emergency, safety and risk, a general interpretation of disaster is inclusive of all social and physical aspects of disasters, including antecedents to disasters, the occurrence of the disaster and the consequence of any disaster. Except where stated, the term disaster is used in this document in the general sense of the term.
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
warnings”. But the efficiency and relevance of education practice is questionable because the very meaning of public education has been fraught with uncertainty exacerbated by recent challenges to underlying assumptions that had previously shaped knowledge about disaster and education. One likely consequence of these challenges is a diversity of possible understandings of public education in prevailing research literature and professional documentation and as evidenced in disaster education practice. In other words, it is likely that disaster managers experience and understand the phenomenon of public education in a wide variety of ways with possible adverse consequences for how public education for disaster safety is conducted.
Arguably, previous efforts by researchers to establish meaning for education in a disaster context have been unsuccessful. Such research has too often sought to explain the issue through categorisation and development of causal models, consequently failing to account for the complexity of processes shaping, and influence of subjectivity upon, the field of research (Hewitt, 1983, 1999; Quarantelli, 1999). This has led to stagnation in understanding of the issue of public education that this research seeks to address.
An interpretative research approach was selected for this thesis to accommodate the diversity of perspectives and experiences of pubic education within the disaster management arena. A positivist, reductive approach was rejected, being considered vulnerable to a fate similar to that of much antecedent research efforts in this field. Prior attempts have largely sought to reduce and singularly define the phenomenon, even though it is likely that different individuals interpret it differently, and such attempts
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Public Education for Disaster management: A Phenomenographic Investigation
Samuel William Nielsen
often obscured the multiplicity of possible experiences. Favour for findings of causality, prediction and / or definition have not generalised well to educational practice where individual interpretation often guides choice. As such, the motivation for the selected research direction was the belief that research denying or ignoring the existence of interpretative complexity within the phenomenon of public education may generate findings of statistical significance but of practical insignificance for disaster managers and educators. To understand the phenomenon of public education within disaster management it was considered appropriate to uncover, relate and acknowledge the multiple ways by which the phenomenon is experienced by those who are charged with its creation and implementation.
The achieved purpose of this study was to provide an interpretive perspective on public education exploring the different ways in which senior disaster managers and educators, as key influences upon the nature of public education for disaster safety practice in Australia, experience public education for disaster management. This interpretive perspective was developed from an integrated literature review of public education and a phenomenographic study which uncovered for description those qualitatively different ways in which disaster managers experience public education. Phenomenography (Ackerlind, 2002b; Bowden, 1996; Bowden & Marton, 1998; Bowden & Walsh, 2000; Francis, 1996; Marton, 1981, 1983, 1986a, 1986b, 1988a, 1988b, 1992a, 1992b, 1994, 1996, 2000; Marton and Ming Fai, 1997; Marton & Svensson, 1979; Marton, F. and [3]
Tsui, 2003; Saljo, 1979, 1988; Svensson, 1997, for example)
was selected as a way to
3While not exhaustive, this selection of literature includes key literature related to the methodology, epistemology and ontology of phenomenography.
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Samuel William Nielsen
identify and present the various ways in which the phenomenon is experienced. The research outcome from a phenomenographic study is a representation of the various ways of experiencing the phenomenon, and is a legitimate outcome in itself (Bowden & Marton, 1998; Bowden & Walsh, 2000; Marton, 1983, 1988b, 1996, 2000; Marton & Saljo, 1984; Marton & Svensson, 1979) that can be used to guide education practice and improve the quality of teaching and learning outcomes (Ashworth & Lucus, 2000; Ackerlind, 2002b; Booth, 1997; Bowden, 1988; Johansson, Marton and Svensson, 1985; Marton and Booth, 1996; Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty, 1993; Marton, 1983, 1988b; Marton, F. and Tsui, 2003; Pramling, 1988; Ramsden, 1988, 1992; Saljo, 1988). In the light of phenomenographic findings, the relevance of current disaster education theory receives critical discussion in this thesis. The uncovering of ways of experiencing public education in a disaster management context and relating them structurally in an outcome space provides a basis for a whole new discussion of that process. ----o----o----o----
1.1 AN EMPHASIS UPON PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT 1.1.1 The Continuing Cost of Disasters
It is commonly stated by Australian and overseas disaster researchers and experts that the frequency of disasters and the level of detriment affecting society is increasing at a global level proportionately faster than the rate of population increase (e.g. Berz, 1999; Britton, 1988, 2001; Bruce, 1999; Crichton, 1999; Palm, 1990; Pijawka, Cuthbertson &
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Samuel William Nielsen
Olson, 1988; Rodda, 1999; Rouhban, 1997; State Members of the United Nations and Other States, 1994; Twigg & Bhatt, 1998; United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation [UNDRO], 1987; Wijkmaan and Timberlake, 1984). A comprehensive review of recorded Australian natural disaster data by the Australian Federal Government (Bureau of Transport Economics, 2001) suggests the disaster trend within Australia may be of an ongoing to slightly increasing level of detriment when considered on a per-decade basis and ironing out the annual fluctuations in cost that can emerge from a single major disaster in a given year. This government study found some evidence that the frequency of disasters per year is increasing, but could not conclude the extent to which this was either due to availability of more comprehensive reporting in more recent times or due to an increasing population in vulnerable areas. Other international literature is more negative. For example, Rodda (1999) highlighted that the global view afforded by data pertaining to 5,200 disasters between 1963 and 1992 in 179 countries showed a steep rise in deaths and rising numbers of people affected and damage caused. Berz (1999), considering disasters globally and from an insurance industry perspective, indicated that the frequency of disasters has tripled, inflation-adjusted economic losses from natural disasters have increased by a factor of nine and insurance losses by a factor of fifteen compared to the 1960s.
Explanations for the escalating likelihood and severity of disasters include deficits in disaster
management
programs,
lack
of
public
preparedness
for
disasters,
underestimation of risks, vulnerability or lack of resilience because of political disadvantage, increases in population density, population shifts that increase settlement
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Samuel William Nielsen
in high-risk areas, vulnerability of new technologies and anthropogenic changes in the environment, for example (Auf der Heide, 1989; Berz, 1999; Bolin & Stanford, 1998; Crichton, 1999; Drabek, 1986; Pijawka, Cuthbertson & Olson, 1988; Susman, O'Keefe and Wisner, 1983).
Regardless of causality of disasters and whether the disaster trend is increasing or continuing in a level pattern, in a best-case scenario, social and technological advances have so far not translated into any decrease in the cost of natural disasters. The cost of disasters continues to be substantial in terms of social measures such as physical damage, human suffering and death, but also personal measures such as loss of personal family income and psychological trauma (Berz, 1999; Emergency Management Australia, 2003b; Mulilis, 1998; Palm, 1990; Rodda, 1999; Rubonis & Bickman, 1991). Emergency Management Australia (2003b) reported that in Australia between 1945 and 2000 there were an average of just over two disasters occurring every year that caused at least 12 deaths or 50 injuries or $200 million estimated damage. In the period from 1967 to 1999 there were 265 Australian natural disasters with a dollars equivalent costing of over $10 million each (Australian Bureau of Transport Economics, 2001). Examples of recent and substantial Australian disasters and their toll in deaths, injuries and real costs, include the 1974 Brisbane floods (16 dead, 300 injured, $980 million damage), 1974 Cyclone Tracy (65 dead, 650 injured, $4,180 million damage), 1983 Ash Wednesday fire (76 dead, 1100 injured, $960 million damage), the 1985 Brisbane storms (20 injured, $390 million damage); the 1989 Newcastle Earthquake (13 dead, 150 injured, $4,480 million damage); the 1990 Sydney hailstorms (25 injured, $550 million damage)
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and the 1999 Sydney storms (1 dead, 50 injured, $2,300 million damage) (Emergency Management Australia, 2003). At the start of the last decade, Joy (1991) conservatively estimated the average annual cost of natural disasters alone for Australia, based on the sum of the insured loss, public loss and residual loss met by private individuals to be in the vicinity of $1,250 million. The Bureau of Transport Economics (2001) study echoed this finding with an estimate of the cost of natural disasters, restricting data to disasters of a minimum equivalent cost of $10 million, as being well over $1,100 million. Globally, there were 16 natural disasters with a cost of more than one billion dollars each in the last decade of the Twentieth Century (Berz, 1999). Natural disasters alone were estimated to account for approximately one percent of the Gross National Product in the United States of America (Harriss, Hohenemser and Kates, 1978) and as much as five percent of gross national product in many developing countries (Annan, 1999). Beyond costs to economy and physical well-being, additional costs of disasters are in terms of subsequent psychopathology amongst victims (Rubonis & Bickman, 1991) and community disruption (Bureau of Transport Economics, 2001; COAG, 2004a). Widespread media coverage can also generate negative outcomes in the form of extreme collective stress (Rosenthal, 1998). Maskrey (1999, p.85) highlights the disparity between motivations for reducing disaster with actual outcomes achieved: While the IDNDR [International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction] discourse has become favourable to reducing social and community vulnerabilities, in practice risks have continued to accumulate and disaster occurrence and loss have soared. 1.1.2 Public Expectations for Safety Paradoxically, the unabated toll from disasters has occurred at the same time as a view has become common amongst citizens of developed countries that humanity has the
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Samuel William Nielsen
capacity to subjugate nature and harness technology to provide for individual safety (Cutter, 1993; Hewitt, 1983, 1999; Rattien, 1996; Smith, 1996). Citizens of these societies have increasingly demanded safety as a right that they assume their government is primarily obliged to provide (Covello and Mumpower, 1985), often with inadequate regard for self-accountability in such regard (Twigg, 2000). Arguably, such an expectation has accompanied an increase in the rise of individualism amongst the citizens of many developed countries. Regardless, government disaster agencies in developed countries are under significant pressure to provide the general public with safety and peace of mind (Britton, 2001; Goldstein, 1990).
It is ironic that the public demands safety yet a number of cost-effective and feasible measures to mitigate disasters are not adopted by many (Palm, 1990). A failure by the public to adopt disaster mitigation measures has a long record in Australia. As far back as 1817, the first Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, issued a declaration soon after settlers’ properties along the Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers were flooded, not for the first time, despite government recommendations to create townships only on high ground above the floodmarks. Part of the declaration stated: It must be confessed that the compassion excited by their misfortunes is mingled with sentiments of astonishment and surprise that any people could be found so totally insensible to their true interests, as the settlers have in this instance proved themselves. (Macquarie, 1817)
Nearly two centuries later the responsibility of the public in regard to self and property remains a significant issue still without a resolution in sight and in need of further research attention (DeMarchi, 1991; IDNDR, 1994; Susman, O'Keefe & Wisner, 1983;
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Stenchion, 1997; Twigg, 2000). Still, under expectations of ensuring public safety, it is disaster managers who are under significant pressure to find ways to facilitate safety (Britton, 2001). As Rattien (1996) has pointed out and as documented in many United Nations declarations (e.g. Annan, 1999), reducing loss in life and property is a compelling objective now receiving global attention.
Disaster managers have a range of strategies available to address their responsibility for public safety. For much of the past twenty years these strategies have been primarily considered within the spectrum of a comprehensive approach of preventionpreparedness-response-recovery to disaster management (Crondstedt, 2002). The response and recovery aspects of such a model have often been based on the tangible response to the physical disaster that has occurred. However, the tangible approach to disaster prevention and preparedness is lessened because many disasters cannot be prevented by, and may even be caused by, technology available within a society. Despite the faith of many in technology as a means to prevent or abate disasters, our ability today to modify natural phenomena, for example, to alter precipitation levels for a region, is extremely limited and may well remain so (Rattien, 1996). In the absence of technology that can modify nature, it is other measures that must be undertaken to mitigate disasters. As Rattien (1996, p.1) commented: Scientists and engineers now believe that the knowledge and technology base potentially applicable to the mitigation [rather than modification] of natural hazards has grown so dramatically in recent years that it would be possible, through a concerted co-operative international effort, to save many lives and reduce human suffering, dislocation, and economic losses.
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1.1.3 Emphasis Upon Public Education for Disaster Safety
During the past 15 years there has been a renewed focus upon public education as a means of disaster mitigation at both a national and global level. The declaration by the United Nations that the 1990s be the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction was accompanied by messages to all governments that "knowledge and involved people are critical to building a safe society" and that "educating and training their citizens to increase awareness" is one way those governments can work towards such societal safety (Press, 1989, vii). The declaration made overt at a global level what had long been a widely held assumption within the disaster management arena: that an educated public is better able to prepare for, and adapt and respond to, disasters (Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983; Boughton, 1990; Lystad, 1988; Press, 1989). The view that education is effective in facilitating public safety appears to remain dominant. The Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States [FEMA] (1996) found a majority of opinion amongst over 15,000 people from government agencies, private industry, academia, non-profit research, professional, trade, environmental, and disaster response organisations, and individual citizens, that the public can become better informed about its vulnerability to hazards and more knowledgeable about ways to mitigate these hazards via electronic and print media, displays and brochures, presentations by government agencies and professional organisations, formal training courses and school curricula, mass mailings, and public notification such as newsletters and signs. A recent shift away from public education processes emphasising instruction and knowledge transfer towards a favouring of focus
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Samuel William Nielsen
upon community involvement, empowerment and risk negotiation has also been occurring in recent years (FEMA, 1999; Twigg, 2000).
National public education campaigns have been used in Australia to address a range of issues as diverse as refuse recycling, reduction of household water usage and Federal Government election voting procedures. Public education has a particularly strong usage in the area of public safety. Recent Australian campaigns for public safety include road safety, toxic chemical handling, drink driving, driver fatigue, driver speeding, safe sex, preventing transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, skin cancer prevention, health safety, and fire prevention and response. Internationally, the literature continues to document a very large number of public education initiatives. Examples of the focus of recent international initiatives from throughout the world as documented in the literature include: raising revenue to upgrade the U.S. power grid (Fialka, 2003); increasing the rate of cadaver organ donation (Chouhan & Draper, 2003); reducing the proportion of alcoholic relapses (Zywiak, Stout & Trefry, 2003); early detection of breast cancer in countries with limited resources (Anderson, Braun, Lim, Smith & Taplin, 2003); developing lifelong positive attitudes towards mental illness by doctors in training (Brophy, 2003); preventing osteoporosis (Orces, Casas, Lee, Garcia-Cavazos, Rogelio, 2003), awareness raising about effects of mental depression (Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, 2003); and minimising prescription drug abuse (Meadows, 2003). World Wildlife Fund Canada recommended to the Canadian government that public education be included as one of six indicators of environmental impact (Hawaleshka, 2003). Other recent research has concluded the importance of public education in regard to several
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issues, for example: health and well being (Lenfant, 2003); food safety awareness (Knight, Jackson, Baine, Eldemire-Shearer, 2003); population control (Nicholson-Lord, 2003) and communicable diseases (Briggs, 2003). Researchers investigating ways to prevent osteoporosis in Mexican-American women identified a statistical relationship between public education and prevention (Orces, Casas, Lee, Garcia-Cavazos, Rogelio, 2003). In Australia, an investigation of returns on investment in the area of health undertaken by the Department of Health and Ageing (2003) similarly concluded that public education was important, successful and represented a good return on investment.
A belief in the value of education has been entrenched in disaster management practice before and after the IDNDR. As Lystad (1988, p.xxxiv) stated: The need for educating the public on what to do to protect themselves in emergencies and for educating public organizations [sic] on how to respond to emergencies is axiomatic.
It is obvious that many disaster managers believe that effective public education is an important part of the management process and implement programs accordingly. Similarly, pamphlets, handbooks and training programs contain a range of advice on the purpose of public education and how to prepare for and respond to disaster. What is lacking, apart from hard evidence that public education has actually reduced the scale of any specific disaster, is an account of the many ways public education is understood by disaster managers: a summation of the diversity of fundamental ways of experiencing public education that can serve as a starting point for any future attempts to implement such programs. ----o----o----o----
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1.2 THE FAILURE TO ESTABLISH AN UNDERSTANDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION It is surprising that the amount of public education that takes place has not translated into research attention. Despite the temptation to view the last two or three decades as a period when understanding about public education in a disaster context has advanced, the literature does not support such a claim. A practical model of public education or a basis for discussion of the process remains elusive despite a common sense understanding of public education being readily found in numerous practical instruction manuals and educational guides. A significant and neglected research issue is precisely what “public education” is and whether it is even an appropriate or sufficiently accommodative term to describe the processes and contexts it potentially encompasses. Despite its practical heritage, public education lacks the framework to be valued as an educational form in its own right.
Definitions of public education are rare in the literature. Three of the more lucid definitions are: Educational activities designed to increase awareness and understanding by citizens of important issues on the public policy agenda in such domains as health, the environment, and civics (Whyte and Crombie, 1985, p.95); Processes by which bodies of various sorts seek to inform and educate the public at large, or specific sectors of the public, on key issues, including both campaign-style (e.g. HIV/AIDS awareness) and community involvement processes (e.g. land conservation, parenting skills)” (Australian Association of Adult and Community Education, 1987, cited in Australian Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training, 1991, p.170)
and, in a disaster context,
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An ongoing strategy aimed at alerting the public to the consequences of a hazard impact on an unprotected community (Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983, p.1).
These vague descriptions of public education in a disaster safety context allude to public education as encompassing unspecified educational processes in the interests of public well being. Yet these definitions, and the literature they are contained in, invariably fail to achieve any additional conceptual clarification.
The vagueness of meaning ascribed to public education is only one of several major failings of public education theory. Another failing is that whilst numerous educational theories proffer insight, lacking is any specific and detailed public education theory or model to guide action. This is typical of other similar educational forms such as adult education and community education. For example, Stock (1996, p.21) emphasised that relevant theory for adult education is “rather fragmented, or even compartmentalized [sic] within the several academic disciplines which feed into the study of adult education.”
The continuing fragmentation of, and hence eclecticism of, public education theory is a possible result of the failure of educational research to account for this multifarious and complex form of education. The consequence of this fragmentation is that an appreciation of the process of public education requires contemplation of a range of research contributions from across disciplines including education, psychology, sociology, marketing, and environmental science. In addition, the content of public education campaigns and examples of public education practice are often detailed in yet
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further disciplines related to the area of content within which each given public education process or activity was undertaken, such as disaster management or health. Research is further fragmented across fields of research interest including adult education, community education, environmental education, lifelong learning and education, social engagement, advertising, social marketing and consultation. Applying these educational processes to the issue of disaster management introduces additional research fields of relevance including hazard, disaster, risk, vulnerability and safety. Additional considerations when approaching the issue of public education include education setting, aims, goals and duration, and aspects of the nature of, and relationship and communication between, learners and educators. Major goals and processes of public education that can be found across these fields are brought together in Figure 1-1.
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Duration of education: • Lifelong learning/education • Education campaigns
Education Setting: • Formal learning.education • Informal learning/education • Non-formal learning/education • Incidental learning/education
Goal of Education: • Safety • Disaster prevention • Disaster preparation • Disaster response
Control of Education Process: •Instruction •Self-directed learning
Public Education for Disaster Management
Disaster Management: • Structure • Processes
Samuel William Nielsen
Learners: • The general public • The community • Adults • Schools
Aim of Education: Information transfer Gain in experience Attitude change Shift in world view New qualitative understand Other psychological and educational aspects
Education Content: • Disasters • Risk • Hazards • Safety • Emergencies
Figure 1-1
Major Goals and Processes for Public Education for Disaster Management Given the fragmentation of public education research, it is not surprising to discover that public education is characterised by a lack of consistency in theoretical perspectives, a failure to establish a cumulative body of knowledge, and confusion associated with the term itself. Similar issues have been raised over other overlapping discipline areas such as self-directed learning (Candy, 1991), adult education (Stock, 1996), and some environmental education theories (Gough, 1997), all of which are marginal to the majority of education theory that narrowly focuses on education within a formal setting with an instructor providing guidance.
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Prior research efforts to account for public education have failed to explain satisfactorily the complexity and multiplicity of its processes. If we accept the argument that disaster managers' usage of public education is integral for their role, then research to which the issue of public education may more readily yield is warranted if not long overdue.
----o----o----o----
1.3 TOWARDS A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR DISASTER SAFETY 1.3.1 A Lack of Existing Insight into Public Education
During the last several decades, certain aspects of knowledge about education and disaster that were previously taken for granted were increasingly challenged by new and alternative accounts of these aspects. The progress of these alternative accounts is documented in the literature, albeit fragmented across multiple fields of research. While there have been many recent challenges, six suggest themselves as being potentially more significant than others. A summary of these recent challenges to understanding of public education is presented in Figure 1-2. These challenges are now considered.
(1) There has been increasing favour for the view that disasters are not merely physical phenomena, but have a social or political basis (e.g. Boughton, 1998; Cannon, 1994; Crondsdedt, 2002; Cutter, 1993; EMA, 2003a, 2003b; Dombrowsky, 1998; Handmer, 2003; Hewitt, 1983, 1998; Kreps, 1984; Kroll-
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Smith and Couch 1991; Mitchell, Devine and Jagger, 1989; Mitchell, 1991; Morren, 1983; Oliver-Smith 1998; Quarantelli, 1991, 1998; Reisner, 1993; Salter, 1998; Smith, 1996; Susman, O'Keefe & Wisner, 1983; Watts, 1983; Wijkmaan and Timberlake, 1987; Varley, 1994). These issues are explored in Section 2.1.
(2) There has been criticism of the culture of Australian disaster management as traditional, patriarchal and bureaucratic (Britton, 1988; Wraith, 1997) potentially inhibiting the valuing or interpretation of public education. Subsequent effort has arguably been made by central disaster management agencies to address such criticism (EMA, 2003c). These issues are explored in section 2.2.
(3) The comprehensive prevention – preparation – response - recovery approach to disaster management that had existed essentially unchallenged for two decades has recently lost some favour in the Australian context. Instead, increasingly considered as credible is a viable alternative paradigm based on risk management with a pragmatic methodology based on efficiency, effectiveness and economy (Crondstedt, 2002). Interweaved with this shifting focus has been a shift in the emergency management community from an internal agency focus to a community-centered focus (Salter, 1998; Crondstedt, 2002; Gabriel, 2003) concerned with “more intelligent resource allocation based on risks – businesslike management and outcome based performance” (Crondstedt, 2002, p. 11).
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More specifically, this transition may equate to foci shifts from: hazards to vulnerability; reaction to proaction; single agencies to partnerships; a science driven to multi-disciplinary approach; response management to risk management; planning for communities to planning with communities; and communicating for communities to communicating with communities (Salter, 1998, 1999). While appearing to be greatly desired by a majority of practitioners, implementation of such significant changes has been difficult (2001) and has been adopted to varying extents throughout the sector and in different ways. This has led to the generation of a variety of posited models, many of which are hybrids of other models and often inconsistent with any single theoretical basis [see Section 2.2].
(4) The relevance of the term public in public education is in need of attention given varying interpretations of the breadth of meaning of the term, and the closely associated terms of adult and community in disaster and education literature. Most notably, the meaning of community has been explored in detail and been increasingly attended to in terms of processes and structures amongst groups of individuals and hence has seen a trend away from consideration of the public as a generic and uniform body of individuals [see Section 2.3].
(5) Areas of education that were previously marginalised by a narrow view of education as formal and instructor-based have been strengthened and gained legitimacy through a new emphasis upon acknowledging and valuing the
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complexity of processes and settings they encompass (Stock, 1996; Raggatt, Edwards and Small, 1996) [see Section 2.4].
(6) A failure of psychological and educational research to link the processes of awareness, experience and attitudes to behaviour satisfactorily has led to increasing favour for alternative and often non-mechanistic explanations of the means by which public education related initiatives help address issues to which they are applied [see Section 2.4].
New paradigms for disasters
Alternate Disaster Management Paradigm Emerging
New explanations linking public education and behaviour
Public Education
Legitimisation of education and learning beyond formal guidance
Figure 1-2
Criticism of disaster management culture The possible reinterpretation of the public as the commnunity
Recent Challenges to Understanding of Public Education
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The combination of these recent challenges has resulted in public education, as implemented within disaster management, being fraught with uncertainty and contradiction. Given such complexity, it is not surprising that research attempting to understand the intrinsic nature of the phenomenon of public education has been less than fruitful. The phenomenographer Marton (1981, 1996) referred to such a research focus as being of a first-order perspective. From a phenomenographic viewpoint, the major obstacle to such research is that it is approaching a phenomenon open to interpretation yet attempting to account for it via an objective and unifying viewpoint rather than acknowledging
and
accommodating
variations
in
individual
interpretation.
Phenomenography is different in that it is concerned with the second-order perspective: reporting on the various underlying ways of describing a phenomenon as experienced by people (Marton, 1988b, 1996; Ashworth and Lucus, 2000). Phenomenography deliberately concerns itself with the qualitatively different ways in which phenomena are experienced.
1.3.2 Rationale for the Phenomenographic Research
A key premise of this thesis is that understanding the processes of public education is limited because educators themselves have not been encouraged to reflect on these processes and their relationship to them. The benefits of interpretative research have been previously overlooked in the area of disaster public education even though the sheer complexity and multiplicity of relationships involved, including those between the
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person and the phenomenon of interest, have not yielded readily to positivist research efforts.
There is a need for an account of public education for disaster management that is responsive to the multiple ways in which it may be experienced and is both flexible and practical. Ways of experiencing the phenomenon are likely to vary between individuals to the extent that they have adopted knowledge from more recent challenges to views of education and disaster. While some individuals may still hold traditional views, others may have embraced the new perspectives. Interpretations may have broadened to encompass old and new views or even narrowed in response to shifting trends. Britton’s (1988) argument that disaster practitioners are slow to adopt insights available from research even when these represent international and ongoing trends is likely to remain relevant today.
Public education remains a major disaster preparedness and mitigation strategy. Yet attempts to give objective meaning to this aspect of the disaster management process have left it fraught with uncertainty. The literature remains dominated by a view that an objective and common understanding of public education is both achievable and desirable, despite the lack of headway made.
To date, there has been no research that can shed light on the nature of disaster managers' interpretations of effective public education. Such research is important because any differences that may exist in interpretations of what constitutes public
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education arguably influence the implementation of public education within disaster management practice. Research exploring the personal meaning of public education for disaster managers would assist understanding of public education choices made during management practice and allow consideration of the possible multiplicity of interpretations that may be unique to this marginal and eclectic learning phenomenon.
This research was not concerned with generating hypotheses about, or predicting relationships between, recent trends in education, learning, disaster and management, and either public education practice or the way the general public learns about disasters. Nor was the research concerned with quantitative methods or attaining objective knowledge (cf. Kuhn, 1970; Chalmers, 1976, 1990). Rather than impose a consensus on what is likely to be a variously understood issue, it was believed that a significant contribution to understanding of public education as practiced within disaster management was best achieved by identifying the multiple ways of experiencing the phenomenon in question.
----o----o----o----
1.4 THE RESEARCH 1.4.1 The Research Problem and Approach
This research was based on a phenomenographic study exploring and describing ways of experiencing (cf. Marton & Booth, 1997; Bowden & Marton, 1998; Marton, 1996, 1998;
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Marton & Tsui, 2003) the phenomenon of public education, as experienced by disaster managers. Findings offer an interpretative account of public education of relevance to all involved in education in a disaster context, acknowledging that multiple ways of experiencing the phenomenon exist. This research includes a discussion about why public education interventions may succeed or fail, and why so much of the previous research in the area is contradictory.
Phenomenography was selected as an appropriate means to explore the research issue given the nature of the research problem. The aim of phenomenographic research is to describe the qualitatively different ways in which people experience a phenomenon. Its emphasis on eliciting and describing conceptions offered the possibility of a reconsideration of the meaning of “public education”. Phenomenographic research provides insight from a second-order perspective: investigating ways of experiencing the phenomenon, rather than directly investigating the phenomenon itself (Marton, 1981, 1989, 1996). This means that phenomenography can address the phenomenon being researched as it is experienced and by those to whom that experience has significance. The phenomenographic research approach “provides a way of looking at the phenomenon holistically, despite the fact that it may be experienced differently by different individuals, and by the same individuals at different points in time and context.” The phenomenon of interest is arguably predominately social in character, subject to potentially rapid change and open to interpretation (Ackerlind, 2002a, p.12). Prior research has demonstrated phenomenography’s capacity to inform about uncertain phenomena (Hasselgren and Beach, 1997; Marton, 1996). Phenomenography offered an
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opportunity to clarify the complexity concerning public education without reliance upon an objective explanation that denies the significance of subjectivity in education practice and professional and research discussion and publications. As such this research avoided the oversimplification that had characterised preceding objective models.
Thus, the aim of this research is to identify the qualitatively different ways in which a group of disaster managers and disaster educators who have been active in the promotion of public education for disaster mitigation experience public education.
1.4.2 The Research Process
The research proceeded in accordance with the planned phases of: (1) a literature review; (2) a phenomenographic study; and (3) discussion of an interpretative understanding of public education in a disaster context specifically, and of relevance to public education in a broader sense.
The discussion phase included the critiquing of emergent findings, comparison of these findings with existing theories in the literature, and development of an argument towards an interpretative model of public education for disaster safety.
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1.4.3 Research Statement and Objectives
The research statement this research sought to address was: Describe the limited number of qualitatively different ways of experiencing the phenomenon of “public education” as experienced by senior Australian disaster managers and disaster educators who have been active in the promotion of public education.
Four specific objectives were identified as objectives to be achieved in order to address the research statement in a credible and meaningful way. These four specific research objectives were to:
(1) establish an integrated literature on public education, particularly in a disaster management context;
(2) gain an appreciation of the referential component of knowledge of public education via identifying and presenting a set of discrete phenomenographic categories of description for the phenomenon of public education;
(3) gain an appreciation of the structural component of knowledge of public education via development and presentation of a phenomenographic Outcome Space (Marton,
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1988a) as a representation of the qualitatively different ways in which disaster managers experience public education; and
(4) critique emergent findings of the phenomenographic study, including a comparison of these findings with existing literature and theories of public education [dependent upon achieving objectives 1, 2 and 3].
1.4.4 Model of the Research
A model of the research outlining the components of the research process and how they related to the objectives of this study is provided in a diagrammatic form as Figure 1-3.
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Review of major issues shaping public education and the possibility of multiple interpretations of the phenomena
Research Objective 1
Review of major issues shaping both disaster and disaster management and the possible theoretical and practice implications
Integrated literature on public education in a disaster management context
Phenomenographic study of disaster managers’ ways of experiencing public education
Research Objective 2
Research Objective 3
Research Objective 4
Figure 1-3
Samuel William Nielsen
Identify a set of discrete categories of meaning for the phenomenon of ‘public education’.
Outcome Space representing disaster managers’ ways of experiencing public education
Critique emergent findings in relation to existing public education literature
Research Process and Objectives
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Literature on phenomenography
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1.4.5 Preview of the Research Findings
The phenomenographic study identified ten different categories of description for public education representing the ten ways of experiencing the phenomenon, as revealed through interviews with a group of 25 senior Australian disaster educators and managers having responsibility and authority in regard to disaster education practice within their organisations. These labels attributed to the ten categories of description were:
as a non-effective process;
as a way of managing a public issue;
as promoting an issue;
as issuing expert instructions;
as changing individuals;
as strategic teaching and training;
as collaborative partnerships;
as empowering learners to make informed decisions;
as negotiation; and
as an element in societal learning.
The full categories of description are presented later in the thesis within the context of other results. In particular, these labels of the emergent ways of experiencing public education are later provided together with additional descriptive explanation and are accompanied by excerpts from the transcripts of research participants included as illustrative examples of each category. The presentation of these emergent categories
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includes their structural relation within a phenomenographic outcome space. A related underlying set of dimensions of variance that differentiated these experiences is also provided.
These phenomenographic research findings are the foundation for a new discussion of public education for disaster safety. Research findings are related to existing literature within the discussion of the limited set of ways of experiencing public education that emerged in this thesis. Suggestions for incorporating interpretative modeling techniques within ongoing discussion and practice of public education, generally and specific to disaster management are presented in the discussion.
----o----o----o----
1.5 BENEFITS OF THE RESEARCH By achieving its objectives, this research contributes to a number of areas of professional and academic interest. Four major benefits of the research are considered below.
(1)
An original and substantial contribution to knowledge of public education
This research contributes new knowledge about public education and learning in the context of disaster management attending to public safety. This new knowledge addresses a lack of interpretative research in the area and introduces the generation of a
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systematic and cumulative body of research that can serve as a reference for future researchers in the field. Findings, as detailed in Chapter Five, reveal a range of possible ways of experiencing public education and dimensions of variance underlying these. On this basis, this investigation of public education provides insight into how educators experience education. The discussion uses these emergent ways of experiencing the phenomenon to shed light on pre-existing and often contradictory theories and allows recommendations for ways to positively incorporate differing ways of experiencing into ongoing discussion and model formulation in the field.
(2)
Contribution to academic discussion about phenomenography
This research includes a critical assessment of the ability of phenomenographic research to capture and describe referentially and structurally the limited number of qualitatively different ways in which phenomena are experienced (Chapter Six). The study of public education as experienced by disaster managers extends the use of phenomenography to a new phenomenon, allowing discussion of the utility in a new context. Further, the phenomenon is arguably highly value laden, loosely delimited, evolving and dynamic, allowing critical discussion of phenomenography and the meaning of phenomena in such circumstances.
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(3)
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Improving Education
Even the slightest improvement in society's capacity to mitigate disasters can be counted in terms of human lives saved and percentages of Gross National Product freed from societal compensation and recovery (Berz, 1999; Bureau of Transport Economics, 2001; Britton, 2001; Emergency Management Australia, 2003a; Joy, 1991; Maskrey, 1989, 1999). The possibility that findings from this study could facilitate discussion amongst disaster managers and educators and hence contribute towards the improvement of educational processes means that this research may ultimately benefit the public through contributing to safety and well being. Further, the implications of research findings are of relevance to other practitioners of public education outside of the disaster management arena, for example, to those concerned with public health issues.
The ways of experiencing emerging from the phenomenographic study are legitimate research results in themselves that can enhance our ability to learn about learning (Marton and Svensson, 1979; Marton, 1996; Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard, & Marton, 1993). By first making learning an object of reflection, it can then become a tool for improving learning (Saljo, 1979). Previous research has demonstrated the benefit of phenomenography in guiding education and learning and influencing educational outcomes (Ramsden, 1992; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999). The relationship between the research findings in this thesis and disaster practice are not predictive but are guiding in the sense that they can help interested parties to make
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informed guesses (Marton, 1986b) and can be used to guide educators when selecting appropriate training and development (Sandberg, 1994).
When disaster managers and educators discuss public education without clarification as to the meaning they intend the term to convey, it is quite possible that any of the different ways of experiencing the phenomenon identified in this thesis was intended. Further, during discussion by these educators or practitioners, they may at different times attend to different underlying aspects of the phenomenon. The potential for confusion and miscommunication of intent when it comes to public education is high to extreme. However, if practitioners and researchers become aware of the different ways public education can be experienced, it becomes possible to discuss public education with
an
increased
precision
and
specificity
of
meaning.
Provision
of
a
phenomenographic mapping of public education allows an opportunity for practitioners to self-reflect upon their communication with other members of the disaster management community at a professional level, as well as with the general public through educational initiatives. In these actions, a wider appreciation of the possibilities for public education is hopefully afforded. An opportunity to improve educational policy for Australian disaster management arises, as insights contributed by this study support new discussions potentially conducive to a consistent national educational policy.
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(4)
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Improving Links between Literature and Practice
Amidst research and professional discussion regarding the role of public education in disaster management (e.g. AusAID, 2002; Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983; Boughton, 1990; Enders, 2001; Lidstone, 1992; Lystad, 1988; Press, 1989; Rohrmann, 1998; Rhodes and Reinholdt, 1999; United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation, 1987), there has been no research that has been able to shed light on the extent to which such commentary matches experiences of this phenomenon by educators. According to the United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation (1987), it is not debate or rhetoric but practice that allows the actual benefits of education for societal safety to directly emerge.
Yet
the
literature
offers
little
insight
into
interpretations.
The
phenomenographic investigation of public education as variously experienced by educators themselves allowed investigation of a possible gap between literature and reality. The comparison of findings against existing literature allowed an assessment of the linkages and omissions between the literature and subjective interpretations. These are discussed in detail in Chapter Six of this document.
----o----o----o----
1.6 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS This chapter (Chapter One) introduced the research problem and provided an argument for the research. The next chapter (Chapter Two) presents the literature review on public
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education for disaster management. Chapter Three reviews the interpretative research paradigm and phenomenography. Chapter Four contains the research design based on phenomenographic research that revealed the limited number of qualitatively different ways of experiencing public education amongst Australian disaster managers. Chapter Five details the findings of the phenomenographic study detailed in the preceding chapter. The relationship between the 10 uncovered categories of description is represented in an outcome space. Chapter Six relates research outcomes to existing literature, critiques the literature in light of the research findings, promotes the value of an interpretivist perspective of public education, provides recommendations for future research and professional action, acknowledges the limits of this body of research, and includes a review of the ability of phenomenography to address the current research problem from the advantaged perspective of post-implementation of the research.
----o----o----o----
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
----o----o----o---The buildings were being rocked by a series of strong tremors, and appeared to have come loose from their foundations and to be sliding this way and that. Outside, however, there was danger from the rocks that were coming down, light and fire-consumed as these bits of pumice were. Weighing the relative dangers they chose the outdoors; in my uncle's case it was a rational decision, others just chose the alternative that frightened them the least. They tied pillows on top of their heads as protection against the shower of rock... (Pliny The Younger – 79A.D. recounting Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption in a letter to his friend Tacitus)
----o----o----o----
2.0 CHAPTER OVERVIEW The meaning attributed to a literature review varies between researchers (Bruce, 1992). A literature review therefore benefits from an overview attending to both intent and content. This literature review is intended as the critiqued, analysed, synthesised and structured presentation of a diverse and precedent body of research encompassing issues key to the themes introduced and researched in the remainder of the thesis. This literature review presents, in an integrated form, a summary of the relevant literature from across research fields that intersected with the current research issue.
The development of this literature review proceeded with four primary usages intended: (1) familiarisation of the reader with the literature in the field; (2) compilation of literature into one source;
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(3) contextualisation of the current research within prior research; and (4) as an argument for the value of the phenomenographic research in this research that seeks to identify a limited number of different ways disaster managers qualitatively experience public education.
Firstly, the intention was that a reader could become familiar with the current literature to allow consideration of later thesis results, modeling and discussions from an informed position. As such, development of this literature review was to incorporate key literature considered most relevant and informative for the issue at hand.
Secondly, this literature review was the outcome of the compilation and synthesis of a fragmented literature about both public education and the disaster management context in which the research participants practiced it. As such, the intention was to develop an integrated reference for future research in this field.
Thirdly, the literature in this review links the new research study presented in this thesis with precedent research in relevant fields, contextualising this new research in relation to an historical documentation of social, political and practical issues as synthesised by the researcher.
Fourthly, this literature review structure supports the arguments that a limited number of qualitatively different ways of experiencing public education will exist within a group of senior level Australian disaster managers and that it would be fruitful to reveal these
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different experiences. This research does not create hypotheses about ways in which research participants experience public education. Rather, it aims to reveal the different ways in which disaster managers and educators experience public education. In alignment with this predominantly interpretative methodology, this review is openly enquiring, providing a critical synthesis of literature with the intent of acknowledging different viewpoints in the research (cf. Marton, 1981, 1996). Thus, it does not seek to define public education proscriptively or to delimit the nature of public education. Rather, it provides an argument for the need for the phenomenographic research undertaken and is available as a reference in post-research discussion of findings. As such, this literature review highlights factors that influence the experience of public education with particular regard for the interplay between public education, disaster management, and disaster mitigation.
The role of researcher subjectivity in the generation of this literature review is in need of acknowledgement. The writer determined which literature to include in this final version of the review and which literature to discard as beyond the scope of the issue at hand. The researcher also determined the manner of incorporation, relation and emphasis of included research within the review. Thus, the synthesis and union of the individual references in this literature review form, at a holistic level, additional patterns, trends and a meaning above and beyond individual synopses to guide the reader towards the new research within this thesis.
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The aforementioned aims of this literature review have guided its development. Over the course of its development this literature review has evolved into its final structure that contains six major sections: Section 2.1 - Disasters; Section 2.2 - Disaster Management; Section 2.3 - The Public: A Simple or Complex View; Section 2.4 – Perspectives on Public Education; Section 2.5 - Public Education Processes; and Section 2.6 - Support for an Interpretative Study of Public Education.
The first section in this literature review [Section 2.1 - Disasters] is a review of pertinent research on disasters. In particular, this section reviews current theory regarding the meaning or understanding ascribed to “disasters” within a synopsis of paradigm developments in the field of disaster research. The simultaneous existence of various paradigms of disaster is highlighted and evidence from emergent literature is presented that strongly suggests that how public education is understood and practiced is strongly influenced by the paradigm of disaster held by any given practitioner. This section on disasters is crucial background to the phenomenographic research into ways of experiencing public education amongst disaster managers. This is because the experience of public education as a phenomenon and the education issue (e.g. health or disaster safety) where the educational effort is applied are often entwined. Public education relates to a given subject matter or social concern and in this body of research it is broadly disaster mitigation. Quite possibly, according to some interpretations, it is
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not possible to dissect the duality of the content of public education and the process of public education without the experience of public education becoming non-meaningful. Thus, appreciation of the research outcomes in the form of phenomenographic uncovering / discovering of public education [Chapter 5] benefits from, if not requires of, the reader an appreciation of the meaning of disaster itself.
The second section of this literature review [Section 2.2 - Disaster Management] is included to allow appreciation of disaster and emergency management structures and processes and how they have evolved. The review focus is upon the Australian management context though also highlighted are some commonalities and differences with other countries, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The section includes an exploration of the relationship between disaster management and education in the literature. Just as the concept of disaster provides an issue, to which public education efforts are applied and have undergone historical paradigm developments, so too has “disaster management” evolved in terms of both its processes and structures. In many ways, disaster management is the context in which the concepts of disaster and public education come together in a shared relevance. An appreciation of disaster management becomes an appreciation of the context in which public education acquires meaning for disaster managers, albeit entwined with a gamut of other available management options as subject to the constraints and choices afforded by resources, politics and social priorities. This chronicle of disaster management literature, including when and how public education occurs, suggests that disaster management choices are strongly subject to individual managers’ interpretations. It is possible practitioners’
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interpretations of public education are strongly guided by theory in the literature. Alternatively, it is possible the literary rhetoric has its genesis in management practice. As a third possibility, rhetoric and practice emerge and grow in a symbiotic relationship. Regardless, the literature yields evidence that disaster management has a pivotal role in how public education is valued and occurs concerning disaster safety. The literature suggests that educational priorities within disaster management become shaped by the ways practitioners experience public education in the context of disaster safety and the currency or favour for a given paradigm or approach at a particular point in time.
The third section of this literature review [Section 2.3 - The Public: A Simple or Complex View] addresses the meaning of the term public and explores its usage compared with conceptually overlapping terminology, with a particular emphasis upon the term community and the additional meaning such a term suggests. Discussion of issues of scope, structure and processes that characterise the public and / or the community follows. A trend of practitioners away from viewing the public as a uniform, featureless, simple and receptive group to viewing this same grouping as a community that is socially complex, active and contributes to the education process is highlighted. Once again, the possibility of multiple views of public education amongst practitioners becomes evident. The fourth section of this literature review [Section 2.4 – Perspectives on Public Education] contextualises public education within the broader context of education and considers the strategic goals and priorities of educators and disaster managers. It includes the broader literature that situates public education on the margins of
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mainstream education theory and explores the marginalised theories in the context of public education.
The fifth section of this literature review [Section 2.5 - Public Education Processes] shows that many theoretical and empirical studies have attempted to account for the education process (i.e. how education actually achieves desired learning and safety outcomes). Emphasis is upon the narrower body of public education literature focusing upon the issue of disaster education for safety. The chapters highlight public education theory as eclectic, inconclusive and often contradictory. The literature suggests education can achieve an objective such as enhanced safety in relation to disasters but that there is much variation in theories resulting in the impossibility of providing a single interpretation of public education with any degree of specificity. Then, a brief examination of prior phenomenographic research into learning and teaching and its interpretative focus reveals it has been successful in uncovering / discovering variation in ways of experiencing of many phenomena, but most importantly the phenomena of teaching and learning. The ability of phenomenography to provide a basis for discussion of these phenomena suggest its value in the similar task of uncovering qualitative variation in ways of experiencing public education.
The final section [Section 2.6 - Support for an Interpretative Study of Public Education] provides a summary of the literature review and concludes that a large amount of documentation attests to major developments in theory, rhetoric and practice in relation to the four key areas reviewed in previous sections of the chapter:
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(a) Disasters – the social issue of relevance when disaster managers and educators reflect on public education; (b) Disaster Management – the processes, structures, models and practices wherein public education for disaster safety is situated; (c) Public – the collective of individuals and the complexity, depth and structures, if any, associated with them; and (d) Public education trends and theories – educational, psychological and sociological theory that underlies accounts of how education and learning occurs.
The combination of the dynamic change in each of these areas means that each of these aspects is now debated and subject to differing interpretation between researchers. The argument supported by the literature is that consequently experience of public education, as a phenomenon entwined with these variously constituting and characterising areas, is also likely to be different for different disaster managers. The literature review conclusion provides justification for the relevance of the interpretative exploration of public education that is summarised in the remainder of this thesis.
----o----o----o----
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2.1 DISASTERS [4]
2.1.1 Definitions of Disaster
The physical aspect of disasters is often extraordinarily salient – floods, fires, earthquakes, and explosions - and accompanies such equally extreme negative outcomes for society as death, injury and damage. As such, it is not surprising that these events have captured the attention of various authors across history and cultures and that recording of disasters has a lengthy heritage. As far back as the year 79 A.D., Pliny the Younger referred to the disaster caused by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in an account of the devastation of the town of Pompeii beneath the volcano. A fragment of this transcript is included under the title of this chapter. Ascribing meaning to disasters also has a long history with links made by ancient cultures between causation of disasters and deities in need of appeasement or celestial misalignments (Keys, 1999). According to the Oxford English Dictionary (1989, p.723), the term disaster has a Latin origin involving the concatenation of the prefix “dis” meaning deviation with the suffix “astrum” meaning star or planet. The combination of these meanings formed the entire meaning of an obnoxious planet: a sense of meaning for the word disaster when it crossed into the English language at least as far back as the 16th Century. As such, disasters were characterised as events with celestial or supra-Earthly origin (Quarantelli, 4The intention of this section is not to establish a single definition of disaster but rather to acknowledge that the literature documents multiple interpretations of disaster and that these could contribute towards qualitatively different ways disaster managers’ experience public education for disaster safety. For this reason, existing definitions of disaster are included within this literature review and critically discussed, but are not analysed and reduced to a common definition within the introduction of this document.
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1987). With physical sciences contributing to an increased understanding of disasters in physical terms, such an understanding has now largely disappeared. By the end of the 20th Century, definitions of disaster were both common and varied amongst disaster researchers and practitioners, let alone the wider community, and revealed the lack of consensus on what a disaster was (Hewitt, 1983; Lystad, 1988; Quarantelli, 1991, 1998). Variation in definitions of disaster is evident in Table 2-1, which lists a few selected definitions of disaster presented in chronological order.
Other modern terms conceptually related to disaster include accident, catastrophe, calamity, crisis and tragedy. The understanding of catastrophes is typically as extreme instances of disasters. A catastrophe disrupts society in an overwhelming way and may cause a total breakdown in most community functions with destruction of such magnitude and scope that survivors have nowhere to turn for help (Quarantelli, 1994; Tobin & Montz, 1997) and in the extreme can destabilise human geo-politics and culture (Keys, 1999). Accidents are characterised as lesser in effect than disasters and manageable by established services and are of limited scope and damage (Dynes, 1998; Quarantelli, 1987). A crisis is characterised as an abrupt, relatively unexpected threat necessitating a collective response to avoid even greater negativity from inaction or an inappropriate action taking (Quarantelli 1998). The term tragedy has accompanying emotional overtones emphasising that a disaster or accident was avoidable through appropriate human action or inaction.
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Table 2-1
Samuel William Nielsen
Selected Definitions of Disasters
______________________________________________________________________________________________ •
An obnoxious planet (17th Century meaning as listed in Oxford English Dictionary, 1989).
•
Not every windstorm, earth-tremor, or rush of water is a catastrophe. A catastrophe is known by its works; that is to say, by the occurrence of disaster. So long as the ship rides out the storm, so long as the city resists the earth-shocks, so long as the levees hold, there is no disaster. It is the collapse of the cultural protections that constitutes the disaster proper (Carr 1932, p.211).
•
…Concentrated in time and space, in which a society of a relatively self-sufficient subdivision of society, undergoes severe danger and incurs such losses to its members and physical appurtenances that the social structure is disrupted and the fulfilment of all or some of the essential functions of the society is prevented. (Fritz 1961, 655).
•
It is a sharp and furious eruption of some kind that splinters the silence for one terrible moment and then goes away (Erikson 1976, 253).
•
...Events causing major property damage and possibly death, physical injury or other human suffering (Cohen and Ahearn, 1980, p.1).
•
...The potential for damage that exists only in the presence of a vulnerable human community (Hewitt, 1983, p.4).
•
...The interface between an extreme (physical) event and a vulnerable human population (Susman, O'Keefe and Wisner, 1983, p.264).
•
...An event located in time and space in which a community faces severe danger and incurs losses which disrupt its social structure and prevent fulfilment of all or some of its essential functions and a situation which calls for total community response (Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983, p.1).
•
...An impingement on society to the extent that a community undergoes severe danger and incurs such losses to its members and physical appurtenances that the social structure is disrupted and the fulfilment of all or some of the essential functions of the society is prevented (United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation, 1987, p.1).
•
An event in which emergency organisations need to expand and extend themselves (such as going to extra shifts) in order to cope (Quarantelli 1987, 25).
•
...An extra-ordinary event of limited duration, such as war, civil disturbance, or a natural disaster (e.g., earthquake, flood, hurricane) which causes serious dislocation to a country's economy (World Bank, 1989, p.1).
•
Catastrophic events that (a) interfere severely with everyday life, disrupt communities, and often cause extensive loss of life and property, (b) overtax local resources, and (c) create problems that continue far longer than those that arise from the normal vicissitudes of life (Taylor 1989, 10).
•
...The result of the negative impact of one particular hazard on one given community; it is a measure of the vulnerability of this community to a specific hazard (Boulle, 1990, p.4).
•
… Causes substantial disruption, at least temporarily beyond the local coping limit (Handmer and Parker, 1991, p.303).
•
…Consensus-type social crisis occasions wherein demands are exceeding resources and emergent responses may generate social change (in Kroll-Smith and Couch 1991, 357).
•
…Disasters are events which fall within our scope of concern to prevent and in principle are events which may be prevented, and that we have a consequent obligation to attempt to prevent… (Allinson 1993, 168-169). ______________________________________________________________________________________________
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Table 2-1
Samuel William Nielsen
Selected Definitions of Disasters (continued)
______________________________________________________________________________________________ •
…an event associated with the impact of a natural hazard, which leads to increased mortality, illness and/or injury, and destroys or disrupts livelihoods, affecting the people or an area such that they (and/or outsiders) perceive it as being exceptional and requiring external assistance for recover (Cannon 1994, p.29).
•
… Exceptional events which suddenly kill or injure large numbers of people or cause major economic losses (International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies, 1995, p.52).
•
A disaster is an event concentrated in time and space, in which a society or one of its subdivisions undergoes physical harm and social disruption, such that all or some essential functions of the society or subdivision are impaired (Kreps 1995, p.256).
•
…A disaster may be seen as ‘the realization of hazard’, although there is no universally agreed definition of the scale on which loss has to occur in order to qualify as a disaster (Smith 1996, 5).
•
A condition or situation of significant destruction, disruption and/or distress to a community (Salter 1997, p. 27).
•
… An event that has a large impact on society.(Tobin and Montz 1997, 6).
•
…A condition or event of significant destruction, disruption or distress to a community (EMA, 1997, p.1).
•
Disasters, in contrast to risks and hazards, are singular or interactive hazard events… [with] … a profound impact on local people or places either in terms of injuries, property damages, loss of life, or environmental impacts (Mitchell and Cutter, 1997, p.10).
•
Disasters do not cause effects. The effects are what we call a disaster (Dombrowsky, 1998, p.21).
•
A disaster is a normatively defined occasion in a community when extraordinary efforts are taken to protect and benefit some social resource whose existence is perceived as threatened (Dynes 1998, p.113).
•
…A process involving the combination of a potentially destructive agent(s) from the natural, modified and/or constructed environment and a population in a socially and economically produced condition of vulnerability, resulting in a perceived disruption of the customary relative satisfactions of individual and social needs for physical survival, social order and meaning (Oliver-Smith, 1998, p.186)
•
… A social phenomenon identifiable in social terms, causing social disruption and requiring social response (Quarantelli, 1998, p.1).
•
…Disasters are conjunctions of historical happenings and social definitions of physical harm and social disruption (Kreps 1998, p.34).
•
Disasters are non-routine events in societies or their larger subdivisions (e.g. regions, communities) that involve social disruption and physical harm (Kreps 1998, p.34).
•
Disasters are fundamentally social phenomena; they involve the intersection of the physical processes of a hazard agent with the local characteristics of everyday life in a place and larger social and economic forces that structure that realm (Bolin & Stanford 1998, 27).
•
A serious disruption to community life which threatens or causes death or injury in that community and / or damage to property which is beyond the day-to-day capacity of the prescribed statutory authorities and which requires special mobilisation and organisation of resources other than those normally available to those authorities (EMA, 2003b). ______________________________________________________________________________________________
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Since the 1970s research on disasters has become increasingly common. Many researchers have contributed, or advocated for, a preferred single understanding of disaster (e.g. Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983; Bolin & Stanford 1998; Boulle, 1990; Cohen and Ahearn, 1980; Dombrowsky, 1998; Dynes, 1998; EMA, 2003b; Fritz, 1961; Kreps, 1998; Handmer and Parker, 1991; Mitchell and Cutter, 1997; Profiriev, 1998; Quarantelli, 1987, 1998; Susman, O'Keefe and Wisner, 1983; Varley, 1994). These researchers and the definitions in Table 2-1 represent only a proportion of the many definitions of disaster contributed to the literature. The regularity with which researchers proffer new definitions of disaster in the field implies that for many a singular unifying theory or definition of disaster is of ongoing importance.
The main goal motivating researchers continually to generate definitions of disaster and reject those of others appears to be a desire to establish a consensus definition as a basis for meaningful dialogue. Quarantelli (1998, p.2) argued: A major reason we need clarification is because otherwise scholars who think they are communicating with one another are really talking of somewhat different phenomena. A minimum rough consensus on the central referent of the term disaster is necessary.
It seems that for many disaster researchers, there is an assumption that an objective understanding of disaster is both attainable and desirable. For a few, such a goal is perhaps synonymous with the subjugation of disasters via human rationality and ingenuity. For other researchers, proposal of a definition is perhaps perceived as a pragmatic necessity to frame their particular contribution to social research in the disaster field. The irony is that efforts towards reaching a consensus understanding of
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disaster may have led to a proliferation of definitions of disaster, each varying only slightly in theoretical or practical foundations, thus merely highlighting the complexity of definition of disaster.
The continuing attempt to reduce the meaning of disaster to a shared definition to allow a consensus discussion juxtaposes with the efforts of other disaster researchers whose work has pointed to the co-existence of alternative and competing views of disaster (e.g. Hewitt, 1983, 1998; Maskrey, 1989; Smith, 1996). The emergence of this voicing of alternative views during the early eighties was not surprising given that the sheer scope and complexity of the phenomenon of disaster had provided many opportunities for interpretation that a single definition of disaster could never meaningfully encompass. Yet, as reported by Hewitt (1983), each time a new field addressed the issue of disasters, the result was limited to classification, partitioning, and the development of models that reflected current disciplinary fashions. For Hewitt (1983), attempts by researchers to encapsulate the problem had emerged from their desire to objectify and neutralise disasters. Hewitt (1983, p.13) believed that such an exercise was of little benefit and recommended that researchers should instead consider disasters in an “open-ended, philosophical and curious way”. Waeckerle’s (1991) comment that each disaster is unique, urgent, and places tremendous burden on the community and its leaders to prevent death and destruction reminds us that the commoner choice of seeking to reduce, classify and subjugate disasters over Hewitt’s open-ended, philosophical, nonclassificatory investigations may partly have been motivated by pressure to save lives and property via the neutralisation of the unknown aspect of disasters.
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Whether or not individual researchers sought to reduce or expand the meaning of disaster, the literature documents that since the early 1980s the traditional hazards view of disasters, also known as the physical or behavioural view (Smith, 1996; Bolin & Stanford, 1998), that had been dominant to that point, and arguably remains so today, was challenged by emerging and alternative social and political views of disaster (Hewitt, 1997; Smith, 1996). Section 2.1.2 explores the character of the physical view of disasters, and is followed by an overview of the subsequent challenge to this view by the alternate social and political views of disaster in section 2.1.3.
2.1.2 The Physical View of Disasters
Until relatively recently, the predominant understanding of disasters was that they were physical phenomena that emerged independent of the society upon which they inflicted substantial damage. Hewitt (1983, 1998) described this as a physical, or hazards, view of disaster. Within this physical view of disaster, the extent to which physical phenomena impact upon society is the criterion for defining events, hazards and disasters (See Table 2-2). Within this view, an event is a physical phenomenon independent of any contact with human beings (White, 1974; UNDRO, 1987; Quarantelli, 1991). When a physical phenomenon “interacts with and affects human systems”, it becomes a hazard and may result in a disaster (Sorenson and Mileti, 1987, p.209). In the physical paradigm, an event becomes a hazard when it shifts from being part of the environment to interact with human systems (White, 1974; Whittow, 1980; Handmer and Parker, 1991). As such, a hazard is a physical phenomenon occurring in a
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populated area (Boughton, 1998; EMA, 2003b; Quarantelli, 1998; UNDRO, 1987). It is the proximity or immediacy of a physical event that makes it a hazard because it directly interacts with society in a way that threatens life or property (Kasperson and Pijawka, 1985; Palm, 1990; Tobin & Montz 1997). Thus, from a physical point of view, a precursor to a disaster is a physical hazard. Vice versa, a physical hazard has the potential of becoming a disaster. A definition of a hazard posited by EMA (2003b, p.7) encapsulates this potential for negativity to society: “…dangerous conditions or events with potential for injury, loss of life and/or damage to property, agriculture or environment.” Similarly, (Smith, 1996, p.5) defined a hazard as: “a potential threat to humans and their welfare.”
Table 2-2 The Physical View of Events, Hazards and Disasters _______________________________________________________________________ Event Physical phenomenon isolated from society
Hazard Physical phenomenon threatening society
Disaster Physical phenomenon interacting with society and causing substantial death, harm or damage _______________________________________________________________________
Hazards are classifiable along various dimensions (EMA, 2003b). The most common classification of hazards is in relation to how they originate. EMA (2003b) favours a dual categorisation of hazards as either natural or unnatural in origin. This federal government agency includes meteorological, geological, biological and extraterrestrial origins within the natural hazard grouping. Included in the unnatural hazards category
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are hazards of human-caused or technological origin. EMA (2003b) identifies other possible classification schemes for hazards based upon other dimensions including frequency, risk, duration of impact, speed of onset, scope of impact, destructive potential, predictability, and control and human vulnerability. Other configurations of hazard origin classifications exist. Boughton (1998) expanded on the dual natural and unnatural scheme to suggest four types of hazards: natural; technological; biological; and, civil and political. Palm (1990) suggested an alternative tri-category classification based on hazard origin, classifying hazards as environmental, natural or technological. To Palm (1990) environmental hazards differed from other hazards in that they indirectly threaten society by directly threatening the environment in which that society lives. Recognised Australian hazards include pollution, accidents involving visiting nuclear ships, the release of dangerous substances into the atmosphere, and dangerous substances in food products (Palm, 1990). Mayo and Hollander (1991), challenging the traditional physical, classification schemes, identified five types of hidden or obscured hazards: global elusive, ideological, marginal, amplified and value threatening. To these researchers, global elusive hazards cannot be pinpointed to a particular locality and include soil erosion, climatic change, deforestation and desertification. Ideological hazards entwine with social values and assumptions that neutralise the response to their consequences. Marginal hazards affect marginal populations exposed to hazards hidden from the mainstream. Amplified hazards are not identifiable via conventional assessment methodologies as they interact with society and the economy in unanticipated ways. Value threatening hazards, such as genetic engineering and nuclear
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power, threaten basic human values, and relate to an individual's relationship with his or her very existence.
The existence of many possible ways of classifying hazards is a reminder that any individual classification is ultimately a grouping of phenomena based on perceived similarities and based to some extent in subjectivity. Despite the many possible dimensions along which these groupings can occur, it is the dual classification of hazards as natural or unnatural in origin, as chosen as the primary basis of classification by EMA (2003b), that remains the typical focus of other disaster classification schemas.
Australia, as a physically large nation covering a range of geographical conditions, experiences many natural hazards on a regular basis, including tropical cyclones, storm surges, hail, extreme rainfall, high winds, flooding, earthquakes, and bushfires (Boughton, 1990). EMA (2003b) detailed 11 types of hazards in an education booklet for Australian communities: wildfire, flood, heatwave, severe storm, drought, cyclone, earthquake, tsunami, landslide, volcano, and other hazards. The latter catch-all category included human epidemics and pandemics, exotic animal diseases, insect and vermin plagues, extreme cold, urban structure fires, terrorist bombings and shooting massacres, transport accidents, nuclear power accidents, bleves and toxic emissions.
Unnatural or technological hazards are those hazards produced largely by human enterprise, activity and use of technology rather than geophysical processes (Boughton, 1998; Britton, 1991; Cutter, 1993; EMA, 2003b; Smith, 1996; Palm, 1990).
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Technological hazards occur at “…the interaction between technology, society, and the environment” (Cutter 1993, p. 2). Smith (1996) identified primary triggers of technological disasters as defective design, inadequate management and sabotage or terrorism. Unnatural or technological hazards have characteristics of complexity, surprise, and interdependence in common and include, for example, toxic chemical spills, nuclear power plant accidents and aeroplane crashes (Cutter, 1993). Recent terrorist activity such as the September 11th 2001 bombing in the United States and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing has seen a heightened emphasis upon the hazards of biological, chemical and radioactive terrorist attacks. Such an emphasis is exemplified in the brochure Preparing for the Unexpected released by EMA (2003) focusing upon mitigating such attacks. It is also evidenced in the United States of America’s current disaster management focus and defensive rhetoric (Aquirre, 2002).
It is important to note that while the term “hazard” is a generic term, hazards have particular instances. Also noteworthy, the shortcomings of the physical view of disaster manifest themselves as slippage between classifications such as those just presented. The constant readjustment of classifications strongly suggests attempts to better encapsulate hazards within categories have not resulted in consensus. It appears that to some extent there has been a failure of physical hazard classification schemes, predominately differentiating natural and non-natural phenomena, to account for the whole character of hazards and disasters.
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However, hazards do not always evolve into disasters. To become a disaster a hazard must come into detrimental contact with human society. According to EMA, “disasters of all kinds and sizes happen when hazards seriously affect communities” (EMA, 2003b, p.7).
This quotation reflects a common physical view assertion: that only when a hazard causes unacceptably large numbers of fatalities and / or overwhelming property damage does it make the transition to become a disaster (Handmer and Parker, 1991; Kasperson and Pijawka, 1985; Quarantelli, 1998; UNDRO, 1987; Whittow, 1980). Therefore, on such a basis, it is typically axiomatic for social disasters research that a disaster is a detrimental experience for society (Cohen and Ahearn, 1980; Handmer and Parker, 1991; Quarantelli, 1977, 1998; UNDRO, 1987). Typically, consideration of the detrimental aspect of disasters is in terms of loss of human life, injury or large-scale property damage. EMA (2003b) has developed a historical listing of disasters. A copy of this listing is included as Appendix 1. Inclusion of an event on the list requires a prerequisite minimum of $200 million estimated damage or 50 injuries or 12 deaths. Given EMA is the Australian Federal Government’s disaster agency; this minimum is essentially the Australian Federal Government’s criterion for a hazard to make a transition to an official disaster. The listing details discrete event disasters such as a single cyclone rather than groupings of relatable occurrences such as cyclones in a given year or total motor vehicle accidents in a given year. As such, physical hazards that can generate substantial damage such as large storms or fires feature prominently in the listing. On the other hand, transport accidents do not feature prominently on the list
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despite the estimated cost of road accidents being approximately nine times greater than that of natural disasters according to the Australian Bureau of Transport Economics (2001). Such emphases upon minimum physical criteria and upon single, discrete physical events are characteristic of a physical view of disaster. As such, continuing and insidious social issues with a high toll in death, injury or damages lie beyond the parameters of disaster practice. Though further exploration of this issue is beyond the scope of this thesis, it is an important point as it almost certainly has a powerful effect on delimiting the understanding of disaster in the minds of disaster professionals responsible for education practice.
Disasters from a physical view are isolated, random, physical events that emerge independent of humanity. This was the main perspective in the literature during the first three-quarters of the 20th Century. In assuming that these phenomena were physical and occurred to society, researchers and practitioners described them in physical terms such as cause or origin, location, predictability, speed of onset, duration, frequency and magnitude, as well as society's capacity to prepare for them, including predictability, length of possible fore-warning and controllability (Quarantelli, 1977, 1998; Waeckerle, 1991). Such focus of initial research is not a surprise given the salience of the physical component of disasters.
Focus on the physical component of disasters within the physical paradigm relegated the human role in disaster to that of a mechanism within a causal sequence of responses (Watts, 1983). As Hewitt (1983, 1998) pointed out, theoretical models that most closely
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resembled organisation flow charts reduced members of society to boxes. To Smith (1996), a view of disasters as events caused by physical hazards meant human behaviours were only ever responses to disaster impacts. Physical view adherents saw hazards such as earthquakes as technical with technical solutions that largely excluded people or included them in terms of impeding technocratic solutions due to a lack of risk awareness (Bolan & Stanford, 1998). Emphasis was upon science and technology, direction from government agencies, subjugating hazards and providing order (Bolan & Stanford, 1998). Stallings’ (1998, p.128) statement exemplified such a belief in humanity’s ability to subjugate and control disasters: “When knowledge is adequate, no external force can produce disaster; ships ride out storms, buildings shake but do not collapse in earthquakes, flood levees hold…”
Disasters as physical phenomena were defined in ways that highlighted different types of physical features and isolated them from social processes. Scientific interpretation led to presentation of disasters to the public via education as objectively understandable phenomena. Educators understood the physical phenomena and could approach education with the intent of passing on this expert knowledge in a simplified form to lay people with confidence that armed with appropriate knowledge the public would act in their own best interest and that of society as a whole. Objective understandings of hazardous events and of the educational process were in accord.
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2.1.3 The Social View of Disasters
It was not until about the early 1980s that an alternative view of disasters as social phenomena gained a significant degree of support (Cutter, 1993; Quarantelli, 1998). Around this time, there emerged a new and rival view of disasters as more than physical phenomena that occur “to” society. Instead, the proposal was that disasters occur “because” of society. This view was quickly popularised through landmark books, particularly Hewitt's (1983) Interpretations of Calamity from the Perspective of Human Ecology. To Hewitt (1983), the dominant view of disasters as physical events addressed via objective and technological solutions isolated such phenomena from the everyday lives of disaster researchers and practitioners and the rest of society. To Hewitt, disasters were “quarantined in thought and in practice” (p.12) comparable to being within a technical monologue (cf. Foucault, 1965), as a means of convenience for society and disaster researchers. As Hewitt (1983) argued: “It [disaster research] has invented its problem field to suit its convenience. It does not reflect upon the extent to which the institutions it serves - the societies that have made such technocratic authority possible could be part of the problem.”
Hewitt's (1983) seminal work expressed the dissatisfaction with the physical view of disasters that had been slowly developing amongst a number of researchers. For example, Ball (1975) had previously argued that there is no such thing as natural disasters because human activity helps create them. Hewitt's book provided the first widely recognised, systematic argument for disasters as social phenomena. A number of
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high profile disaster researchers including Susman, O'Keefe and Wisner (1983), Morren (1983) and Watts (1983) contributed to Hewitt's edited book, each emphasising that there had been an overemphasis on geophysical causes of disasters at the expense of socio-cultural factors.
Since this time, the rhetoric of disasters has increasingly been not only of physical events interfering with humanity but also about outcomes emerging from interactions between people and their environment (e.g. Boughton, 1998; Cannon, 1994; Crondsdedt, 2002; Cutter, 1993; EMA, 2003a, 2003b; Dombrowsky, 1998; Handmer, 2003; Hewitt, 1983, 1998; Kreps, 1984; Kroll-Smith and Couch 1991; Mitchell, Devine and Jagger, 1989; Mitchell, 1991; Morren, 1983; Oliver-Smith 1998; Quarantelli, 1991, 1998; Reisner 1993; Salter, 1998; Smith, 1996; Susman, O'Keefe & Wisner, 1983; Watts, 1983; Wijkmaan and Timberlake, 1987; Varley, 1994). In this social view, attribution of the cause of disasters is usually to vulnerability in society or to similar concepts. According to the view popularised by Hewitt, the causes of disasters lie within the organisation of human societies rather than in nature. In a typical social view comment, Rouhban (1997, p.2) used a bullet wound as an analogy emphasising the significance of society in the cause of a disaster: “It is not the bullet that kills. It is the hole”. The bullet was analogous to nature, the death analogous to a disaster and the hole analogous to society. He also argued “people are the agents of disaster”. With similar sentiment, Resiner (1993, p.501) argued that “earthquakes are quite harmless until you decide to put millions of people and two trillion dollars in real estate atop scissile fault zones.”
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The idea that disasters are simply physical events occurring to society has lost much favour and diminished in credibility. The view of disasters as being social phenomena has grown in favour to the extent that it now dominates the rhetoric. Quarantelli (1998, p.1), a high profile researcher in the field of disaster, went so far as to define a disaster as: “a social phenomenon identifiable in social terms, causing social disruption and requiring social response.”
The emergence of the new interpretation of disasters as socially constructed led some researchers (e.g. Quarantelli, 1983, 1998; Varley, 1994) to question the value of those previously assumed classification schemes that had distinguished between natural and nonnatural disasters. Supporters of the new social paradigm of disaster questioned the relevance and pragmatic value of schemes that classified disasters on a physical basis. Morren (1983) argued that such a classification scheme should disappear. With similar sentiments, Paterson (1988) suggested that classifications attempting to differentiate disasters only enforced divisions along a continuum from natural to human-induced. Now, many researchers have emphasised that the social aspect of disasters means that there are few, if any, purely physical disasters (e.g. Alexander, 1993; Dombrowsky, 1998; Hewitt, 1983, 1997, 1998; Varley, 1994; Rosenthal, Charles, Hart, Kouzmin & Jarman, 1989; Palm, 1990; Quarantelli, 1991, 1998). According to Hewitt (1997), human actions do not typically trigger physical events but they are fundamentally involved in the disaster following the event rendering the term “natural” an inappropriate adjective.
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It is not that supporters of a social view of disaster have attempted to dispute that disasters do not often have a pronounced physical aspect or that the physical aspect has no role in disasters. Rather, the implied argument has been that the sheer impressiveness of the physical component of disasters should not obscure the significance of the less tangible, yet arguably more critical, social aspect of disasters. To social view adherents, society ultimately caused disasters even if the physical aspect was tangible and social causes intangible. Quarantelli (1998) posited that instead of frequently used “natural” and “technological” physical parameters as a basis of disaster taxonomy; the extent of disruption to society might be a more useful basis of classification. To Quarantelli, Hewitt and many other social disaster researchers, understanding of disasters as natural was increasingly blurred, though as Stenchion (1997, p.41) stated “perhaps in reality it was always so”.
The new and social view of disaster emerged and directly contested the preceding view of disasters as physical events. The new social view was so persuasive it has become pervasive to the extent that over 65% of 114 contributors to the United Nations series book Natural Disaster Management: A Presentation to Commemorate the International Decade for Natural Disaster edited by Ingleton (1999) referred to societal vulnerability or social aspects as the cause or part of the cause of disasters. These contributors included presidents, prime ministers, disaster practitioners, disaster theorists, emergency managers, academics, re-insurers, heads of aid agencies and United Nations senior staff. Similarly, eleven of the twelve leading disaster researchers in the book ‘What is a Disaster?’ edited by Quarantelli (1998) subscribed to a view in which physical agents
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had little place in defining the problem, despite some debate of the issue. The strong social view amongst these 12 generally high profile disaster researchers exemplified the support for this social view amongst many theoreticians in the area of disaster research since its genesis. Ironically, amongst these twelve authors, it was Hewitt (1998), a person strongly identified with the popularising of the social view of disaster, who reported the continuing dominance of the physical paradigm of disaster:
It [the physical paradigm of disaster] remains the most common view of disasters, even in the work of social scientists. The other authors [in Quarantelli, [1998] underestimate its powerful hold on disaster discourse and how far it undermines the prospect of social understanding.
To Hewitt (1998), the social view of disaster may have dominated the discussion amongst leaders in the disaster field, but he believed that evidence showed that amongst many researchers, practitioners and the wider community including the media the physical paradigm still holds powerful sway over the mindset of many individuals. The very emphasis of the International Decade of Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) upon “natural” disasters and where they “strike” and “impact” was inherently physical in bias, as Mitchell (1991) pointed out at that Decade’s beginning. At the completion end of the Decade, the title of Ingleton’s (1999)’s book emphasised the physical aspect of “natural” disasters and included large sections focused upon hazards and the physical characteristics of disasters. Likewise, EMA (2003b) still emphasises the distinction between natural and unnatural hazards and focuses on the physical aspects of disasters in their national community and schools’ education booklet. In addition, the physical
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view of disasters continues in “Act of God” clauses included in insurance policies as a safeguard against liability for supposedly random physical events (Quarantelli, 1991).
So it appears that the emergence of a view focused upon the social causation of disasters has not resulted in rejection of one paradigm for another but rather a new emphasis upon social causation. Varying mixes of emphasis upon social and physical aspects of disaster appear across researchers.
Increased prominence given to the rhetoric for the social interpretation of disasters does not guarantee its favour amongst all or most people with direct responsibility for disaster management. The salience of physical properties of disaster may help the physical view retain its favour amongst many even though the literature and even the currency of the new social-centric rhetoric emphasises the need to re-interpret disasters in social terms.
While a social view of disasters emphasises the social causes of disasters, Quarantelli (1991, 1992) pointed out that disasters still have distinctive physical features. In practice, disasters will always have a physically characteristic component (Stallings 1998). For example, a flood has obvious physical differences from a chemical spill. Despite these physical differences, Quarantelli (1991) argued that by considering disasters as social phenomena, it becomes possible to address disasters, not in terms of their individual physical properties, but in terms of their generic relationship with society. To Quarantelli (1991, 1992), a social interpretation of disaster had an influence upon the management process. According to Quarantelli (1991, p.3): “A generic
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approach which views disasters as social occasions rather than physical happenings has important implications for the preparing for and managing of such social occurrences.”
Quarantelli (1991, 1992) identified what he called five major implications that accompany any rethinking of natural disasters as social phenomena. First, the effectiveness of any disaster prevention and preparation measures becomes dependent on an ability to address social vulnerability. As Quarantelli (1991, p.11) stated: “problems of a social nature require solutions of a social nature.” Second, a social interpretation of disaster clashes with the view that many aspects of disaster planning are technological issues involving technical decisions. Third, a proactive, rather than reactive, stance towards disasters becomes a priority. This means there is a greater encouragement to taking pre-impact measures as part of disaster management. Fourth, emphasis is on internal flaws and weaknesses in society rather than on an external force impacting on a social system. Fifth, a social view of disasters means reactions to them can be within ongoing policies and programs aiming at reducing vulnerability. The types of social responses identified as important in a social view approach to disaster safety appear to have been embraced within Australian disaster management since the late 1990’s (e.g. Britton, 2001; COAG, 2004a; EMA, 2003c, 2004d; Salter, 1998, 1999). This apparent shift away from a hazards-focus to a social-centred focus is discussed later in this thesis [Section 2.2 -Disaster Management].
As emphasised in Quarantelli’s (1991) account of implications of a social view of disasters, the social paradigm of disaster emphasises that different societal groups and
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different nations differ in their vulnerability to disasters. Susman, O'Keefe and Wisner (1983) were among the first researchers to use the term “vulnerability” to refer to the extent to which different classes in society are at risk from disasters. More recently, Bolin & Stanford (1998, preface) reiterated that disasters occur “at the interface of vulnerable people and hazardous environments” and Smith (1996, p.22) similarly emphasised that disasters result from an interaction “between the physical exposure to a hazardous process and a vulnerable human population.”
The social view of disasters holds that the causes of disasters are vulnerability and inability to cope with natural forces (Hewitt, 1983, 1998; Maskrey, 1989; Quarantelli, 1998; Smith, 1996). This emphasis allows address of disasters by focusing upon sections of the community most at risk. In terms of specific vulnerable communities within Australia, the Australian Counter-Disaster College (1983) listed children, the aged or infirm, single parent families, the poor and the isolated as most vulnerable in the event of a disaster. Mitchell (2003) argued that Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities are potentially vulnerable to emergencies. Such groups represent particular segments of society identified as being of greater than usual vulnerability. Recently, Sullivan (2003), citing Lunn (2001), listed 13 generic vulnerability indicators for communities (See Table 2-3). This presentation of generic indicators highlights that any community is potentially vulnerable at different points in time and in different ways. As this list reveals, vulnerability focuses upon the human role in disasters, as evidenced in a focus upon such community aspects as: geography of the community; selfsufficiency; spirit; mobility of members; distribution of authority equality; inherent
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conflict; risk awareness; susceptibility; resilience with respect to a realised risk source; preparedness; and pre-emergency economic viability. Morrisey and Reser (2003) stated that their research indicated that anxiousness and prior traumatic experience are also worthy for consideration as a factor in community vulnerability. To Sullivan (2003) the implication of a community-centric focus is that the selection of appropriate ways to achieve public safety is dependent upon the particular characteristics of the community in interaction with the disaster. Sullivan (2003) does not directly mention public education, however his criteria of recognition of awareness, preparedness and susceptibility as vulnerability indicators suggest a possible role for education and learning as a way to achieve such safety. As Sullivan (2003, p.22) argues: Just as two emergencies are never the same, so too does this apply to communities. Therefore, any analysis of an interaction between the two cannot do justice to complex interplay of variables, nor can a single model be applied successfully to all situations. Notwithstanding, when dealing with what many perceive to be a ‘black art’, it falls to the emergency manager to utilise the best tool available from as diverse an arsenal as possible.
Public education as a widely regarded means of disaster mitigation offers one such tool.
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Table 2-3 Community Vulnerability Indicators _______________________________________________________________________ • High geographic isolation of the community from others • High extent to which community members are isolated from each other • Low degree of self-sufficiency • Low level of community spirit • High degree to which families are dispersed geographically • Low mobility of community members • Low equality of distribution of authority • High level of inherent conflict within a community • Low risk awareness • High susceptibility to sources of risk • Low resilience with respect to a realised source of risk • Low level of preparedness, both response and recovery • Low pre-emergency economic viability _______________________________________________________________________ Source: Sullivan (2003) citing Lunn (2001)
Other researchers (e.g. Buckle, Marsh & Smale, 2000; Handmer, 2003; Varley, 1994) have provided an alternate and more optimistic re-interpretation of vulnerability posited in terms of the inverse concept of “resilience” of people's livelihood and the degree of social and self-protection available. Emphasis shifts away from the negative vulnerabilities within social groupings to a positive focus on a set of resiliencies within these same groups. Handmer (2003) suggested that indicators of resilience of nations at a macro level include life expectancy, infant mortality, employment, education, income, welfare provision, continuity management and absence of warfare. He suggested that resilience indicators at a community or individual level included, in order of importance: livelihood security, access to formal and informal crisis support, housing support and self- assessment of resilience. Further, dependency, social and physical isolation, and environmental justice were also identified as indicators but considered as overlapping with other classifications. Handmer also pointed out that strength of civil society and
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institutions and broader human rights concerns may be particularly important in poorer countries.
When disasters are viewed as socially caused, public education and other social solutions to disasters gain in importance relative to technological measures. This is regardless of whether the focus of an individual is upon profiling community resilience or addressing social vulnerabilities. From Quarantelli's (1991) argument, and supported by the research of others (e.g. Marsh & Smale, 2000; Sullivan, 2003; Handmer, 2003), whether an individual has a social or physical view of disasters is arguably crucial to how they will approach the overall management of disasters, which of course includes choices as to how to educate the public.
A reinterpretation of disasters as related to vulnerability or resilience has major implications for the meaning and context of efforts to educate the public in the interests of safety. The focus of particular public safety education campaigns by disaster agencies might target a range of vulnerable groups such as individuals on holidays, travellers, minority groups, people with disabilities, people at homes, people in the workplace, or places of learning (Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983). Previously, hazards models focused upon instruction of hazard management knowledge from experts to a public that was a receptor of knowledge rather than socially entwined with the very problem itself. An emphasis upon social factors has meant an examination of society and an acknowledgement that people can not only be educated but that they are also inextricably bound to the issue requiring attention via their own vulnerability, resilience
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or risk taking. Every vulnerability indicator represents a dimension along which society arguably interacts in a complex manner with disasters.
Further implications of the distinction between social and political views of disaster for public education are derivable from the field of environmental education research where the existence of physical versus social views is also of great significance. Perhaps of most significance, O'Riordan (1977, 1981, 1989) differentiated environmentalism in terms
of
two
fundamental
orientations:
technocentrism
and
ecocentrism.
Technocentrism, dominant as a view since the industrial revolution, has a base in rationality, science and managerial mastery, with nature a resource for society's benefit, and nature and society a duality. On the other hand, ecocentrism is a view of the world according to natural laws, with humans a part of the earth's completely interactive system, each part seeking stability through diversity and homeostasis. This worldview rejects the implicit rationality of science and favours small low impact technology and society (Piller, 1991; Shrader-Frechette, 1991). Repeated throughout environmental education research is a similar physical / technological versus social distinction. For example, Miller (1985) differentiated the technocratic and humanist views, the former with a view of knowledge as involving confidence in science and technology and separation of facts from values and thoughts from feelings, the latter with a view of science as limited and an integration of fact with value and thought with feeling. Linking such environmental theory back to disaster research, Hewitt (1983, 1998) identified that technocratic values are inherent in the physical view of disaster and to a regime of mechanism and control. According to Sterling (1990), reductionism and
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technocentrism tend to encourage vulnerability, while holism and ecocentrism seek to encourage stability and resilience.
In environmental education, the term “dominant social paradigm” was used by Fien (1993, p.4) amongst others to refer to the view he believed to be entrenched in society by the dominant powers, argued to be of “nature as subservient to human needs and economic growth” (p.4). The physical and technological emphasis of the dominant social paradigm that shapes environmental education is essentially that of the physical paradigm that Hewitt (1983, 1998) argued dominates views of disasters. Therefore, it is of significance for disaster research that Cotgrove (1981) emphasised that an educational approach legitimised by the dominant paradigm does not necessarily lead to public good, whereas unorthodox methods of education may. Other environmental educators agree that education should foster the valuing of people and nature as interdependent rather than value nature as subservient to humans and economics (Fien, 1993). Such values in disaster education would see focus shifted away from technical solutions to a focus upon helping people to learn that hazards and disasters are interdependent with human action.
According to Gough (1997), views of curriculum increasingly included awareness of the “socially constructed nature of knowledge” (p.97), leading to increased involvement of students in problem and situation based education. However, according to one interpretation of curriculum, replacement of the dominant view by means of education is a difficult task because education moulds learners' values to reflect and perpetuate those
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of the dominant social groups, legitimised as a worldview. Further, Robottom (1991) argued that shaping educators' beliefs are their experiences. To Robottom, these beliefs are constrained by conservative concepts and support dominant views of knowledge, educational objectives, teaching strategies and assessment. This view of education posits that the dominant paradigm can repress alternative viewpoints and can mean that problems are considered solvable by using knowledge and expertise, echoing Habermas’ (1971) argument that there is a scientisation of politics, in which values and interests are depoliticised and considered as technical problems.
The rhetoric supports that in some arenas a dramatic policy shift has begun away from an educational focus on transferring hazards knowledge from experts to a naïve public. Instead, a new society-focused educational policy attending to social vulnerabilities and resiliencies and involving individuals and communities in managing uncertainties and negotiating risk in society has gained favour with a growing body of researchers and practitioners (e.g. Crondstedt, 2002; COAG, 2004a; EMA, 2003a; Oliver-Smith, 1998; Quarantelli, 1998; Salter, 1999; Sullivan, 2003). By such a perspective, the rhetoric and policy of disaster education shifts away from awareness-raising and attitude change towards engagement and partnership between agencies and a public educated about risks and active as participants in negotiation of and taking increased responsibility for managing these risks. For example, Evans, Water, Lany and Halcrow (1999, p.106) emphasise that flood risks result from a complex interplay of physical, environmental, socio-economic and political circumstances, and that mitigation measures “need to be
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underpinned by public awareness of flood risks, and public participation in decisions on how best to manage these risks”.
The rise of this alternative social view in the Australian disaster context is such that Hewitt’s original claim that the physical view remains dominant has become increasingly questionable. While the physical view remains entrenched, the emergence of a new generation of hybrid models is an indication that not only has the physical paradigm been challenged but may in fact have been permanently weakened. As Bolin and Stanford (1998, p.21) pointed out: “A vulnerability approach provides an alternative to the prevailing hazard-centred approach” (Bolin & Stanford 1998, p. 21).
2.1.4 The Political View of Disasters
A third group of disaster researchers and professionals have focused upon and advocated a political view of disasters (e.g. Maskrey, 1989; Mitchell, 1989; Mitchell, Devine and Jagger, 1989; Wijkmaan and Timberlake, 1987). This view is similar to, but extends beyond, the social view by overtly asserting that disasters affect those who are vulnerable because of the processes of economics and politics. According to this view, disasters happen because the economic and political advantage seeking of some humans make certain social sections or communities vulnerable. Disasters are outcomes of political and economic manoeuvring, primarily at a national and trans-national level. Disasters are not random accidents but are “symptoms of more basic political and economic processes” making some vulnerable because of others maintaining or enhancing their own social or economic circumstance (Bolin & Stanford 1998, p. 231).
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The political paradigm strongly links vulnerability with development, with the vulnerability of poorer countries and classes seen as part of a continual process of impoverishment perpetuated by technological dependence and unequal exchange of global resources. The United Nation’s Agenda 21 (UN Text, 1992) emphasised that disasters interfere with sustainable economic development and growth. The political view is often presented in relation to the disparity between developed and less developed countries. Arguably, the benefits of economic globalisation for the developed world are at the expense of increasing vulnerability and disaster for those less developed countries that bear this cost as a socio-economic burden that translates to an increased vulnerability to disasters.
The idea that the people who are vulnerable to disasters are so because of economics and politics is one that political view advocates have argued for based on disaster statistics. Willingness or capacity to prevent loss of life and minimise social and economic costs of disasters differs between nations and within socio-economic or demographically distinguishable sections of society within individual nations (AusAID, 2002; Bolin & Stanford, 1998; Duran, 1999; Handmer, 2003; Maskrey, 1989, 1999; Mitchell, Devine and Jagger, 1989).
Statistically, it is hard to refute the evidence that the epidemiology of disaster is one whereby individual safety correlates with economic advantage and stability. Statistically, disasters disproportionately affect individuals from non-dominant social
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groups. Arguably, the toll in deaths tends to be highest in middle-income countries experiencing economic development, war or societal upheaval, followed by poor countries then affluent countries (Mitchell, 1989). Ninety-five percent of disaster related deaths occur in developing countries while the highest material losses occur in richer countries (Paterson, 1988). For every disaster in Australia or Europe, there are ten in Latin America or Africa and fifteen in Asia (Wijkmaan and Timberlake, 1984). Boughton (1990) argued that if a community has not developed or planned facilities, infrastructure or activities that resist (natural) events then facility impairment and community disruption (i.e. a disaster) will occur. From a political view, capacity depends on opportunity, which is, in turn, dependent upon economic capability. Handmer (2003), in an account of the concept of resilience as an indicator of safety when addressing disasters, though not directly arguing that society causes disasters, pointed out that poorer countries are less resilient to disasters.
In assessing vulnerability as the cause of disaster, Susman, O'Keefe, and Wisner (1983) argued that the only way to counter disaster vulnerability was to link disaster planning with development planning. This echoed a similar and earlier argument by Wisner, Westgate and O'Keefe (1976) that successful counter-disaster approaches necessarily oppose exploitation. Similarly, Cuny (1983) linked disasters with development, and argued that the process of development not only caused disasters but also was the vehicle through which a solution to reducing them may lie. Miller and Fowlkes (1984) saw addressing vulnerability as, in part, a process of acknowledging economic priority. They rejected the idea of a technological disaster in favour of the term man-made disaster
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on the basis that the real cause of such disasters was not the technology in its own right but that the economic priority of achieving profit took precedence over safety. To Maskrey (1989), the imperative emerging from a political appreciation of the cause of disasters was that disaster mitigation measures should occur within community organisations if society is to achieve a sustainable reduction in vulnerability.
The evidence of vulnerability differences between countries offered by political view proponents raises questions regarding the relationship of morality, economics and safety from the global through to small communities levels. The rise and dominance of individualistic over liberal social values in the developed world also opens itself to scrutiny and arguably to criticism.
The political view overlaps markedly with the social view with an emphasis upon vulnerability as a key to disaster safety. Thus, the same general educational emphases upon addressing vulnerability exist within the political view. Further, from the political view, public education would play an especially crucial role in disaster safety for poorer countries where people often encounter less advantage in regard to political and economic stability and the consequent opportunities for sophisticated technology such socio-economic positioning affords (Handmer, 2003). Education arguably becomes an achievable and cost-effective mechanism for disaster safety and cessation of a spiralling cycle of poverty and disaster. If, as Bolin and Stanford (1998) argued, the value of an approach to addressing disasters based on vulnerability is in “its openness to cultural specificity, social variability, diversity, contingency, and local agency” (Bolin & Stanford
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1998, p.20) then public education can provide the mechanism for delivering these benefits and remedying social and economic injustice. The potential of disaster managers experiencing public education as a process capable of instilling a developmental morality in the economically advantaged or even as a mechanism of social activism amongst the economically disadvantaged becomes possible. AusAID (2002, p.4), Australia’s overseas aid agency, made the comment about international disaster mitigation: “Factors such as political and economic stability, sophisticated technology and an informed and educated public can combine to avert disasters or limit the damage caused by them.”
The question arises as to whether those who would benefit most from public education receive limited access or exposure due to subversive socio-economic or political processes. Certainly, it is a common theme amongst disaster agencies that funding constraints limit resources for implementing programs (e.g. Britton, 2001; EMA, 2004a). According to the political view, this is because the cycle of disasters and economics is a continuing one with priority given to maintaining economic advantage for those who possess it both within nations and across nations. As such, according to Stalling (1998, p.42) the role of the government concerning disasters is to: “minimize [sic] the disruption to economic routines caused by disaster (without adversely affecting business in the process) and to restore those routines as quickly as possible when they are disrupted.”
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An interesting conundrum, that of course yields no answer, emerges: What experience does a disaster manager with a political view hold of public education? Given that education is a process designed to help the vulnerable yet her or his agency arguably perpetuates the disaster cycle for the disadvantaged, the answer is uncertain. It is noteworthy that within Australian literature attribution of vulnerability to economic and political forces is usually towards members of other nations. However, contemplation of socio-economic power bases benefiting some Australians (e.g. the rich, the dominant culture or majority social group) to the detriment of other Australians (e.g. the poor or minority groups) is either seldom undertaken or rarely overtly stated.
2.1.5 The Educational Implications of Multiple Views of Disaster
The three preceding views of disaster - physical, social and political – broadly match with Maskrey's (1989) claim that there were three different interpretations of disasters: as natural, unfortunate but inevitable; as caused by vulnerability and inability to cope with natural forces; and, as affecting people who are vulnerable due to social and economic processes. The physical view corresponds with Hewitt’s dominant physical or behavioural paradigm, while the latter two views differentiate the structural paradigm (cf. Smith, 1996) in terms of the causality of vulnerability.
Debate over the extent to which disaster is a physical phenomenon, social construct, or political outcome continues (Quarantelli, 1998; Hewitt, 1998; Bolin & Stanford, 1998). The idiosyncrasies of individual perception make it harder to make such an assessment.
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The boundaries between views are not clear and individual literature can relate to more than one view. Slippages and omissions exist between views. The literature shows strong evidence that many researchers’ theoretical arguments cross back and forth between these views suggesting that, while useful, they do not resolve the meaning of disaster. Yet, these views do suggest, at a broad level, dimensions wherein interpretations of disaster vary. At the very least, the literature provides compelling evidence that individuals hold different views regarding the relative weighting of physical, social and political factors and the ways they interact in the construction and perpetuation of disasters, with subsequent effect on personal meaning and valuing given to education and education priorities.
The imperative emerging from debate and developments in disaster research is that it is fruitful to acknowledge that different researchers and practitioners have different and incompatible experiences of the phenomenon of disaster. Research must also accommodate the implications for public education from each of these views of disasters. As reviewed through this section, each view places a different emphasis upon appropriate ways to address disasters and safety and the role of public education within these. These various perspectives on public education are potentially further categorised, if not shattered, by the possibility of even further divergence in individual understandings of disaster as individuals form idiosyncratic views of disaster based on hybrids or amalgams of the physical, social and political views. Further, there is also the possibility that these three views are far from all encompassing and that other views of disaster may exist that have not have yet been accounted for in the literature.
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Prior research suggests that interpretations of disasters as physical, social or political happenings link to the way in which practitioners implement public education. As mentioned, a physical interpretation of disasters links with an emphasis upon disasters as addressed through scientific and technological fixing of physical problems, while deemphasising the role of society in the genesis of disasters (Hewitt, 1983, 1998; Bolin & Stanford, 1998). Education attempts have often been associated with instruction of a naïve society by hazards experts. This concerns social paradigm researchers who see technological solutions chosen over social solutions as inappropriate for the treating of the problem of disasters (e.g. DeChiro, 1987; Hewitt, 1983; Varley, 1994). Instead, a view of disasters as socially interactive phenomena links with a view that vulnerability of societal groups and even whole societies involves the capacity of citizens to prevent or prepare for the physical disasters. This means that addressing vulnerability via such means as public education can interact with and shape the nature of disasters (Cowley, 1994, Hewitt, 1983; Jeggle, 1999; Quarantelli, 1991, for example). Similarly, according to the political view, public education efforts favour development and social empowerment to rectify political and economic injustices. For both the social and political view, as Cowley (1994, p.18) states: “If human activities can cause or aggravate the destructive effects of natural phenomena, they can also eliminate or reduce them.”
The literature leaves little doubt that there are debated and alternative views of disaster in existence. The literature also links these different views with different values for, and
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understanding of, public education. As such, experience of public education is likely to be different amongst disaster theoreticians and professionals.
----o----o----o----
2.2 DISASTER MANAGEMENT 2.2.1 Responsibility and Authority for Disaster Management
In Australia, responsibility for the protection of lives, property and the environment belongs to the States and Territories while the Commonwealth Government has responsibility for external affairs including humanitarian assistance for overseas emergency relief (EMA, 2004a). EMA, in partnership with other Commonwealth agencies such as the Department of Finance and Administration, Geoscience Australia and the Bureau of Meteorology, seeks to encourage an “ ‘all agencies’, ‘all hazards’ approach to the prevention or mitigation of disasters, preparedness for their impact, response to that impact and recovery from the consequences” (EMA, 2004a, p.1). The Commonwealth Government has provided a commitment to support the states when they are unable to cope with the extent of an emergency or disaster.
The Commonwealth Government (EMA, 2004c) utilises four core disaster response plans:
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(1) The Commonwealth Government Disaster Response Plan to coordinate Commonwealth Government physical assistance in the event of an Australian disaster; (2) The Commonwealth Government Overseas Disaster Assistance Plan for provision of Australian emergency support to other countries requiring postdisaster assistance; (3) The Australian Contingency Plan for Space Re-entry Debris for locating, recovering and removing radioactive space debris, and monitoring and neutralising radiological contamination arising from re-entry of radioactive space debris; and (4) The Commonwealth Government Reception Plan to coordinate the reception of persons evacuated into Australia following an overseas disaster.
Other Commonwealth Government disaster “national hazard related plans” (EMA, 2004c p.1) include the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and National Search and Rescue arrangements; the Department of Health and Ageing’s Management of Communicable Diseases in Australia Plan and Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s Australian Veterinary Emergency Plan.
Much of the structure of disaster management in Australia has changed little in the past 20 years. This is despite evidence of profound philosophical shifts in management perspectives as is presented next in section 2.2.2.
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Back in 1984, and hence before the IDNDR, Britton summarised the structure of disaster management in Australia as existing within a four-tier system of centralised responsibility. The highest tier of Australian disaster management was the Federal Government system, including organisational units within the Department of Defence and technological resources from units such as the Department of Science and Technology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. The second tier belonged to the State / Territory governmental level, including police and other emergency services, and provided a legislative backdrop for counter-disaster management. Responsibility for life and property during emergencies and disasters resided with State and Territory governments, with the Commonwealth government having a supporting role on request or if the state or territory could not cope. The third level of disaster management was that of the local government implementing counterdisaster activities, undertaking “grass-roots” planning, and where responsibility for establishing local voluntary emergency services groups lay. Finally, the fourth tier was that of private organisations, including voluntary organisations and associations, private industrial organisations with a primary emergency management role, such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and commercial sector organisations that were not primarily focused towards emergency services but had expertise and resources of relevance. Britton (1984) reported that it would be simpler to differentiate amongst organisations involved with disasters as being disaster-relevant, concerned with minimising social disruption, saving lives and protecting property, or emergencyrelated, contributing to maintaining physical appurtenances within society and providing general welfare and relief after disasters.
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Reflection upon Britton's (1984) summary of disaster management reveals disaster management was hierarchical and organisation focused. Members of the public were conspicuous by their absence from Australian disaster management, especially in higher echelons. The model was a centralised one, limited to a view of disaster management agents as those groups granted official authority from the government for disaster management. The model reflected approaches and the mind set in place at the time. Now, a broader approach is, on paper at least, evidenced by EMA’s (2004e) identification of communities and individuals as contributors to the management of hazards and disasters in Australia alongside the Federal Government, states and territories, local government, NGOs, private sector and volunteers. As such, the four-tier system of centralised responsibility described by Britton in 1984 is, 20 years on, extended to include, the citizenry of the country in the management of disasters.
2.2.2 The Development of Disaster Management
Definitions of disaster or emergency management are rare in comparison to definitions of disaster though models of disaster management are reasonably common and have evolved over time. Interpretations of disaster management commonly relate to efforts to facilitate rational, optimal, weighted decisions to address disasters for public safety. For example, Kasperson and Pijawka (1985, p.8) providing one of the earlier existing definitions of disaster management described it as: “the purposeful activity by which society informs itself about hazards, decides what to do about them, and implements
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measures to control them or mitigate them.” Boughton (1998, p.2) defined emergency management as: “ultimately it means that some people are making and implementing decisions that impact on community or public safety.” EMA (2004d, p.1) defined emergency management as: “a range of measures to manage risks to communities and the environment.” And (EMA, 2004d. p.1) also reported that: “It involves the plans, structures and arrangements which are established to bring together the normal endeavours of government, voluntary and private agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to deal with the whole spectrum of emergency needs including prevention, response and recovery.”
However, some researchers doubt that an organisational explanation of disaster management can be effective. In particular, Stenchion's (1997) interpretation of Australian disaster management juxtaposes with Britton’s earlier description of actual management structures. According to Stenchion (1997, p.40): Another common misconception associated with disaster management is the belief that it is something separate from normal government and community business, involving only professional emergency response agencies and relief efforts when something serious occurs. In reality, disaster management should extend at all times across all government sectors, non-governmental organisations and industry, from international levels down to individual people, and it affects every facet of society. Everybody, no matter whom, and every organisation or agency, no matter which, has some role to play. Disaster management is a continual business of strategies, programs and activities. Actual response to situations occurs only sporadically.
Stenchion (1997) reported that modern disaster management concepts were of a coordinated system of programs and activities to achieve each of the goals of prevention
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of hazards and vulnerability, reduction of hazards and vulnerability, increasing preparedness, effective response, and recovery actions.
Many theories of the structures and processes that exist or should exist for disaster management have been postulated (e.g. Australian Natural Disasters Organisation [ANDO], 1989; Britton, 1984, 1988; Burton, Kates and White, 1978; COAG, 2004a, 2004b; Crondstedt, 2002; EMA, 2004a, 2004d; Kasperson, Kates and Hohenemser, 1985; Salter, 1998). As well as researchers positing multiple theories, most countries and regions have disaster management legislation and plans in place.
According to Hewitt (1983, 1998) and Crondstedt (2002) interpretations of disaster management have predominately been in the form of linear or circular sequential models. Certainly many such models exist in the literature. Back in 1978, Burton, Kates and White proposed that disaster management involved three stages - preventing events, preventing consequences, and mitigating consequences. According to Crondstedt (2002), 1978 was also the year in which the State Governors’ Association in the United States released a Comprehensive Emergency Management process founded upon a policy of Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. The approach evolved into the Comprehensive Approach of Prevention – Preparedness – Response – Recovery, or PPRR for short. The PPRR model is provided in Figure 2-1. This PPRR approach has dominated national and international research and practice in the developed world from before the IDNDR (e.g. Australian Natural Disasters Organisation [ANDO], 1989) through to this decade (e.g. COAG, 2004a, 2004b; EMA, 2003b, 2004d). As such, the
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practice of managing disasters has been predominately founded upon a view that there is a typical sequence of disaster management in relation to a disaster event. The sequential PPRR causal model of disaster resulted in a clear delineation between those management actions that preceded a disaster and those management actions that follow a disaster. By such a model, pre-disaster stages include attempts to prevent or mitigate hazards to prevent disasters (prevention) and effort preparing society or sections of it for disasters (preparation). The sequencing of education efforts within PPRR type approaches tends to have occurred at the prevention and preparedness end of the disaster management spectrum. Education efforts during a disaster have tended to be a distinct form of education related to issuing immediate warnings and instructions on actions to take. Post-disaster stages include efforts to apply an immediate and effective response to a disaster to minimise consequences (response) and provision for recovery of the community affected by the disaster (recovery). A prequel stage of hazard evaluation was an additional stage in a very similar model by Cowley (1994) of disaster management as a five-stage process of hazard evaluation, hazard prevention, emergency planning and management (including preparedness), response and recovery, and feedback.
Prevention
Figure 2-1
Preparation
Disaster
Response
Recovery
Comprehensive Approach to Disaster Management
Back in 1984, Britton argued that Australian disaster management, within both the public and private sectors, was primarily focusing upon disaster responsiveness rather than disaster preparedness. Twelve years later, Rattien (1996) reported that throughout [ Page 87 ]
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the world attention had shifted towards planning and preparedness because of a belief that post-disaster relief was relatively ineffective when compared with various preparedness actions, including preparation for effective action after the event. Now, EMA (2004d) acknowledges that this heritage led to over-emphasise upon response within the causal chain of management. Similarly, at a global level, the State Members of the United Nations and Other States’ (1999, p.320) Yokohoma Strategy for a Safer World as part of efforts undertaken during the IDNDR included the statement: Disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness are better than disaster response in achieving the goals and objectives of the Decade. Disaster response alone is not sufficient, as it yields only temporary results at a very high cost. We have followed this limited approach for too long.
A number of major criticisms have been directed at sequential models of disaster management. The first criticism was that they did not provide adequate flexibility and responsiveness for the unpredictable nature of disasters (Hewitt, 1998; Britton, 2001). Second, Hewitt (1983, 1998) linked the use of causal models to the technocratic values inherent in the physical view of disaster and to a regime of mechanism and control. Hewitt (1998) remained concerned that even when researchers and practitioners, of whom Dombrowsky (1998) was considered one example, commented on the implications of technocratic constructions of disaster, they often then contradicted themselves by proposing a new and supposedly better causal explanation. Disaster management practice was similarly criticised. Crondsdedt (2002) criticised the PPRR model on four grounds: the artificial delineation between the elements of preparation, prevention, response and recovery; the implication of equal importance in all circumstances for these elements; the assumption of a sequential implementation of
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management steps; and, a bias towards physical and action responses over social dimensions.
Researchers have attributed various characteristics to disaster management. Shortreed and Stewart (1988) reported that the disaster management process included a mixture of technical, scientific, political and decision-making aspects. Parker (1992) reported that six factors contributed to the nature of management. Firstly, objectives relating to protection of life, property, environment, and the reduction of vulnerability guide management efforts. Secondly, prevailing administrative and economic doctrines and political ideologies influence the view of disaster management. Thirdly, new technology advances preparedness but also potentially creates new hazards. Fourthly, public attitudes towards hazards and risks influence any attempts to educate the public. Fifthly, disaster management exists within uncertain, unpredictable and complex environmental circumstances. Sixthly, legislation, organisational arrangements, sub-cultures and financial considerations contribute to the shaping of management policy. Britton (1988) identified seven major trends in Australian disaster management between the years of 1984 and 1988. Firstly, a trend existed towards an integrated 'all hazards' approach. Secondly, hazard awareness was increasing within the counter-disaster network. Thirdly, professionalism was developing. Fourthly, openness and inter-agency liaison was developing. Fifthly, organisational reflection and learning was resulting in the replacement of approaches with more efficient ones. Sixthly, training and practice scenarios were increasingly practical. Seventhly, there was progress towards a more eclectic approach to disaster knowledge.
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While the preceding researchers have suggested a number of aspects that characterise centralised disaster management agencies, Wraith (1997) highlighted what she believed to be a major feature of these agencies in Australia: that they had remained characteristically patriarchal and bureaucratic when compared to most other organisations. These characteristics are a likely legacy of the dominant and mechanistic view from earlier decades of disasters as physical phenomena addressed via solutions based upon scientific and technological ingenuity (Hewitt, 1983, 1998). Such an emphasis on technology and strategic defense against disasters created strong links between disaster management and the armed services, via the Australian Counter Disaster College. Addressing disasters partially or primarily through civil or armed defence agencies has been a common feature of disaster management, especially amongst developed countries (Cutter 1993). The Australian Federal Government emergency management now openly acknowledges the influence a civil defence and military view has had upon its past approach to disaster management (EMA, 2004d). This has been part of reform efforts to move away from legacy models and practices. Other countries, particularly the United States of America are not necessarily making the same conceptual shifts. Since the September 11th terrorist bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York there has been in the United States an emphasis on “an overall military solution to all threats” (Aquirre, 2002, p.1). Arguably, a view that the military or might can defend against disasters reflects a physical view of disasters and disaster response.
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Statistics support the claims that disaster management agencies are patriarchal and bureaucratic. In 1997, occupation of senior emergency management positions in Australia was at a ratio of fifteen men per woman. The percentage of women in senior management positions was negligible and disproportionate to numbers in non-senior positions. Only five percent of formal training in emergency management at the Australian Emergency Management Institute was by women (Wraith, 1997). Wraith (1997) argued that a traditional, bureaucratic and male-supporting power hierarchy had brought about the gender imbalance. To Wraith, the consequence of such a circumstance in disaster management bureaucracies was the perpetuation of superseded cultural norms, with an institutionalised view of women as “victims” in disaster not of women ”in control”. Wraith (1997) argued that a view of women as victims meant women in the community were not encompassed within the tenets of community participation, empowerment and information availability accepted as part of competent emergency management. She argued that increased participation of women in emergency management would help shift the emergency view away from the physical towards other functions such as psychological and social functioning, echoing the earlier argument of feminist researchers such as Bakan (1966) and Gilligan (1982) that women approach work and work relationships based on interdependence whereas men seek independence.
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2.2.3 A Shift to a Social-Oriented Risk Management Approach to Disasters and Emergencies
By the mid-1990s, the Australian disaster management scene was becoming very selfreflective and focused upon improvement and reform. The emphasis on improvement inherent within the mandate of the International decade of Natural Disaster Reduction was a catalyst for change. The imperative within the United Nations’ declaration of the IDNDR in the 1990’s was that all nations focus upon comprehensive risk assessment, mitigation plans at national and local levels providing long term prevention, preparedness and awareness, and access to warning systems at all societal levels (Press, 1989; Jeggle, 1999).
The imperatives combined with possible directions afforded by the new social paradigm facilitated address of the existing criticisms of Australia’s central agency and supporting structures in terms of legacy structures, patriarchy and bureaucracy. Indeed, EMA acknowledges that its heritage led to models and practices in need of reform and has chosen to accept as constructive much of the criticism directed towards it (EMA, 2004d).
Post-IDNDR, the philosophies, goals and processes of disaster management have begun to shift profoundly, however in many ways the centralised hierarchical structures have changed very little (Britton, 2001). Despite new philosophies being embraced and high motivation for change, management change across various agencies was not systematic,
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uniform or comprehensive but inconsistent, non-comprehensive and not always strategically planned. According to Hays (1999), all nations were experiencing difficulties bringing about changes mandated by the IDNDR for several reasons: •
a lack of societal and legal mandates to make change to plans and policies;
•
a lack of total understanding of the complexities linking policies, hazards and human works;
•
insufficient technical capacity to undertake risk assessments and develop improved warning systems and forecasting;
•
insufficient political will to initiate national mitigation programs; and
•
insufficient existing knowledge to initiate fundamental, major changes in their disaster reduction cultures.
Though not applied in a consistent, comprehensive manner, the types of management processes identified as important in a social view approach to disaster safety appear to have been embraced by many working in Australian disaster management since the late 1990’s (e.g. EMA, 2004d; COAG, 2004a; Salter, 1998). Since this time, there has been a noticeable trend towards replacing the PPRR with a new risk management approach. So, various social and political factors have been the catalysts that have triggered a profound shift in management direction away from the PPRR that had supported management practice for the preceding 20 years. Emphasis dramatically shifted away from the PPRR and all of its physical view emphases to a new Emergency Risk Management (ERM) model firmly entrenched in the philosophies and rhetoric of a social view of disasters. The timing of the development of the Australian / New Zealand
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Standard on Risk Management AS 4360:1995 was serendipitous, providing a framework for developing a risk management policy at the same time that concepts of risk and community involvement in risk management were coming to attention. This standard provided a generic framework for organisations to analyse, assess, treat and monitor risk in order to maximise opportunities and minimise losses. A set of guidelines – Emergency Risk Management – founded on this standard was endorsed by the National Emergency Management Committee in 1998 (EMA, 2004a).
According to EMA
(2004a) emergency risk management is: ...a systematic process that produces a range of measures that contribute to the well being of communities and the environment. It includes: context definition; risk identification; risk analysis; risk evaluation; risk treatment; monitoring and reviewing; and, communicating and consulting.
A copy of the risk management diagram reproduced from the Australian / New Zealand Standard on Risk Management (1999) is included as Figure 2-2.
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This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 2-2
The Risk Management Process (Source: Standards Australia, 1999)
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One example of several emergency specific theoretical models that has been suggested for Australian disaster management is included as Figure 2-3.
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 2-3
Emergency Risk Management (Source: Boughton, 1999)
Many international researchers espouse the potential value of the risk management approach (e.g. Davis & Hall, 1999; Evans, Water & Lany, 1999; Jeggle, 1999; Maskrey,
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1999; Mattingly, 1999; Salter, 1999). The potential valued in the model is primarily in terms of flexibility and its emphasis upon continuous development and improvement. With a new emphasis of community safety and risk management (EMA (2004d) perceived benefits include auditability of processes, community accessible tools and processes, focus on risk causes rather than subsequent emergencies or disasters, and a shared dialogue of risk. The emphasis is also of benefit related to long-term sustainability of communities in relation to emergencies.
Disaster management
becomes more linked to other community values and integrated into community long term plans (Mattingly, 1999). Jeggle (1999, p.27) from the IDNDR Secretariat posited the need for collective efforts guiding humanity into a “Safer World in the 21st Century”. Thus, emergency management links with community decision-making with improvements in effectiveness achieved through inclusion of the public in the risk management process. As Davis and Hall (1999, p.89) state: Instead of concentrating on the physical aspects of risk leading to the imposition of external solutions to community problems, decisions need to be informed by the priorities, requirements and perceptions of those at risk… This calls for flexible and adaptive management systems, supported by new techniques for data collection and processing which give priority to facilitating a dynamic process of participation and dialogue.
Emergency risk management formally acknowledges the critical role of the public in the management of disasters and risks. According to Salter (1998, p.11), there has been a shift away from an internal agency to a community-centred focus in the Australian emergency management community. Salter identified a number of particular priority changes that characterise this broad transition: priorities have been shifting away from hazards to vulnerability; reactive to proactive; single agencies to partnerships; science
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driven to multi-disciplinary approach; response management to risk management; planning for communities to planning with communities; and communicating to communities to communicating with communities. To Maskrey, a long-term sustainable solution that is achievable rests with decentralised partnership between agencies and communities through localised risk management. To Maskrey, the physical focus has emphasised large-scale disasters and obscured the possibility that for many smaller communities lesser occurrences can be devastating though not as salient to centralised disaster agencies due to their non-chronic or less impressive physical characteristics.
The precedent for the new Emergency Risk Management model can be seen in the work of numerous practitioners and researchers. For example, Stenchion's (1997) social view was of disaster management as a process whereby the public and agencies both contribute to safety. Lidstone (1992) had previously doubted the value of an organisational view of disasters. He suggested that there was often an assumption within disaster management that disaster preparedness rests on centralised formal planning, but drew attention to the possibility that during an actual disaster it is very possible that individuals will not be able to depend on the government for anything. Ruckelhaus (1987) also highlighted the importance of involving the public in disaster management and keeping them informed of decisions from the early stages of risk perception onwards. The Emergency Risk Management framework in Australia has acknowledged and centralised the role of the public in disaster management and fast-tracked a rethink of the relationship between disaster managers and educators, the public, disasters and risk.
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2.2.4 Disaster Management and the Meaning of a Safe Society
The substantial efforts of disaster management and society in general to address disasters imply that there is an assumption that making society safer is an appropriate goal (Press, 1989). This raises substantial questions for which the answers are not axiomatic. Firstly: ‘What constitutes a safe society? Following on from this: Is the attainment of such a society actually desirable?’ (Lidstone, 1992).
Emergency Management Australia (2004d, p.1) suggests a straightforward answer to a similar question, as: “A safe community is a community enabling all citizens to feel safe and be safe in pursuit of their daily lives.” In context, this response was provided by EMA to emphasise that it falls short of offering any solutions as it is overly simplistic and insufficient to encapsulate the types of issues of safety that emergency or disaster management must address.
Another straightforward answer to the question of what constitutes a safe society would be “any society that is free from disasters”. But in a world of freedom of action and gaps in knowledge, uncertainties quickly multiplies to obscure the future from us in a blur known as chaos, and means a society free of risk remains a Utopian vision. The concept of “zero risk” is out of reach in the contemporary world (Rouhban, 1997). Thus, uncertainty remains in both individual existences and at the heart of the issue of societal safety.
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The nature of a safe society is considerable at two levels: the simple and the complex. According to a simple account, interpretations of a safe society ignore the issue of uncertainty and focus on society’s address of its safety with a naïve optimisation. Thus, a safe society has both the ability and willingness to undertake efforts to avoid or minimise death, injury or damage to its citizens or property. Research accepting of such an account glosses over or ignores the notion of uncertainty and accepts a general goal that optimal safety is axiomatic or appropriately simple. This simple account of safety characterised the majority of the large body of PPRR research that exists. It assumed the desirability of safety. This assumption arguably hides the meaning of safety. Discussion of the desirability of safety requires a complex account of the constituency of a safe society wherein the pivotal role of uncertainty is expressible in terms of risk and society making political decisions about the management of such risk.
The extent to which safety is a desirable outcome involves the issue of risk and the politics of decision-making about risk and vulnerability in society. Risk has been primarily understood in quantitative and physical terms as the probability that a hazard will lead to a specific consequence or loss (Rowe, 1977; Shortreed and Stewart, 1988) or disaster (Stenchion, 1997, p.41). As such, risk assessment is often concerned with the probability of the physical disaster and the quantification and reduction of uncertainty (e.g. Major, 1999). However, many conceive of risk as more than a physical or fixed attribute involving only the hazard incidence and characteristics. With strong social paradigm linkages, an understanding of risk by many researchers includes the degree of
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vulnerability a community has to disasters. Crichton (1999) conceptualised risk in terms of a triangle, the lengths of its three sides each being associated with the magnitude of each of three elements: frequency and severity of hazards, vulnerability to the hazard (i.e. extent to which it will suffer loss), and the exposure to the hazard. Risk then becomes the size of the triangle’s area. Hence, reducing the magnitude of any of the three elements, with no increase in the other two aspects, reduces risk. By such a model, a country with a high level of natural hazard could manage disasters by discouraging development of housing and industry where the hazard is high, such as in a floodplain (Crichton, 1999). Pitzer (1999) exemplifies this view of risk, perceiving it as a social construction prone to the human bias of perceiving the world in ways that conform to expected risk.
If a risk is estimable, then an assessment based on this estimation can be made as to whether the benefits of a new technological venture or societal development outweigh the potential consequences that may accompany them (Cutter, 1993). The issue of risk and risk management is a political issue when risks that emerge from new social or technological development benefit some but increase vulnerability or exposure to hazards for others. Risks are differentiable as non-public risks, in which the public are not active participants, such as disposal of nuclear waste, or public risks, in which the public are active participants, such as driving a car (Cutter, 1993). According to Shrader-Frechette (1991), disaster management is political, and political issues that are irremovable interfere with positivistic approaches to understanding risk: “Once one realises that the process of hazard assessment and management is highly value laden and
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politicised, then negotiation (rather than mere expert decision making) becomes a virtual necessity for ensuring free, informed consent in situations of controversial risk” (Schrader-Frechette, 1991, p.206).
But risk managers often do not adequately present the arguments for accepting a risk, with risk communication too often a one way dialogue whereby experts inform the public of decisions with little chance for reciprocal communication (Schrader-Frechette, 1991). Schrader-Frechette (1991, p.206) argued: “How the individual, or the family, the group or the neighbourhood view hazard situations reflects the nature of their perception of the threat and the relative values they place upon the forms of disturbance and disruption.”
Given the political nature of risk, it is not surprising to find that there is public wariness over the extent to which official information about risks can be trusted (e.g. Thomas, 1989; Pilisuk, Parks & Hawks, 1993). Thomas (1989) found that the public considers university scientists to be more reliable providers of information than government agencies, suggesting a public perception that many risks are non-voluntary and controlled by other people in authority. It is also possible that this perception exists because risks are generally viewed as physical and people believe in the objectivity of scientific investigation. Of significance to this thesis is Parker’s (1992) suggestion that public attitudes towards risks will influence any attempt to educate the public.
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Despite the currency of policy and research that favours public involvement in disaster management; public apathy is arguably a major concern when addressing disaster safety (Kreps, 1984; Drabek, 1986; Auf der Heide, 1989). Auf der Heide (1989) suggested that the multiple causes of public apathy included a lack of public awareness of risks, a tendency of the public to underestimate risks, reliance on technology, a fatalistic attitude towards disaster, and social pressure to flout disaster threats. Auf der Heide (1989) identified public education as one way to reduce apathy. Brookfield (1987, p.20) believed that inclusion of the public in political decision-making processes was important for negating apathy, stating: “When people view social change or political decisions as removed from their own existence they perceive themselves to be helpless in the face of overwhelming social forces and tend to turn and focus on their own private lives.”
Governments with the responsibility for establishing disaster management agencies and legislation are susceptible to apathy about disasters too. Auf der Heide (1989) listed several reasons for governmental apathy: pressure from special interest groups; lack of an organised constituency advocating disaster preparedness; defeatism; other priorities competing with “low probability” events; difficulty substantiating benefits of preparedness; an overestimation of response capabilities; ambiguity of response; and an inter-governmental paradox whereby the lower levels of government are less likely to experience a disaster but are more likely to be faced with responding to it. The effect of the International Decade of Natural Disaster Reduction and new Emergency Risk Management frameworks on apathy remains to be assessed.
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2.3 THE PUBLIC: A SIMPLE OR COMPLEX VIEW 2.3.1 The Relationship of the Public and the Community
Education efforts in disaster management have invariably involved members of society beyond the agencies responsible for safety. The “public” was the primary focus of education efforts in the context of disaster management during the 1970s and 1980s. Such disaster education efforts primarily revolved around mass education campaigns focused upon either raising awareness or shifting attitudes or behaviours in as many people as possible. 5 6 Attention was on reaching the largest number of people in the public and effecting behavioural change. During this time, the field of environmentalism was increasingly discussing the benefits to education when considering the public as a community (Clark, 1984). A valuing of the community as a context for education for safety was implicit within some disaster research but it has really only been during and after the IDNDR that it received widespread emphasis within much research (e.g. Boughton, 1990, 1998; Marsh and Buckle, 2001; Quarantelli, 1991, 1998; Sullivan, 2003). The concept of “community” and its increased centrality within much research is associated with the rise of the social view of disaster and the simultaneous recognition by many researchers that a relegation of members of society under the amorphous, neutral, passive and uniform banner of ‘the public’ denied the role individuals in society have in constructing disasters.
5
A review of the literature concerning these education initiatives is excluded here as it is provided in detail in Section 2.5.
6
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For many, it appears that it was beginning to be acknowledged that a collection of individuals is more than a sum of the parts and that underlying complexities in social processes and structures might hold the key to delineation of vulnerabilities that could help explain the meaning of being safe in an uncertain world. This is exemplified in the statement by Oliver-Smith (1998, p.181) that: “A disaster is at some basic level a social construction, its essence to be found in the organization of communities, rather than in an environmental phenomenon with destructive or disruptive effects for a society.” Similarly, an example of the notion of community filtering into disaster education rhetoric is found in Boughton's (1990, p.11) statement at the beginning of the IDNDR that: “Implementation of disaster avoidance is only successful if the whole community is involved and if it is teamed with appropriate and well thought out legislation.” More recently and within Australia, EMA (2004d) indicated the relevance and appropriateness of new strategies, stating: Adoption of a community-centered approach (as opposed to an agency- or emergency service- centric approach) was the preferred model. It is the community who owns the risk, so we need to help them identify and treat it ‘doing things with the community, not to it’.
Several classifications of communities have been developed. Quarantelli (1991), a disaster researcher who had focused upon disasters at a community level over a decade ago recognised that particular disasters occur in particular regions or communities. Elaborating upon this, Quarantelli (1991) reported that a community experiencing a disaster is definable in terms of four characteristics: (1) the relative proportion of the community involved in the disaster; (2) the social centrality of the affected population, which relates to the level of transience of the community; (3) the time and space of
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community involvement, involving the rapidity of community involvement in the disaster and the geographic localisation or diffuseness of a disaster; and (4) the recurrence of involvement in disaster occasions. Boughton (1998) recognised three ways communities are classifiable: (1) geography; (2) shared experience; and, (3) sectorbased groups. EMA (2000) extended upon Boughton’s classification and advanced a four way classification of communities: (1) geography; (2) shared experience; (3) sector; and, (4) function. EMA (2000) also pointed out that smaller communities could combine to form larger communities.
According to Sullivan (2003), the exhibited commonality amongst definitions of community is interaction, though a community may be geographically bound but not involve individual interaction. The many processes within communities and the various ways they are classifiable suggested to Sullivan (2003, p.20) that pragmatism should be the basis of a definition of community in a particular circumstance: “it is the manner by which the definition of community will be used, rather than adjusting the use to suit the definition that should dictate the means by which a community is defined.” Sullivan’s (2003, p.20) definition of community in terms of recovery aspects of emergencies was: “taken as referring to a group of people who interact, but who may do so within and between a number of sub-communities.”
Recognising communities as social groups with all of the accompanying group processes and dynamics allows for a new and complex understanding of the public. A simplistic concept of the public or communities is arguably less than effective in disaster
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management practice (e.g. Marsh and Buckle, 2001). A move away from a simplistic and narrower view of the public as a receptor of management and education is synonymous with a shift away from a perception of the public as passive entities (Enders, 2001) to one of active contribution towards their own safety and risk decisions in society.
The implication for public education of an active community is perhaps most significantly that professional practice and supporting research can utilise these previously overlooked community processes to actually enhance educational processes. An approach towards educating communities of individuals allows communities to not only be the focus of educational practice, but further allows for processes within communities or targeted sections of communities to become the engine generating the educational activity. As Boughton (1998, p.2) pointed out: “Community can be used to refer to groupings that are both affected by, and can assist in, the mitigation of hazards.”
So a complex view of the public as communities imbues a grouping of individuals with characteristics such as location, and processes and structures, and perhaps most importantly, an actively contributory role to disaster education. This mirrors the argument by some environmentalists such as Clover, Folen and Hall (1998) that one significant aspect of community education is that it empowered individuals within the education process. The contrast against early simple, quantity driven approaches to the public as an amorphous grouping of individuals with no greater role than reception of education via mass media is glaringly large.
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The term community implies a whole greater than the sum of the parts while public implies a collection of individuals. While these added complexities associated with the term community are an important aspect of disaster research, ultimately the terminology applied – be it community, public, adults or a different term - is frequently interchanged and neither necessarily mutually exclusive nor commonly applied.
Ultimately, different disaster managers and practitioners see the public in their own way. The extent to which the notion of community, as expressed within the research of some disaster researchers, may influence the ways disaster managers interpret the public aspect of public education is not known. Nevertheless, the literature includes different interpretations. It is likely that different managers hold differing and idiosyncratic understandings of the public or the communities whose safety they pursue. In broad terms, one way of describing how understanding may vary is in terms of the complexity of structures and processes imbuing the public. It is probable that the understanding of public education by these managers is shaped by the underlying concept of the public and that individual managers may interpret public education differently given a focus towards a quantity of either individuals or towards a focus upon dynamic communities.
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2.4 PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC EDUCATION 2.4.1 Public Education beyond Formal Education
Education and learning have been identified as formal, non-formal, and informal, with blurred boundaries between the last two types (Foley, 1993, 1995). Formal education has been described as institutionalised, hierarchical and chronological (Brookfield, 1983) and systematic and structured (Newman, 1995). Dickinson (1979) argued that the commonality in formal learning is not setting, which can include such places as homes and organisations, but that an external agent manages the process to increase the probability of learning occurring. Non-formal education has been described as organised education outside formal institutions (Brookfield, 1983), occurring when an individual gains awareness of an opportunity to learn and deliberately uses it (Newman, 1995), and is often one-off, sporadic or participant directed (Foley, 1993). Clover (1996) emphasised the importance of non-formal methods for environmental education, these being dynamic, flexible, and highly participatory. Finally, informal learning, also known as incidental learning, has been described as individual, unstructured, day-to-day learning, though not necessarily articulated as such, an example of which is reading about a hazard in a newspaper or in an information pamphlet (Brookfield, 1983; Foley, 1993; Newman, 1995). Evans (1993) argued that no simple dimension existed for relating formal and informal learning environments. This may mean that the advantage of simplicity of explanation that classifications and definitions offer may come at the expense of veracity and depth of understanding.
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According to Candy (1991), the relationship between learning and education increasingly blurs as the role of an instructor diminishes. Self-education becomes synonymous with self-directed learning. Candy (1991, p.13) refers to self-directed learning outside of formal institutional settings as autodidaxy.
Formal learning is distinct from other learning. Formal learning has been conceptually linked to decontextualised knowledge, generalisable knowledge, inductive learning, theoretical insight, intentional cognition and routinised learning (e.g. Evans, 1993; Marsick & Watkins, 1990; Resnick, 1987). On the other hand, learning in less structured environments has been conceptually linked with other learning processes and environments including experiential learning, informal learning, real life context, workplace learning, deductive learning, reflective learning, incidental learning and situated-learning (e.g. Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Evans, 1993, Lave, 1977). Processes of learning theorised as more readily available beyond formal learning settings include observation, modeling, coaching, access to experts and social support (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Evans, 1993; Lave, 1977). Evans (1993) suggested there are failings within both learning contexts reducible through transference of learning techniques between the two environments.
Public education for disaster safety occurs across a range of settings. Public education for disaster safety, as for other social issues such as health, is not limited to formal, structured settings. Indeed public education typically involves, or is envisaged as,
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learning occurring outside institutions when the learner may or may not have the volition to learn and may or may not proactively self-seek learning opportunities. The learner may respond favourably or otherwise to learning opportunities. Wilson (1990) believed that the most rewarding approach to educating those in hazard prone zones was likely to be a multi-strategy approach utilising formal, non-formal and informal methods. He suggested that use of formal education alone was likely to fail in achieving efficiency, effectiveness and social justice.
Given the unorthodoxy of public education in comparison with mainstream formal education, an understanding of the historical context of public education as a marginalised form of education in education theory provides insight into meaning ascribed to the activity.
2.4.2 The Rise of a Broader View of Education
Throughout much of the twentieth century, education was conservatively understood in terms of learning within a formal educational setting under the guidance of an external agent (Brookfield, 1983, 1986; Stock, 1996). As recently as the 1960s and 1970s, adult education was typically interpreted as being organised post-compulsory education (Clover, 1996). During that time, it was often argued that a formal setting with an external instructor was necessary for individuals to accomplish learning (Verner, 1964; Lawson, 1979; Little, 1979). Dickinson (1979) went as far as to argue that learning in a natural societal setting without guidance was ineffective and possibly harmful!
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Brookfield (1983, p.13) suggested that this era was accompanied by an underlying assumption that adult learners did not possess adequate skills or judgement to learn effectively and had to “consult those designated as ‘professional’ in the sphere” (p.13). Soon after, Kulich (1978, p.10) noted “up to fairly recent times, when most nations accepted a goal of widespread and readily available schooling for everybody, selfeducation was the prime way for man [sic] to cope with the world around him.”
The domination of the traditional view of education as a formal and structured process was linked to an axiom of the era - that knowledge is objective and best acquired through learning from an expert (Stock, 1996). Further, at the time, the effectiveness of informal adult learning and any possible resource requirements were not known. Adult learning in the community did not lend itself readily to investigation via traditional scientific methods and remained “largely unchartered research waters” with a paucity of theoretical frameworks (Brookfield, 1983, p.6). There remained a lack of research of education that was not formal, despite recognition by many that adults continually acquire new skills and knowledge through family, recreation, occupation or leisure (e.g. Brookfield, 1983; Candy, 1991). According to Strasser, Aaron and Bohn (1981, p.428): “The informal type of education provided through... organised groups and agencies is still the most widely used means of safety education for adults.”
While public education can occur both formally and beyond, formal education represents only a small proportion of the total public education effort that takes place. In other words, while learning was acknowledged as occurring beyond formal institutions,
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a reliance on the rigid and dominant scientific view of knowledge hindered research that could have accounted for such learning.
While a conservative view of education dominated previous decades, there were advocates of a broader view of education extending beyond institutions. For example, in 1976, Rogers and Groomsbridge (p.58) noted that “it is easy to overlook how deliberately and constantly many millions of adults are seeking to learn something new”. Penfield (1975) argued that most adult learning was not formally acquired. To Tough (1978), the failure to recognise the value of adult learning was analogous to looking at an iceberg, with formal learning being the 20 percent of learning efforts which research and professional practice focused upon (the top of the iceberg), while 80 percent of learning occurred out of sight and without research attention (the bottom of the iceberg). By the end of that decade, mainstream educational theorists were still not able to include a majority of learning occurring in society within traditional formal expert instructorbased models situated in formal education contexts.
During the 1980s, the level of support for broader notions of education beyond formal institutions grew. Brookfield (1983) argued that learning in the community deserved recognition in its own right, as a purposeful pursuit of knowledge and skills, occurring beyond a classroom, without a strict timetable, without institutional validity or accreditation, and as voluntary, self-motivated and self-generating. Knowles (1984) described learners outside formal settings as a neglected species. Brookfield (1983, p.3)
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lamented the failure of support to translate into practical research, stating: “Despite recognizing [sic] that most adult learning takes place outside educational institutions, most adult education researchers choose to concentrate their attention and research energies on the minority of adults who actually participate in formal classes.”
The continuing failure of education in a narrow sense to address the flexibility and diversity of processes and contexts that occur beyond formal and guided settings caused frustration amongst educators working beyond these parameters (e.g. Knowles, 1984). Public education, both as a goal and a process, for a long time had been marginal to formal education theory that too often did not encapsulate its processes and goals. It lacked a legitimacy that could have resulted in increased research effort.
One classification scheme of environmental education differentiates education, not in terms of formal or other settings, but in terms of the relationship of the learner to the topic of interest. This classification scheme distinguishes education about the environment, education in the environment and education for the environment (cf. Fien, 1993). Education about the environment emphasises that the environment is the subject of education, aims to create understanding of issues and thus contribute to management, and values objectivity, science and humanity's ability to control the environment. Education in the environment is learner-centred and based on practical experience, views the environment as a medium for education, and immerses students in the environment to increase awareness. Education for the environment emphasises sustainable living, critical thinking, personal and political action, and the development
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of knowledge and skills that can empower the learner to take action for environmental improvement. Given the links between disasters and the environment, there may be some logic in replacing the word environment in the account above with the word disasters. Thus, it might be possible to educate the public about disaster preparation, within the context of physically hazardous, social or political situations and for disaster safety. However, given the political nature of environmental education and the fact that most public education for disaster safety is funded by the government of the day, perhaps the analogy is less than successful. Furthermore, it must be admitted that while the theoretical statements of environmental education may be persuasive, the evidence to support the efficacy of environmental education in changing behaviour is less so.
It has only been in the last few decades that interpretations of education have gained significant research attention beyond a formal educational setting and guided by an external agent (Brookfield, 1983; Knowles, 1984; Stock, 1996). Before this, knowledge was typically regarded as objective and the role of education was seen to be to transfer knowledge from the expert to the learner (Stock, 1996). Now, faced with an increased responsibility expected of government authorities to mitigate disasters, frequently through public education measures, paradoxically, we are also faced with a focus upon learning rather than education which shifts responsibility for education away from the government towards the individual (Raggatt, Edwards and Small, 1996).
This shift means that ways of experiencing education may have shifted away from that of learning as an instructional process directed by those with disaster management
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authority, to one where learning is a process where both disaster managers and the general public share responsibility for the education and learning process. While the rhetoric for education is increasingly about flexibility and diversity, it is possible, however, that interpretations of effective education practice remain narrow in disaster management practice. Indeed, there is little evidence that much has changed other than the rhetoric. Certainly, Clover (1996) still believes adult education, at a practical level, is being viewed in the traditional post-compulsory and formal way. The influence of interpretations of effective education practice on ways of experiencing public education could be significant, but is overlooked in the literature.
By an optimistic view of the last couple of decades, marginalised education forms have gained their own legitimacy and are valued as education and learning that occur beyond a formal context, and are appreciated, rather than marginalised, for their flexibility and variation. Raggatt, Edwards and Small (1996, p.1) seemed convinced of this view when they emphasised that focus had shifted away from education to a new focus where: The centrepoint of discussion is learning and there is a general and widespread recognition and acceptance that it takes place in many different settings - in the workplace, the home, in groups or alone - and not only, or primarily, in formal education settings.
In terms of an optimistic view, the emergence of an alternative, broad, independent, flexible and accommodating view of adult education, which encompasses public education (The Australian Association of Adult and Community Education [AAACE], 1987, cited in ASSCEET, 1991), though awkwardly, led to increased valuing of formal
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and guided education. It has also seen growing favour for learner-centred, non-formal, informal, lifelong and self-directed learning.
By a pessimistic view of the last couple of decades, despite a supposed new legitimacy for education beyond formal and guided contexts, it may be that the ability to learn beyond formal settings continued to be routinely assumed to relate to the ability to learn in informal settings (Candy, 1991).
Most likely, the status of public education resides somewhere between the pessimistic and optimistic view. Quite possibly, many people, including educators, still view education narrowly as a formally guided process, while an increased number see education broadly as including eclectic, multifarious, flexible and learner-centred processes. While those researching and practicing education that is not formal and guided tend to be optimistic and approach it as a legitimate form of education, the research for formal education more often employs a narrow and exclusive view of education.
2.4.3 Education across the Lifespan
A major dilemma for hazard and disaster managers includes finding efficient ways to educate the public in relation to hazards and disasters in a world of continuous and rapid lifestyle change and technological progression. Constant technological, economic, social and cultural changes expose individuals to new challenges at work and in leisure.
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Human progress may create new technological hazards but also potentially alters the range, frequency and severity of natural disasters by altering the physical environment (Cutter, 1993). Specific skills and knowledge can outdate, therefore learning across the lifetime is essential to the effective functioning of individuals (Candy, 1991).
For individuals to meet challenges across their lifetimes there is a need for ongoing learning that updates and adapts specific skills for new circumstances and maintains general skills that allow for adaptability and transitions within the lifetime. Whereas, several decades ago education focused on passing on existing knowledge, skills and values, education is now increasingly focused on preparing people for life, work security, rapid societal and technological changes, and pursuit of happiness, well being and quality of life (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation [UNESCO], 1994). Lifelong learning for the individual, and for society as a whole, offers one means to increase public preparedness for the demands of a changeable and uncertain world (Houle, 1984; Candy, 1991). Raggatt, Edwards and Small (1996, p.1) pointed out that there has been a “surging” interest in the notions of lifelong learning and the learning society. These researchers identify the force behind this emphasis as being change in the "constellation of technological, economic, cultural and demographic forces that surround and affect adults" (p.1).
The notion of lifelong learning for adapting to changing circumstances is not a new one. As far back as the 1940's, the American Association of School Administrators argued
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that “lifelong education for safety is required to assist adults to adjust themselves to changing conditions and requirements” (1940, p.189).
Today, there is a growing recognition of the benefits afforded by updating and adapting specific skills and for the flexibility afforded by general skills that allow individuals to meet challenges across their lifetime (Candy, 1991; Poole, Nielsen, Horrigan and Langan-Fox, 1998). However, it appears that the potentially important role that lifelong learning can play in adult safety has been ignored over the last several decades. There is little guidance available as to the form that lifelong learning should take in the context of disasters.
Prioritising learning as a process that extends across the lifespan implies that schools could have a role in education for disaster safety. Certainly, the value of disaster education within educational institutions including schools has frequently been asserted to be potentially high (Boughton, 1990; EMA, 2003b; FEMA, 1996; Lidstone, 1992; UNDRO, 1987; Wilson, 1990). EMA (2003b) demonstrates its belief in this assertion through its publication of the sixth edition, 20 years after the initial edition’s publication, of a resource for the public, schools and teachers. Wilson (1990) asserted that the benefits of schooling for hazard mitigation were in terms of involvement, understanding, attitudes and awareness. Other educators (e.g. Auf der Heide, 1989) have claimed, albeit with little evidence, that children will influence their parents’ behaviour in the context of preparing for disaster. However, according to Wilson (1990), many aspects of education about hazards are not considered suitable for children, and disaster
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education often has not been given its own distinct set of curriculum or content by schoolteachers. Further, in terms of the radical view that formal schooling perpetuates and entrenches the power of dominant class groups (Friere, 1972), those without access to formal schooling can be denied the opportunity for learning; a denial which could reduce their vulnerability to disasters (Wilson, 1990). It seems that although schools have a role in education for disaster safety, there may be limitations to this role.
Lifelong learning has an important role to play in safety, as a means to awareness raising, skills development, facilitation of disaster preparedness and increased capacity to respond to hazards, both human and natural. Despite the importance of lifelong education in disaster safety the task of providing education for safe living was too often considered to be a matter of elementary and secondary school programs (Strasser, Aaron and Bohn, 1981, p.427).
To Candy (1991: p.15), self-directed learning shares a reciprocal relationship with lifelong learning. Lifelong learning has a principal aim of equipping people to continue their own self-education beyond formal schooling, while self-directed learning is “one of the most common ways in which adults pursue learning throughout their lifespan, as well as being a way in which people supplement (and at times substitute for) learning received in formal settings” (Candy, 1991, p.15).
In early research, there was a tendency to emphasise the role of instruction in the education process, and an assumption of an educator-centred approach to the process
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(e.g. Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983; Boughton, 1990). However, as has been discussed, public learning about disaster safety may often not involve the immediate guidance of an external educator. The absence of an instructor for a majority of learning for disaster safety would explain why Mileti and Fitzpatrick (1992) argued that the learner searching for information is an important part of the process between perceiving a risk and action. This searching aspect of self-directed learning could mean that public learning for disaster safety includes an information searching aspect, which has not been salient in research about experiences of adults in formal education (cf. Saljo, 1979; Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty, 1993).
2.4.4 Media and Public Education
A range of groups including government departments and agencies, private sector agencies, community providers, formal educational institutions and labour market organisations provide public education formally and otherwise (AAACE, 1991; Whyte and Crombie, 1995). Government agencies assume their public education role in a variety of ways including provision of education officers for public meetings, managing education campaigns and evaluation. Private agencies provide a similar role. Higher education institutions have a large role in training teachers and trainers. Whyte and Crombie's (1995) assessment of the extent to which each sector contributes to public education, relative to adult basic, general interest and training / vocational is provided in Table 2-4. As the table shows, these researchers believe that government departments and agencies are the providers that concentrate most of their education efforts on public
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education, an argument that is consistent with literature from the field of disaster management.
Table 2-4
Adult Education and Training - Relationship Between Type of Education and Provider
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library (Source: Whyte and Crombie, 1995, p.97)
Just as multiple sectors provide public education, so too is education provided via a variety of media. Media for public education can include the mass media (national), secondary mass media (local), public service announcements, displays, exhibits, presentations, special events, personal contact, internal programs, audio visual services, design, consultancy and technical information, direct mail advertising, training, telephone answering services, other direct advertising, folk media, and folk network (Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983; Beech and Dake, 1992). The Internet is the
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latest media resource favourably assessed as a tool for educating individuals to enhance disaster safety (Rohrmann, 2003). New technologies such as mobile phones and wireless computers offer other new media that may be relevant to public education efforts. Each media has different strengths and weaknesses related to its intended audience, cost effectiveness, time required, and audience response (Beech and Dake, 1992).
According to Silvani (1992), mass education is less effective than formal education but allows access to a wide audience when providing basic information. Mileti and Fitzpatrick (1992) in a study of earthquake communication risk in California concluded that risk communication about an earthquake prediction was effective because of its multimedia approach; delivering multiple messages through multiple channels from multiple sources, reinforced the risk and need for action.
Mass education for safety historically often took place in the form of a campaign. Often the justifications for this were time, financial and access constraints. Arguably, the dominant belief that expert instructors can influence behaviour in ways that mitigate disasters and increase safety was prevalent and the focus was therefore merely upon reaching as wide an audience as possible for the purpose of awareness raising. As such, public education has a legacy of linkage to mass media approaches. According to Wenger (1985), education campaigns frequently employed many types of instruction, and included the use of the electronic and print press, public and private agencies, and community groups.
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As part of efforts towards reaching a wide audience, disaster agencies have a history of developing many print and video materials in house. For example, fridge magnets and brochures have long been distributed to the public by disaster agencies with the intent of disseminating disaster preparation information to the public. Rohrmann (2000) evaluated the effectiveness of print and video media used for bushfire preparedness in Australia and conditionally supported the utility of educational videos and pamphlets as an educational form. Approaching the research from a primarily physical hazards perspective, Rohrmann indicated that demonstrations of hazards need to be complemented with practical guidance and recommendations to substantiate harsh reality and emotional while ensuring the viewer realises the event can be survived.
With the advent and subsequent everyday usage of electronic media, especially television and radio, the nature of public education was dramatically altered. Research tends to be supportive of the potential of mass media as an influence on the public’s awareness of safety and disasters are complex. Wenger (1985) believed that the mass communications media, particularly commercial television and radio stations, were extremely effective avenues for public education. Similarly, Drabek (1986) believed that hazard media awareness releases were effective in improving public awareness of disasters, while Stevenson (1981) argued that news bulletins raised the profile and operating budgets of emergency preparedness agencies. Wenger (1985), in a survey of over a thousand residents in flood, hurricane and tornado prone communities in the United States of America, found 60-75% of people reported that the media was a major source of disaster information. According to Clover (1996), the media is a primary
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source of education for adults not enrolled in formal education programs. Similarly, Laube and Murphy (1985) reported that the media was a major source of information about disasters and had a large influence on human response. According to Rattien (1996), there is a need for, and potentially great benefit, including humanitarian benefit from linking the media with disaster safety efforts, including public education and awareness activities.
However, delineation exists between information that is controlled by centralised disaster agencies and information developed by the independent news and entertainment industry with their own agenda. The independent media is recognised as being able to “make a big impression on public views and actions” (Mattingly, 1999, p.135). While some evidence suggests that the media is potentially a great asset for public education about disasters, evidence suggests that the role of the media in information dissemination is potentially more harmful than beneficial. Robinson and Levy (1986) argued that the media industry arguably help construct the concept of disaster, with public awareness and understanding often highly similar to the media's presentation of reality. Spencer and Laska (1990) argued that people respond to the media's construction of reality rather than to the hazard itself. This has been of concern to some researchers because it appears that the media will often select information for the public, not on the criterion of education or awareness, but on the criterion of entertainment value. The media often arguably perpetuates myths about disaster, such as the myths of panic, antisocial behaviour and public dependency (Dynes, 1970; Quarantelli, 1954; Mattingly, 1999; Quarantelli and Dynes, 1962; Wenger, Dykes, Sebok and Neff, 1975). The media
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can also provide predictions of disasters without rational basis and spread rumours (Mattingly, 1999). Commercial motivations arguably generate infotainment rather than information with less emphasis on accuracy and education and more upon sensation. Similarly, Clover (1996) suggested the main problem with information obtained by the public from the media was that it was often over-simplistic, distorted or confusing. False preconceptions about risks and safety can negatively influence subsequent decisionmaking about risk (Slovic, Fischoff and Lichtenstein, 1987).
It appears that a distinction needs to be made between public education and other forms of communication that utilise mass media. Though disaster management agencies use the mass media they are not part of the entertainment industry that also use the mass media. The goal of entertainment can seriously undermine the educational value of many public education efforts, as can other goals of publicity, advertising and marketing. The relationship between education and communication is a significant one, because while public education efforts include communication through certain media, it is important to note that only a small part of media communication is for the primary purpose of education. This relationship reveals that the boundary around “education” is not always clear when it comes to learning concerning societal issues.
Recently, research efforts concerning public education and mass media education campaigns seem to have reduced. This may possibly be because the mass media aspect of public education has been subsumed within marketing research. It may also be because there has been greater focus upon strategic rather than blanket resource
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allocation in disaster management (Crondstedt, 2002) and this has translated into a dramatic shift away from the rhetoric of mass education to that of targeted education. Further, the term “public education” may have lost some favour. Despite research priorities or fields of activity or favour, the use of mass education, including television and radio exposure via external media companies and publication of pamphlets and booklets (e.g. EMA, 2003b) remain popular means of educating the public.
2.4.5 Research Regarding the Goals of Public Education
From a comprehensive PPRR disaster management perspective, public education has been generally considered to be part of the preparedness aspect of disaster management and to be important for both prevention and intervention stages of disasters (Lystad, 1988). Within the PPRR model it is possible to differentiate public education from education occurring during an actual disaster or emergency because the latter has an immediate focus upon issuing warnings about a disaster in progress (Australian Natural Disasters Organisation, 1989). Similarly, Larson (1987) reported that information requirements differ across the stages of a disaster, with attempts to increase public understanding of aspects of disaster occurring in the pre-disaster hazard preparedness and reduction phase, and any subsequent prediction or warning phase potentially presupposing such knowledge.
A number of goals of public education can be located in the literature despite theoretical slippage between the idea of public education as a goal and as a process, similar to the
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theoretical slippage Candy (1991) associated with the concept of self-directed learning. Back in 1972, Thygerson reported that the education process was instructional, with a goal of allowing the public to master safety knowledge allowing them to follow constructive lines of behaviour. He believed the purpose of safety education was to assist people to lead productive and effective lives through development of safety concepts. He reported that “the task of safety educators is to identify those truths or concepts that will lead toward the goal of accident loss reduction for effective living” (Thygerson (1972, 96). According to Boughton (1990), the goals of public education were awareness shaping, attitude formation and action planning. The Australian Counter Disaster College (1983) identified a mixture of goals and processes of public education including the reduction of ignorance about the nature and consequences of hazards, the increase of knowledge about practical preparedness measures, the development of practical skills to improve response, the provision of prerequisite knowledge about what a warning is and how to respond, the gaining of support for disaster planning and management and the countering of fatalism about disasters. Silvani (1992) believed education should have a political goal of demanding individual acceptance of major responsibility for one's own safety while keeping the public informed of risks and of ways to avoid risks. To Berry and King (1999) goals of targeted education include increasing self-reliance during a disaster and reducing vulnerability through increasing preparation, awareness and response to warnings. While the preceding researchers proposed a number of goals for public education, Wilson (1990, p.60) alternatively suggested that some disaster managers ambivalently viewed the education process as simply “making the public follow our instructions”.
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2.5 PUBLIC EDUCATION PROCESSES Having just focused upon public education and learning as part of the education process, this section now focuses upon research that has attempted to account for the actual means by which public education for disaster mitigation is able to increase the safety of the learner.
2.5.1 The Failure of Quantitative Research to Link Education and Behaviour
A number of researchers have attempted to explain the way that public education is able to increase the safety of the learner. Before the IDNDR, in alignment with mechanistic explanations of behaviour in favour in psychology at the time, researchers primarily focused on the gaining of knowledge, the gaining of experience or the shifting of attitudes (Boughton, 1990; Sims and Baumann, 1983). While research based on all three processes has been less than fruitful (Sims and Baumann, 1983), it is important to consider what research took place, why it has been characterised by ambiguous and contradictory findings, and subsequent accounts of public education.
First, attempts have been made to link public education and the raising of public awareness. As far back as 1954, Hyman and Sheatsley studied why information campaigns fail and concluded that increasing the amount of available information does not lead to an increase in public knowledge. Since this time, there has been insufficient evidence produced to counter this conclusion. Sims and Baumann (1983) reviewed
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almost thirty relevant disaster education studies including several studies that measured the effect that distributing information to the public had upon their subsequent level of knowledge about safety or behaviour in the same regard. While a few of the reviewed studies found a tentative relationship between the provision of information and knowledge or behaviour, many did not. Sims and Baumann concluded that a causal link between provision of information, awareness and behaviour, though appealing, was insupportable on either rational or empirical grounds. They also concluded that many falsely assume that when it comes to public education for disaster “if the public but knows the facts it will act wisely” (p.167). The conclusion by Sims and Baumann (1983) echoed the research findings of Miletti, Drabek and Haas (1975) and Saarinen (1979), who had also reviewed numerous studies, with the majority failing to link education, awareness and behaviour deemed appropriate for disaster safety. Similarly, Handmer (1985) argued that there is no evidence that attitudes or behaviour associated with risk will change as a direct result of receiving information. Such a finding was comparable with that existing in the larger social science literature, including the field of environmental science (Hungerford & Volk, 1990).
Overall, evidence for a causal link between hazard awareness and behaviour was found to be minimal (Sims and Baumann, 1983). Given that research has produced mixed results, with many studies finding no relationship between provision of information and subsequent behaviour, it would appear that the relationship between education, awareness and behaviour is, at best, either complex or indirect. Despite evidence of the failure of this approach in explaining safety behaviour, a number of researchers, for
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example Boughton (1990) and Hodgkinson and Stewart (1991) still advocated the distribution of information to the public as a cost effective means of reaching the widest possible audience. Of course, this raises the issue that it is difficult for a process to be cost effective if it produces a negligible tangible benefit or outcome.
Some researchers have linked education efforts and safety behaviour with practical experience. In terms of this linkage, Sims and Baumann (1983) reported only sporadic and conditional support for the thesis that beneficial learning can come from experience of a disaster. For example, by this argument, an individual having experienced a cyclone is better prepared for a cyclone in the future. Experiential learning is strongly inductive and may require many experiences for learning to occur, but the infrequency of individual experience of disasters means that experience is typically limited or biased, not providing a sufficient basis for learning (Saarinen, 1979; Morren, 1983). There is also anecdotal evidence that experience does not ensure sufficient learning to modify future behaviour. Other research has revealed that even if experience of a disaster results in individuals being better prepared for similar disasters (Lustig and Haeusler, 1989), as new individuals move to a community, the experience is dissipated and preparedness declines (Lustig and Maher, 1997). As such, there may be a need for ongoing education programs to compensate for diminishing levels of public experience between successive events. This is especially the case when events or hazards are infrequently experienced, such as with tsunamis (Bernard, 1999). It appears that the sporadic nature of disasters may deny the benefits of experience, and make irrelevant theories such as Kolb's
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Experiential Learning Cycle (in Fox, 1989), whereby adult disaster learning would involve social interaction and people acting on and reacting to the environment.
Attitude formation has also been an unsuccessful avenue for disaster public education research. An attitude has been defined as the amount of affect for or against an object, predisposing an individual to react positively or negatively (Burns, 1990; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum, 1957). In a summary of attitudinal research, Olson and Zanna (1993) identified three components of attitudes agreed on by most attitudinal theorists: (1) attitudes form when an individual responds to an entity in an evaluative way, predisposing future evaluations when the entity is later encountered; (2) attitudes exert influence over time; and (3) the antecedents and consequences of attitudes can be differentiated as affective, cognitive or behavioural. As attitudes are hypothetical constructs, the understanding of their actual nature is dependent on inferences based on the antecedents and consequences of their expression (McCroskey, Larson and Knapp, 1971).
The typical purpose of measuring attitudes is to interpret and / or predict behaviour, so the utility of the construct of attitude rests on an assumption that attitudes influence behaviours (Olson and Zanna, 1993). The problem for attitudinal theory is that links between attitudes and behaviour are not always easily made, though behaviour is typically considered a consequence of attitudes (Burns, 1990). For example, attitudinal researchers may interpret failure to respond to a disaster warning as a behavioural outcome of negative attitudes to the message.
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Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) proposed that attitudes and subjective norms about actions combine to influence behavioural intentions, which then determine volitional behaviours. This theory of reasoned action has been described as the dominant theoretical framework in the attitude-behaviour literature (Olson and Zanna, 1993). In 1985, Ajzen however adapted this original theory to form the theory of planned behaviour. He added the element of perceived behavioural control as a predictor of behavioural intention, analogous to a social learning concept of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977). It focused upon a person's perception of his or her control over his or her behaviour.
Despite such developments, evidence for a relationship between attitudes and behaviour is less than compelling. As far back as 1983 Sims and Baumann reported that there was no evidence that could justify the claim that attitude change was the vehicle by which public education activities could lead to learning that in turn would alter behaviour. Handmer (1979) also found no relationship between attitudes and behaviour. As Ericksen (1976), reporting on education about floods, stated: It is hard to change the attitudes and beliefs of people because information on a single issue - such as flood hazard - competes with a whole cluster of beliefs and attitudes that form the overall viewpoint of an individual.
More recently, Paton & Johnston (2001) and Enders (2001) made a similar argument that the literature still shows that the link between information provision and behaviour is uncertain and tenuous within their summations of current findings into public education and risk communication.
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2.5.2 Beyond Awareness Raising, Experience and Attitudes
A raising of awareness, attitudinal change and increased experience are still referenced without elaboration as to how or why these processes will achieve a desired address of disaster safety; presumably on the basis that they have become embedded within the rhetoric and practice of disaster management. Given that researchers such as Sims and Baumann (1983) and Paton and Johnston (2001) suggest the link between information provision and behaviour is uncertain and tenuous, this is perhaps not a fruitful exercise. It would appear that many practitioners might either not be aware of research highlighting the failings of public education or worse may have a serendipitous attitude towards the process. Arguably, this merely perpetuates inefficiencies in public education processes. As Paton and Johnston (1999, p.270) point out: Care must be taken with regard to assuming that the provision of information on hazards or risk will facilitate the adoption of preventive measures. The information-action link assumes that recipients automatically assimilate, comprehend and utilise information in forming and following action plans. This assumption is often unjustified.
A failure of previous research efforts to explain the benefits of public education in terms of awareness raising, gain of practical experience or attitudinal change in the learner leads to a significant question: What must public education address if it is to be effective? Implicit within the focus of work by various researchers are at least four quite different solutions to this question: (1) Attempts to develop alternate or more sophisticated causal or predictive models;
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(2) A shift to educational models with a social or managerial emphasis – risk, negotiation, partnership and away from psychological models; (3) Attention to ignorance; and (4) Shift in focus from quantity of information or causality of behaviour to a consideration of shifting the understanding of the learner.
The first solution to this problem includes the search for alternative and more predictive explanations of the relationship between education efforts and behaviours. Increasingly complex models of behaviour have been produced in attempts to salvage mechanistic and causal models as a basis for explaining behaviour and hence suggesting processes by which public education may produce desired outcomes.
In the field of public health education, Bennett and Murphy (1997) developed a model of risk perception and risk reducing behaviour based on social learning theory (Bandura, 1977, 1997). Factors included action-outcome expectations of whether risk may be reduced and self-efficacy of whether the individual believes he or she is capable of undertaking the necessary safety actions. Outcome expectations precede efficacy judgments. A copy of the model is provided as Figure 2-4. The researchers found a link between self-efficacy and effort and perseverance individuals expend concerning risk reduction behaviours. According to Paton and Johnston’s (2001) article, giving a summation of the research of Tobin (1999), Bachrach and Zautra (1985), Millar, Paton and Johnston (1999) and Yates, Axsom and Tiedeman (1999), this behaviour is better
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sustained by the social and structural environment of a social learning basis of education integrated with a community-centric development process.
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 2-4
Bennett and Murphy (1997)’s Model of Risk Perception to Risk Reduction Behaviour Process
As another example of an increasingly complex account of behaviour, Hines, Hungerford and Tomera (1987), in a meta-analysis of 128 environmental studies, reported that responsible environmental behaviour was determined by situational factors and intention to act, the latter determined by action skills, knowledge of action strategies, knowledge of issues and personality factors. It would seem that the inclusion
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of situational factors and the increasing complexity of models over time has occurred because attitudes alone have not been shown to predict subsequent behaviour.
In the field of disaster education, these first two solutions overlap to some extent and many research efforts combine both of these solutions to varying extents. Attempts have been made to improve prediction via more sophisticated or elaborate models. Often these models have integrated the concept of risk with educational processes such as awareness raising, attitude change and experience. Such models represent a new strand of what could be termed “eclectic modelling” where factors of psychology, education and / or sociology are integrated into models incorporating the possibility of many such factors that encompass public address of personal safety in relation to disasters.
Research into beliefs about self-knowledge by Ballantyne, Paton, Johnston, Kozuch and Daly (2000) found an over-estimation of self-knowledge of safety information which may mean these people feel overconfident and less in need of attending to safety education.
Enders (2001) proposed a holistic framework for an investigation of awareness and preparedness in an emergency or disaster safety context. According to Enders (2001, p.54) framework, six factors (i.e. hazard knowledge, attitudes to risk, previous experience of emergencies, exposure to awareness raising, ability to mitigate / prepare respond and demographic characteristics) are potential factors in risk perception surrounding knowledge and beliefs that are, in turn, determinants for the outcome of
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emergency risk behaviours and intentions. Figure 2-5 presents this framework diagrammatically. Enders (2001, p.52) stated her belief that “essentially, the task of increasing community preparedness for emergencies is one of effecting behaviour change”.
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 2-5
Enders’s (2001) Framework for Investigating Emergency Awareness and Preparedness
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Another researcher, Rohrmann (1998), proposed a framework for the communication of risk wherein the decision of members of the public to undertake risk-reducing behaviours included factors of the message being communicated, prior attitudes, personal characteristics and contextual factors. Rohrmann’s framework is presented diagrammatically in Figure 2-6.
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 2-6
Rohrmann’s (1998) Risk Communication Framework
Similarly, Rhodes and Reinholdt (1999) developed a preparation for hazard safety model that emphasised the role of all of knowledge, perceptions, expectations and other
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factors in preparation for safety. A copy of this model is reproduced in diagrammatic form as Figure 2-7.
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 2-7
Rhodes and Reinholdt (1999) Preparation for Hazard Safety Model
This new generation of eclectic models reveals a developing focus within the field upon the idea that many factors beyond delivering a message alone are important if the intention is to modify behaviour and that simple causative models are not sufficiently predictive. The knowledge that individuals have about safety and risk and the actions they take in such regard are complex. These complexities extend beyond education and entwine with other contextual social factors (Enders, 2001; Rohrmann, 1998). To Enders
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(2001), the appropriate course of action is to identify all factors influencing safety related behaviour. As Enders (2001, p.54) stated: This will enable analysis to go beyond correlating exposure to public education campaigns with behaviours (real and intended) to correlating all change items with behaviours. This is a more holistic (and therefore appropriate) analysis of the emergency awareness and preparedness issue.
The third and in some ways most innovative response to the question ‘What must public education address if it is to be effective?’ sees a shift in attention away from attempting to explain how knowledge is gained to why it is not always gained. This research has focused on the idea of ignorance. Back in 1964, Burton and Kates suggested that a failure of any individual to perceive a hazard was a function of ignorance that had progressed during this century as human contact with the environment, and hence knowledge about, their environment had diminished. More recently, Smithson (1989) further developed this idea of ignorance to account for why a tenuous and contradictory relationship between education and subsequent behaviour exists. To Smithson, ignorance emerges from error, which relates to scientific accounts of why knowledge may be incomplete or inaccurate, and from irrelevance (See Figure 2-8). He argued that throughout the 20th Century it was axiomatic that absolute knowledge is attainable and desirable, which resulted in people seeking to avoid or account for uncertainty. Yet the increasing amount of information in society means that processing abilities are frequently exceeded, resulting in gaps in understanding being present. According to Smithson’s argument, that which is considered as fact in hazard and risk assessment is instead largely based in intuition and a socially negotiated consensus. Likewise, that which is not accepted as knowledge, or, in other words, counts as ignorance, is also
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socially negotiated. Within the framework of Smithson's taxonomy, previous efforts to explain learning in terms of information, experience and attitudes, may help contribute to ignorance about disaster safety by reducing the focus of research and practice in a way that increases the error or irrelevance of knowledge. By such an account, the more comprehensive and exploratory of the eclectic approaches being developed by researchers such as Enders (2001) may well help determine future areas of social consensus concerning disaster preparedness.
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 2-8
Smithson's (1989, p.7) Taxonomy of Ignorance
Since the failure of reductionist research efforts to explain public education in a disaster context, the research field has not progressed in any substantial way or pursued a new direction or focus. Environmental and adult educations offer several research directions other than reductionism that may be relevant for disaster education. In particular, holism offers a philosophical alternative to mechanism, being a consideration of the totality, avoiding reductionist investigation of parts of systems that distort understanding of the
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whole (Merchant, 1980). Gough (1997) highlights that holism accesses and values all information and personal experience, with curriculum based upon dialogue between the educator and the student. The United Nations (UNESCO, 1978) emphasised the significance of a holistic and inter-disciplinary approach to environmental education. Brown and Evans (1977) highlighted that a holistic approach allows for the consideration of modes of experience beyond those considered to belong within any particular disciplinary paradigm. For many years, a number of researchers have argued that cognitive and affective factors are inseparable and best approached holistically within the teacher and learner process (e.g. Dewey, 1933; Eiss and Harbeck, 1969). However, such an approach is conspicuous by its absence from research about public education for disaster safety.
Therefore, the literature shows that early mechanistic models failed to link single attributes with subsequent behaviour causally and hence account for the education process. Eclectic, complex models offer some insight, albeit at the expense of simplicity of explanation. Further, the de-emphasis of causal relationships and the redefinition of education in a broader context of communication and risk suggest other directions. The concepts of ignorance and holism offer even further possible directions. Still, the emphasis upon knowledge, attitudes or behaviours as quantifiable commodities that can be delivered remains a common theme. This leads to the fourth account of what public education must address if it is to be successful and shifts emphasis towards learning as a qualitative shift in understanding.
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2.5.3 Towards a Qualitative Understanding of Public Education
Efforts to understand education and its constituents of teaching and learning about disaster safety have revolved around awareness raising, gain in experience, attitude change and contextual factors. However, many other educational and psychological theories proffer insight that could be applied to understanding the potential place of education in any or all of disaster prevention, preparation, resilience or vulnerability. For example, there have long been adherents to a number of more popular and established theories variously theorising that adult learners in the community expect respect and recognition (Knowles, 1970, 1984), want practical solutions to real problems (Dewey, 1981), can be motivated by the possibility of fulfilling needs (Maslow, 1970), and, can make decisions independently and control their own development (Freire, 1972). More recently, many other educational theories have offered other avenues of insight. Numerous psychological and philosophical theories offer ontological and epistemological stances, each with implications for the way in which education or learning might take place. The difficulty is that there has been an explosion of such theories over recent decades, and, each theory has managed to accumulate positivist research support, which is curious given that there are numerous contradictions and inconsistencies between such theories.
Addressing the sheer volume of philosophical, psychological and educational theories that are relevant to learning is not the intention of this review. Instead, it is considered sufficient to acknowledge that many examples of other such research exist. Rather than
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pursuing this aspect further, attention is directed to Candy's (1991) pertinent observation that most research on learning has been dominated by four aspects: a quantitative view of knowledge, a behaviouristic or neo-behaviouristic view of people, a prioritising of the view of the researcher over that of the learner, and the undertaking of research in artificial or laboratory settings. After acknowledging this dominant direction of research on learning, Candy (1991, p.250) pointed out that Saljo's (1979) research, which has since been labelled as phenomenographic, represented a major departure from other research on learning, and made “one of the most original contributions to a changed understanding of learning”.
In 1978, Saljo (1979) interviewed Swedish university students, asking them ‘What do you actually mean by learning?’. Saljo, in this study, which is widely regarded as one of the first landmark phenomenographic studies, viewed learning as a qualitative transformation of understanding rather than a quantitative accumulation of information. Saljo's research identified five qualitatively different ways in which learning can be experienced: learning as the increase of knowledge; learning as memorising; learning as the acquisition of facts, procedures, and so on that can be retained and/or utilised in practice; learning as the abstraction of meaning; and learning as an interpretative process aimed at understanding reality. Noteworthy to Saljo was a qualitative shift in ways of experiencing learning from viewing knowledge as something external demanding mastering to something constructed internally.
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Other research has replicated Saljo's (1979) findings on several occasions (Van Rossum and Schenk, 1984; Giorgi, 1986; Marton and Ramsden, 1988, in particular). Pramling (1988) revealed two aspects of learning held by Swedish children aged 3 to 8: what is learned and how it is learned. Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty (1993), in a longitudinal study of undergraduate university students’ conceptions of learning, reported finding five conceptions of learning that were largely similar to those Saljo found. These five conceptions were: increasing one's knowledge; memorising and reproducing; applying; understanding; and, seeing something in a different way. They also reported a sixth conception - changing as a person - and argued it was a more sophisticated interpretation of learning than the other five. These researchers attributed the uncovering of this additional category of meaning, along with a finding that conceptions of learning included a skill component, to addressing both the structural and referential aspect of the phenomena of learning.
To Marton (1988b), viewing learning as a qualitative shift in understanding or experience could explain why it was possible for people to acquire a large body of knowledge about the world and the skills and processes for dealing with the world, but to continue to think about the world as they always had. With this in mind, Marton (1988b) proposed three ways in which learning and education are improvable. First, educational systems can be built to match valued learning. As Marton (1983, p.302) said: If we believe that the aim of education is qualitatively to change and improve the participants' way of apprehending their reality, we should judge and promote learning in accordance with this aim. Radical changes in thinking due to learning certainly presuppose radical changes in thinking about learning.
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Second, provision of guidance through instruction can help students achieve the expected values of learning. Marton suggested this is achievable through bringing about a change in how a phenomenon is delimited in order to bring about a change in the meaning of the phenomenon as understood by the learner. Third, educators could help learners to realise there are multiple ways of thinking of, and approaching, their learning, to both enhance experience of the particular learning task, and to learn to learn. According to Ashworth and Lucus (2000), the benefit of phenomenographic research being increasingly recognised is that is that “it may be possible to alter teaching and learning in order to improve the quality of learning outcomes”. Prosser and Trigwell (1999) pointed out that in the area of formal higher education the benefits of phenomenographic research have extended beyond scholarly discussion of teaching and learning to practical national reforms.
A view of learning as an interpretative process aimed at understanding reality bears some similarity to Kelly's (1970) Personal Construct Theory of Learning, by which individuals construct their own knowledge of the world and understanding of it. Similarly, Candy (1991, p.251) drew a comparison between Saljo's (1979) fifth interpretation of learning – seeing something in a different way - and the constructivist paradigm: This shift in perspective, from viewing knowledge as something external to be 'mastered' to an internal construction or an attempt to impose meaning and significance on events and ideas lies at the heart of what has been called the constructivist paradigm. In this view, learners are not passive beings responding to "stimuli," and learning is not merely the appropriation of previously devised
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labels and categories. Instead learning is an active process of constructing meaning and transforming understanding.
Constructivism is a paradigm and not any particular theory. Within the constructivist conceptual framework, learners construe their own particular reality and then act according to this reality as if it is external to them. Thus, Stock (1996), accepting this constructivist view, argued that the imposition of learning goals will only achieve limited success if they fail to contribute to this process of personal construction. Within such a paradigm, the public become individual learners with their own reality that encompasses a reality of disasters and associated issues such as risk that guide their behaviour in ways that could be considered by disaster managers as contributing or not to personal safety.
Koballa Jr., Graber, Coleman and Kemp (2000) used a phenomenographic framework when they interviewed prospective teachers at a German university to identify conceptions of learning and teaching chemistry. These researchers identified chemistry learning as variously conceptualised as knowledge gaining, problem-solving and constructing personal understandings. Chemistry teaching was variously conceptualised as knowledge transferral, posing of problems, and interacting with pupils. The researchers found that mostly learning was understood as a process of knowledge reproduction rather than construction, with chemistry teaching mainly viewed as a process of facilitating reproductive learning.
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Phenomenography has revealed that learning about, or experience of, a phenomenon can qualitatively vary, the structure of this variation often relating to the extent to which the learner adopts external knowledge or constructs his or her own. This aspect of phenomenography can shed light in two ways of major relevance to this thesis. The first is the insight that ways the public experience phenomena such as risk, safety and disaster varies, and that learning can shift these qualitative understandings. This has implications for how educating the public works and can be improved. This offers the fourth account (from the previous section) as to how educating the public can actually lead to outcomes associated with improved safety: via qualitatively shifting the public’s understanding of disasters and associated concepts such that this leads to outcomes that ultimately increase public safety.
The second insight afforded by awareness that experience of a phenomenon can qualitatively vary is gained when we shift our attention away from how the public learn in regard to disasters, risk and safety and focus back upon the role of disaster managers in the education process. Disaster managers and educators have learning and experience of public education and this arguably has an influence upon how disaster managers perform public education, and, as such, how it emerges in disaster management practice. Qualitative shifts in ways that disaster managers and educators understand public education are also achievable. At this stage, no research has attempted to look at qualitatively different ways disaster managers and educators concerned with disaster mitigation experience public education. The insights from the work of previous phenomenographers have some relevance, but relate to learning and education in a
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formal context with external guidance. This thesis is concerned with addressing this particular omission in the literature.
----o----o----o----
2.6 SUPPORT FOR AN INTERPRETATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION The preceding literature review chronicles rapid change to knowledge about disasters, practice of disaster management, meaning ascribed to the public, learning and education theory, priorities and practice of disaster education. Less than two decades ago, disasters were understood primarily as physical phenomena. Based on this understanding, the solution to disasters was often presumed to reside in technology. Since this time, a social view of disasters has emerged in the rhetoric, accompanied by calls to shift emphasis in addressing disasters away from technological and towards social solutions (e.g. Hewitt, 1983, 1998; Quarantelli, 1991, 1998; Smith, 1996) with education prioritised as a major means of achieving safety. At the same time, a broader view of education emerged more responsive to the multiple and complex settings and processes associated with learning and instruction which take place beyond the formal setting (Raggatt, Edwards and Small, 1996). During this time, the idea of community has filtered into discussion about public education for disaster safety, and disaster management has altered in some ways but also remained patriarchal and bureaucratic (Wraith, 1997).
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Political circumstance, bureaucracy, history and internal and foreign policy concerns have resulted in differences between countries concerning the application of public education and disaster management. In an editorial synopsis, Aquirre (2002, 1-2) praised Australia’s “relatively high effectiveness of disaster programs” and highlighted “innovations taking place in Australian thinking about disasters, in what constitutes an enviable perspective if compared with other countries’ efforts to mitigate disaster losses.” He continued on to imply that the U.S. had emphasised military solutions over the tenets of engaging citizenry and local participation that had their genesis in that country. Within that same journal edition, Norman and Coles (2002) lamented a lack of effective disaster management, planning and research in England and Wales due to stifling bureaucracy. It is in this context of innovations and paradigms of disaster and disaster management challenging previously dominant philosophies, values and practices that public education for disaster management has occurred in Australia. The innovation within modern Australian disaster management practice suggests a potential wealth of experiences of public education.
The literature review in this chapter has shown education as understood and experienced in disaster management to be a complex phenomenon. This complexity has become apparent via an exploration of other interlinked phenomena such as risk, disaster, and disaster management. This literature review does not define what public education is. The review shows that what constitutes education is unclear and overlaps with other concepts and agendas including marketing, self-development, awareness-raising and political negotiation. The literature also supports the argument that education enhances
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the knowledge or skills of individuals and that it is possible to have different levels of quality when it comes to education and that some educational approaches may be more successful than others in supporting learning goals either overall or in particular instances. The literature review also provides a powerful argument that education of the public is likely to be understood, experienced and applied in qualitatively different ways by different individuals. As such, this literature review is not only a comprehensive summary of relevant research but also justifies the phenomenographic research study that is introduced in the following chapters.
The failure of previous research to account for the complexity of public education brought about by recent challenges to knowledge underlying public education and learning for disaster safety suggested the need for research able to accommodate a diversity of interpretations. The recent success of phenomenography as a means to uncover qualitatively different ways of experiencing phenomena motivated the present research.
Following a discussion of the research paradigm in which the research is located, the next chapter will introduce phenomenography and demonstrate its relevance to the current research issue.
----o----o----o----
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CHAPTER THREE: THE RESEARCH APPROACH ----o----o----o---What we want to thematize [sic]... is the complex of possible ways of viewing various aspects of the world, the aggregate of basic conceptions underlying not only different, but even alternative and contradictory forms of propositional knowledge, irrespective of whether these forms are deemed right or wrong. (Marton, 1981, p.197) ----o----o----o----
3.0 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH APPROACH Phenomenography was the research approach chosen to address the research problem central to this thesis: Describe the limited number of qualitatively different ways of experiencing the phenomenon of “public education” as experienced by senior Australian disaster managers and disaster educators who have been active in the promotion of public education.
Phenomenography is an idiosyncratic qualitative research approach that is particularly effective as a means of uncovering and representing qualitative variation in ways of experiencing a phenomenon within a group of people (Marton, 1988a; Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard & Marton, 1993). Uncovering and representing such variation in experiencing is the commonality within all phenomenographic research.
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There are two pertinent issues concerning the presentation of research based on a phenomenographic approach. Firstly, phenomenography has only had a relatively brief history when compared with other research approaches, having emerged in the 1970s, and gaining focus during the early 1980s (cf. Marton, 1981). The relative newness of phenomenography results in a relative lack of knowledge of the research approach in the broader research community necessitating a comprehensive explanation of the research approach and design to ensure the research process is understood. Secondly, phenomenography is a qualitative research approach closely associated with, but not fully situated within, the interpretativist research paradigm, yet with outcomes echoing those of the positivist paradigm. The linkage with both positivist and interpretivist research paradigms necessitates a comprehensive account of the research approach to allow the research to be evaluated as meritorious, trustworthy and of integrity.
This chapter contextualises the phenomenographic approach used in this thesis in terms of
research
paradigms
then
explores
the
tenets
and
assumptions
of
the
phenomenographic approach. This information is prerequisite to appreciation of Chapter Four that details the design of the study.
3.1 THE RESEARCH PARADIGM 3.1.1 Research Paradigms
A research study is best served through reflection upon the underlying paradigm that influences epistemological (nature of knowledge), ontological (nature of reality) and
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methodological (creation of knowledge) interpretations and choices (Cohen and Manion, 1989; Guba, 1990; Guba and Lincoln, 1994). The paradigm that legitimises the method also constrains it, with underlying assumptions predetermining the appropriateness of the research topic, research questions and, even the research outcome (Robottom and Hart, 1993).
Kuhn's (1970) popular account of paradigms and scientific revolutions provides a way to understand the simultaneous existence of positivist, interpretativist and emancipatory schools of research despite the incompatibility of many of their assumptions. According to Kuhn, science at any one time is dominated by a conceptual framework or paradigm that delimits parameters for normal science based on adopted laws, assumptions and techniques. Positivism, also popularly known as science, instrumentalism or technical research, was dominant in Australia and other industrialised countries in the 1950s and 1960s (Foley, 1995). Positivist research assumptions are that reality is external, and that knowledge is objective, quantifiable, generalisable and predictable (Carr and Kemmis, 1986; Lincoln and Guba, 1985). However, in education and social science, it is widely recognised that alternatives to positivism now exist. Two post-positivistic philosophies of science (Borg and Gall, 1992) most often referred to are the interpretativist, or communicative, humanist, reformist, liberal, or progressive paradigm, and the critical, or emancipatory, transformative, strategic, socially critical, liberating, radical or revolutionary paradigm (Foley, 1995; Robottom and Hart, 1993). It is debatable whether these three approaches to science are compatible or instead exist independently of each other (Guba, 1990).
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Guba and Lincoln (1994) point out that paradigms, as beliefs, cannot be proved or ranked on the basis of foundational criteria. Rather, the reader must accept the value of research based within a particular paradigm. It is recognised that different researchers value research from different paradigms differently. Research can be either dismissed as irrelevant or evaluated favourably by certain readers on the basis of the paradigm alone. As Kuhn (1970, p.109) stated about paradigms: They will inevitably talk through each other when debating the relative merits of their respective paradigms. In the partially circular arguments that regularly result, each paradigm will be shown to satisfy more or less the criteria that it dictates for itself and to fall short of a few of those dictated by its opponent.
The positivist paradigm has dominated research practice over recent decades and positivist research has therefore been valued on the basis of being normal science. But as Guba and Lincoln (1994) pointed out in a landmark account of qualitative research, there is growing recognition that the traditional, positivist approach to research has a tendency towards a number of failings inherent in its execution. These failings include the stripping of context, the exclusion of meaning and purpose, the disjunction of grand theory with local context, the inapplicability of general data to individual lives, and the exclusion of the discovery dimension from inquiry. As well as multiple failings undermining the once presumed authority of positivist research, the most contentious aspect of positivism relates to its underlying assumption that research can be both objective and reliable. This assumption has been countered against on several grounds. First, it has been argued that there is a theory-dependence of facts meaning that facts cannot be reliably or objectively separated from theories (Borg and Gall, 1992;
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Chalmers, 1976, 1990). Secondly, the possibility that singular research findings can be induced to general laws is philosophically questionable, as the transition made via induction from observation of particular incidents to establishment of general laws cannot be justified on the basis of either logic or empiricism (Chalmers, 1976, 1990; Russell, 1912). Thirdly, facts are arguably value-laden and thereby research findings are influenced by the values of the researcher (Borg and Gall, 1992; Chalmers, 1976, 1990). Fourthly, there is arguably a necessary interaction between the inquirer and the phenomena focused upon within an inquiry, obscuring the nature of reality (Chalmers, 1990; Guba and Lincoln, 1994).
Research based upon the dominant and established statistical positivist paradigm often excuses itself from the onus of accounting for research merit and trustworthiness by laying claim to an assumed legitimacy as scientific research. Much positivist research has been self-justified on the basis of being part of ‘the’ research tradition based on rigour and accountability. The onus of justifying the meaningfulness of statistical research is often considered to be achieved via delivery of statistically significant validity and reliability results. This is often regardless of the relevance or rigour of arguments leading to the generation of hypotheses or data generating those statistics, arguably due to an assumption of the legitimacy of positivist statistical significance. Qualitative research does not benefit from the kudos afforded to quantitative research on the basis of being scientific and as a result perhaps benefits from a greater attendance to the relationship between the research design and outcomes.
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As an alternative to positivist research, interpretative research has gained support in recent decades as a growing number of researchers have become aware that the ability of positivism to reveal comprehensive truth is questionable. The interpretative paradigm emerged in opposition to claims that any research can be value free, reliable and capable of predicting human behaviour (Carr and Kemmis, 1986; Fien and Hillcoat, 1996; Lincoln and Guba, 1985).
Interpretative research is founded on a set of assumptions that are substantially different to those of the positivist paradigm. Perhaps in greatest contrast to positivism, interpretativism is not founded on the scientific assumption that individual instances of research findings can be generalised to explain all similar instances in the world. Instead interpretativism assumes that all research is influenced by political and economic advantage, and that human behaviour is situation specific and too complex and idiosyncratic to be generalised or described theoretically without being incomplete or unreliable (Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Smith, 1989). Borg and Gall (1992) argue that generalisations are unlikely to be fruitful in educational research because social behaviour is unlikely to follow general laws across settings and time periods. From an interpretative viewpoint, research is acknowledged as being both value laden and value constituting (Carr and Kemmis, 1986; Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Lather, 1986; Lincoln and Guba, 1985). In assuming that values and knowledge are inseparable within social science, it follows that interpretative research seeks to understand reality in a social context (Cantrell, 1993).
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There are several other assumptions that must be acknowledged when using the interpretative paradigm. Ontological assumptions are that reality is multiple, constructed through human interaction, holistic and divergent (Cantrell, 1993; Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Schwandt, 1994). Epistemological assumptions are that knowledge requires interpretation, is influenced by and mutually shapes social context, is such that people see the world differently, and is socially constructed (Foley, 1995; Cantrell, 1993; Schwandt, 1994). Methodological assumptions are threefold: that the relationship between the investigator and the phenomenon being investigated is transactional and subjective; that constructions are most effectively interpreted using hermeneutical techniques; and that constructions are constructed and compared through dialectical interchange, with the aim of reaching a consensus construction.
The assumed benefits of interpretative research are different from those of the positivist paradigm. Whereas positivist research seeks to generate universal laws and establish objective truth, the aim of interpretative research is to contribute to knowledge via the interpretation of people making sense of situations, and offering interpretations that "become reality to the extent that they are agreed upon" (Smith, 1989, p.171).
3.1.2 Research Paradigms and Phenomenography
It is generally agreed that phenomenography is a form of qualitative research situated primarily within the interpretative paradigm (e.g. Sandberg, 1994). Tesch (1990) located phenomenography within a “discovery of regularities” branch of a taxonomy of
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qualitative research that used a four-fold classification: language characteristics, discovery of regularities, understanding meaning, and reflection. Part of this taxonomy is reproduced as Figure 3-1.
This figure is not available online. Please consult the hardcopy thesis available from the QUT Library
Figure 3-1
Phenomenography and Similar Qualitative Approaches (Source: Tesch, 1990).
A few researchers such as Dall'Alba (1996) argue that although phenomenography is interpretativist, it differs from other interpretative research in its presentation of research findings at the collective level: a process with positivist overtones. Svensson (1997) highlighted that the analytic emphasis on explicating results in the form of categories
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and relations was appreciated by quantitative researchers but not qualitative ones, while the explorative and interpretative nature of data collection and analysis was appreciated by qualitative researchers but questioned by quantitative ones. Phenomenography generates findings potentially identifiable as generalisable yet exists within an interpretativist framework arguably incompatible with such generalisation of findings. It overcomes this seeming contradiction by its focus upon relational knowledge from a second-order perspective that is discussed later.
Phenomenography offers the possibility of generating findings that can guide others beyond the research participants themselves but via interpretation and accommodating subjectivity. Phenomenography is not a hybrid of positivism and interpretativism. Rather, phenomenography is qualitative research that is most readily situated within the interpretative research paradigm and is compatible with most interpretative assumptions. However, beyond this, phenomenography as a research approach has its own assumptions and framework (Bruce, 2003; Marton, 1996). It is an idiosyncratic form of qualitative research with a niche role of explaining ways of experiencing. As Marton (1994, p. 4424) states, phenomenography is “the empirical study of the limited number of qualitatively different ways in which various phenomena in, and aspects of, the world around us are experienced, conceptualized [sic], understood, perceived and apprehended.”
Given its idiosyncratic aspect, the particular nature of phenomenography therefore warrants consideration. The next section will explore the emergence and development of
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the phenomenographic approach to research before an actual account of the fundamental assumptions and processes that shape phenomenography.
3.2 PHENOMENOGRAPHY 3.2.1 The Origins and Evolution of Phenomenography
Phenomenography is a relatively recent form of research, the origin of which, though slightly debatable, is most often traced back to a group of researchers at Gotenborg University in Sweden at the end of the 1970s including Dahlgren (1978), Dahlgren and Marton (1978), and Marton and Saljo (1976a, 1976b). Though the term phenomenography was being used as far back as the 1950s, Ference Marton (1981) first applied the term in its modern sense in the early eighties, emphasising the value of recognising research focusing upon variation in conceptions of phenomena as a form of research in its own right. The derivatives of the term are the Greek words phainemenon and graphein meaning appearance and description respectively (Marton & Ming Fai, 1999). Phenomenography has benefited from growing attention over recent years that has progressed it rapidly since its inception. In 1994, Alexandersson (cited in Dall'Alba and Hasselgren, 1996) reported that more than 50 doctoral theses and 500 research reports had been completed using a phenomenographic approach.
Since its beginnings, phenomenography has continued to evolve, benefited by an increasing research attention placed upon it. It emerged from “a strongly empirical rather than theoretical or philosophical basis” (Åkerlind, 2002b). The 1980s was a time
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By the 1990s the increasing
popularity of phenomenography led to increasing demands by researchers such as Francis (1996) and Bowden (1996) that it be more accountable for its assumptions and processes. Some phenomenographic researchers started to become aware of divergences in how researchers approached and implemented phenomenography and for a number of researchers this was a catalyst to offer guidance as phenomenography matured into the research approach that Marton had envisaged as valued in its own right back in 1981. According to Bruce (2003, p.2) the 1990s were a period that saw a shift in research emphasis from a focus limited to variation in ways of seeing “towards a position of greater concern for theoretical frameworks that may underpin our investigations”. Further, the methodological fundamentals of phenomenography were more clearly developed and enhanced with specific guidelines.
Included amongst the many research papers contributing to or commenting upon the developing maturity in phenomenographic research are the contributions that were made by Bowden and Walsh (1994, 2000), Bruce (2003), Dall'Alba and Hasselgren (1996), Marton and Booth (1997), Bowden and Marton (1998), Prosser (1993), Trigwell (1997), and Åkerlind (2002b). These authors addressed accountability in regard to phenomenography’s epistemological and ontological foundations and increased the clarity and depth of explanation in their articulations of phenomenography’s theoretical basis. In a similar way, other phenomenographic researchers have contributed comment and suggested direction for phenomenographic research. As such, phenomenography includes core underpinnings emerging from early work by a few principal researchers
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yet has continued to evolve via adherents’ consensus and debate within the research literature.
The recent emphasis on the accountability of phenomenographic research has resulted in a degree of division amongst phenomenographers as to the future direction of phenomenography. This debate has led to phenomenography being variously described as a research orientation, approach, tool, program, methodology and specialisation (Åkerlind, 2002b; Bowden and Walsh, 1994; Bruce, 2003; Marton, 1981, 1986a; Svensson, 1997). This debate runs deeper than semantic ponderings and is focused at the very ontology, epistemology and methodology of phenomenography. Much of the debate about phenomenography is beyond the scope of this thesis. It is sufficient to acknowledge that while debate has created factional discussions on future research direction amongst phenomenographers (Hasselgren and Beach, 1997), its adherents remain unified in their conviction that phenomenography can achieve the pragmatic aim of its original tenet: to uncover and structurally represent the qualitatively different ways in which phenomena are experienced (cf. Marton, 1981).
One debated aspect of phenomenography that has generated significant discussion is its philosophical basis, or lack thereof (Hasselgren and Beach, 1997). There have been several stances that phenomenographers have taken in regard to this issue. Some researchers have sought to integrate the mechanisms of phenomenography with aspects of the ontology and epistemology of other philosophies and theoretical frameworks. For example, Sandberg (1994, 1997) and Dahlin (1994) attempted to strengthen
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phenomenography with phenomenological assumptions. Dahlin (1994) used parts of Dewey's philosophy of experience, and aspects of phenomenology as prescribed by Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger to explore the epistemology of conceptions (in Bruce, 2003). Sandberg (1994) turned to Husserl’s theory of intentionality with a similar intent. These researchers represent that faction seeking to strengthen the philosophical basis for phenomenography.
Some phenomenographers have sought to maintain phenomenography on its own merits and not felt an imperative to attach it to an existing theoretical approach. Svensson (1997) acknowledged that similarities between phenomenography and phenomenology exist, but that phenomenography was not developed from phenomenology and cannot be reduced to this, or any other philosophy or school of thought. Marton and Booth (1997, p.117) offer their delineation of phenomenography and phenomenology that explains this difference: Phenomenology aims to capture the richness of experience, the fullness of all the ways in which a person experiences and describes the phenomenon of interest. Not for the phenomenologist the sparseness of the category of description or the logical hierarchy of the outcome space that the phenomenographer so analytically derives. The phenomenologist wishes to describe the person's lifeworld, the world in which he or she is immersed and which the phenomenological methods bring to light. Whereas the phenomenologist might ask, ‘How does the person experience her world?’ the phenomenographer would ask something more like, ‘What are the critical aspects of ways of experiencing the world that make people able to handle it in more or less efficient ways?
Marton (1996) stands out for his steadfast adherence to maintaining phenomenography as a perspective in itself. At the same time, it is noteworthy that his theoretical framework for conceptions references Gurwitsch’s theory of consciousness (Bruce,
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2003). To Svensson (1997), phenomenography is not linked to any particular philosophy but has progressed as an empiricist research tradition and it is that basis that should be valued, as it has generated many fruitful and useful research outcomes.
Vigorous debate about phenomenography has not prevented a substantial and increasing number of high quality and valuable phenomenographic studies being undertaken and published by many researchers. Hasselgren and Beach (1997) pointed out that even though multiple directions for phenomenographic research exist, phenomenography remains a productive form of research. Many examples of previous phenomenographic research exist that highlight the diversity and utility of phenomenographic research. Selected examples of prior studies chosen to exemplify the diversity of issues to which phenomenography has been applied to qualitatively different ways of describing a phenomenon have included: students' interpretations of learning (Saljo, 1979; Marton, Dall'Alba & Beaty, 1993); chemistry students' conceptions of a mole (Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl & Tulberg, 1988); peoples' understandings of the origin of prices (Dahlgren, 1978); students’ conceptions of cases of physical motion (Svensson, 1989; Prosser & Miller, 1990); students' conceptions of speed, distance and time (Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton, 1993); students' conceptions of matter (Renstrom, Andersson and Marton, 1990); competence at work (Sandberg, 1994); variations in how children experience numbers (Neuman, 1987); academics’ awareness of their own growth and development (Åkerlind, 2002a); nurse graduates’ understanding of competence (Ramritu & Barnard, 2001); young people’s conceptions of environment (Petocz, 2002); secondary teachers’ conceptions of teaching and
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learning (Boulton-Lewis, Smith, McCrindle, Burnett, & Campbell, 2001); children’s perceptions of their nursery education (Evans & Fuller, 1998); women's experiences of domestic violence during the childbearing years (McCosker, Barnard & Gerber, 2003); and, teacher’s conceptions of changes in their professional practice (Larsson, 1987).
Increasing numbers of phenomenographic publications combined with recent developments and discussions have generated increased interest in the mechanisms of analyses and frameworks bearing on analyses (Bruce, 2003). Phenomenography has its own set of assumptions that Svensson (1997) argued are not about an ultimate basis for, or nature of, reality or knowledge, but instead are about the immediate nature of the phenomenon being observed: "the present understanding of the research objects rather than on beliefs concerning the unknown" (p.14). By this view, the assumptions accompanying phenomenographic research are not provided for purposes of exploring the ultimate nature of reality or knowledge, but instead are for the task of achieving a convincing description of the research object of experience. Phenomenographers have repeatedly demonstrated the success of phenomenography in attaining this more pragmatic ambition. It has been when researchers have sought to extend phenomenography's role to that of a comprehensive philosophy that some dissatisfaction has occurred. Still, such dissatisfaction is perhaps the most fertile site for future developments of phenomenography.
As repeatedly demonstrated in research, phenomenography has instrumental value in contributing to understanding phenomena in a practical and intuitively accessible form,
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and a philosophical basis sufficient for research seeking to describe ways of experiencing (Marton, 1996; Åkerlind, 2002b). When approached with this pragmatic and specific intent, and with due recognition given to the subjective nature of interpretative research, phenomenography effectively describes different ways of experiencing phenomena. Thus, this thesis will exclude any further philosophical debate as beyond the scope of the research. Instead, the nature and usage of phenomenography is now overviewed in a practical and pragmatic manner.
3.2.2 Phenomenography: Describing Different Ways of Experiencing Phenomena
In response to ongoing debate about the future direction of phenomenography, Marton (1996, p.187), emphasised that phenomenography has always been an uncomplicated approach and “simply an attempt to capture critical differences in how we experience the world and how we learn to experience the world. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Marton (1981, 1986a, 1996, for example) frequently repeats that phenomenography is concerned only with uncovering the various ways of experiencing a phenomenon, not the establishment of a basis of reality, though, admittedly, this is hard to reconcile with the grandiose nature of his statement "Cognosco ergo sum" (I experience therefore I am) (Marton, 1996, p.173). Similarly, Bowden (1996) reported that the general aim of phenomenographic research was simply to describe the major features that distinguish differing interpretations of a phenomenon by a certain group.
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By uncovering differences in ways of experiencing, these differences can be acknowledged and discussed between individuals. When a phenomenon has a preferred disciplinary meaning, such as the mole concept in chemistry (Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl & Tulberg, 1988), or speed, distance and time (Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton, 1993), phenomenography can be used to understand the ways in which experiences of educators or learners may vary from the preferred disciplinary meaning of the phenomenon of the moment. This understanding can be used to guide teaching and learning practice (Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty, 1993; Booth, 1997; Bowden, 1988; Johansson, Marton and Svensson, 1985; Kember, 1997; Marton, 1983, 1988b; Marton and Booth, 1996; Pramling, 1988; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Ramsden, 1988, 1992; Saljo, 1988). In formal education contexts, insights into students’ conceptions have been valued as offering insights able to inform curriculum development, class teaching and valid assessment methods (Kember, 1997; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton, 1993). As well as change at a phenomenon level, Prosser and Trigwell (1999) point out that phenomenography has led to broader and practical higher education reforms in teaching practice. When a phenomenon has no dominant disciplinary meaning, like public education, which remains uncertain, phenomenography can allow a whole new discussion of interpersonal variation in experience of the phenomenon (Hasselgren and Beach, 1997; Marton, 1996). This can bring new clarity to discussion of a phenomenon by helping individuals understand that other individuals have a different understanding and to understand what other individuals are talking about. It also allows
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individual to self-reflect on their own understanding of a phenomenon and upon their own general learning aims.
In setting out accurately to describe knowledge in the form of a relationship between individual people and the phenomena they experience, phenomenography became distinguished from other research by a focus upon conceptions of specific aspects of reality (Marton, 1981). Initially, phenomenography focused upon conceptions as the central form of knowledge (Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl & Tulberg, 1988; Marton, 1981; Saljo,
1988;
Svensson,
1997).
Svensson
(1989,
p.531)
summarised
the
phenomenographic understanding of a conception as "the experienced meaning of one specific part of the world". As Svensson (1989) pointed out, the idea of a conception differs from that of a concept on the basis that conceptions are ways of experiencing the world, while concepts are socially shared constructs.
A notable feature of conceptions in phenomenography has been an emphasis upon experiential reality (Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty, 1993). Phenomenographic research cannot directly discuss conceptions as these concern each individual’s reality that cannot be experienced by others. Instead, in phenomenography, conceptions have been used to develop discrete categories of description with some generality (Bowden, 1996; Francis, 1996; Marton, 1981, 1996; Sandberg, 1997). In other words, each category of description is a way of describing a conception of a phenomenon (Marton, 1996). The categories of description represent what is referred to in phenomenography as the referential component of the ways of understanding the phenomenon. The referential
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aspect concerns how the global meaning of the phenomenon is discerned; identifying what has been called the external horizon of the phenomenon (Marton, 1988b, 1996).
Phenomenography has assumed that descriptions of conceptions are fundamental to knowledge and emerge in categories of description, which are not true but useful and more or less fruitful (Svensson, 1997). As such, categories of description are assumed to be fundamental to knowledge about conceptions and are the researcher's abstract tools that are used to characterise and present the conceptions (Åkerlind, 2002b). Phenomenography, in aiming to uncover categories within the data, is an interpretative, exploratory and contextually analytic form of research in which there are no predetermined or preconceived categories or classifications (Marton and Saljo, 1984; Svensson,
1997).
Individual
categories
of
description
revealed
through
a
phenomenographic analysis represent separate qualitatively different interpretations of that phenomenon but still represent the same phenomenon. As Marton (1982) argued: “Categories of description can be linked to each other very much as a Wittgensteinian family resemblance structure: no thread runs through the whole rope, but it is still the same rope all the way.”
Johansson, Marton and Svensson (1985) suggest that conceptions are discovered through the phenomenographic research process and that categories of description are devised from these. To Bruce (2003) these activities usually occur simultaneously in phenomenographic practice even though they can be separated.
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According to Marton (1988b, 1996), discrete categories of a particular phenomenon have not only a referential component, but also have a structural component presupposed by the referential component. The structural component describes the relation between relevant parts of the world and how they are seen (Marton, 1988b, 1996; Bruce, 2003). Structural components include discernment (i.e. separating) and simultaneous awareness (i.e. relating) of how the phenomenon and its components are in regard to each other (Marton, 1988b, 1996). This identifies what has been called the internal horizon of the phenomenon (Marton, 1988b). The structural aspect of a phenomenon is represented in an outcome space.
While it is possible to focus upon meaning and structure separately, it is important to remember that phenomenography is concerned with understanding of a phenomenon holistically via appreciation of the structure and meaning that construe it. As Ackerlind (2002a, p.4) stated: “the distinction between these two aspects of the variation, meaning and structure, is artificial, as each illuminates the other.
They are separated for
descriptive and analytic purposes only.”
The term conception has been superseded within phenomenographic literature. Marton (1996, p. 172-174) advocated that the previously used term conception be replaced by his preferred term - ways of experiencing - an English translation of the Swedish word upfattning. He argued for this change on the basis that the term conception was limited to thoughts in one's head, whereas experience encompasses thought and is also about "being in the world" (p. 173). For phenomenography, a thought is enveloped within
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experience (Marton, 1996). Since this time, the emphasis in phenomenographic methodology has seen an inconsistent but majority shift towards discussion of ways of experiencing (e.g. Marton, 1996, 2000; Marton & Booth, 1997).
Accompanying phenomenography's shift from a focus on conceptions to ways of experiencing was a strengthening emphasis upon the link between experience and awareness. Marton (1996) argued that the totality of an individual's experience is his or her awareness, in which a person is aware of everything simultaneously, and which is layered with a core where objects are in focal awareness, a field or fields around the core, and a fringe that stretches indefinitely in time and space. To Marton (1996, p. 179), learning about a phenomenon means “to become capable of discerning certain entities or aspects and of being capable of being simultaneously aware (focally) of these certain entities or aspects. It is possible for one individual to see the same phenomenon in different ways depending upon the aspects of the phenomenon that are more or less figural in awareness at a given moment (Ackerlind, 2002; Marton, 1994a; Marton & Ming Fai, 1997; Marton & Booth, 1997; Bowden & Marton, 1998). The significance of this concept for phenomenography is that it is possible to discuss a phenomenon not only in terms of categories of description and an outcome space that logically relates these categories, but also in terms of the key dimensions along which an experience may vary (Ackerlind, 2002a; Marton & Booth, 1997). Recent emphasis by some phenomenographers has been upon the significance of underlying key dimensions of variation in experience in explaining categories of description, with different categories based upon differences in experience of the common set of underlying dimensions.
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Different phenomenographic research studies have attempted to describe variation in any of human meaning, understanding, conceptions, awareness or experiencing of a particular phenomenon (Ackerlind, 2002; Marton & Booth, 1997). The terminology ascribed to ways of experiencing, has included alternate terminology such as ways of understanding (e.g. Marton, Carlsson and Halasz, 1992) or seeing (Bruce, 2001). Yet the changing label affixed to the process does not mean that the emphasis of phenomenography is substantially different across these research studies. The common emphasis continues to be upon the relationship between the individual and the phenomenon and the different ways it is possible for the individual to relate to the phenomenon. 7
In phenomenography, it is frequently asserted, and readily acknowledged as a major assumption of the theory and its application, that knowledge is relational (Marton, 1981, 1988b; 1996; Svensson, 1997). As such, knowledge is both dependent on human thinking and on an external reality to which this thinking is directed. It is “constituted through the internal relation between the knower (the subject) and the known (the object)” (Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard & Marton, 1993, p.303). The relations constituting knowledge exist between an individual and the phenomena in the world around them. For example, concerning disaster managers’
7
The phenomenographic study described later in this thesis typically refers to ways of experiencing in alignment with convention and in accordance with Marton’s (1997) decision to replace the legacy terminology of conceptions. Terminology including ways of understanding, seeing, and viewing are also used in this thesis if considered appropriate in the context and with a similar intention to the usage of ways of experiencing: to emphasise the ways of relating between the collective group of individuals and the phenomenon of public education.
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understanding of public education, such knowledge depends on both how a person thinks about public education, and on public education as a reality external to the individual. The relations constituting knowledge of public education are located between the phenomenon of public education and the disaster managers (Marton, 1988). The disaster managers’ understandings or conceptions are not psychological but rather are dispositions embodied in psychological acts including experiencing, perceiving or conceptualising (Marton, 1998; Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard & Marton, 1993; Svensson, 1989). In phenomenography, it is assumed that individuals experience objects through their own mind. It is this experiencing of the world through the individual that makes knowledge relational. As Marton (1996, p.177) states: “The dualist notion of the world out there (the real world) and the world in here (the world as perceived) is replaced by the world as experienced by me as a part of the world as a whole.” According to Marton (1992, 1996), phenomenography is founded upon a non-dualistic ontology. As a result, knowledge is entwined within a relationship between
the
individual
and
the
phenomena
that
he
or
she
experiences.
Phenomenography produces an outcome where descriptions of the person on one hand and his/her world on the other are joined in a single description of a relational character (Marton & Svensson, 1979).
Research in the social sciences and education has typically been undertaken from a firstperson perspective. Phenomenography is different in that it is concerned with the second-order perspective - the underlying ways of describing a phenomenon as experienced by people (Marton, 1988b, 1996). Phenomenography deliberately concerns
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itself with the qualitatively different ways in which phenomena are understood. As Marton (1996, p.186) states: Phenomenography is focused on the ways of seeing different phenomena, underlying knowledge about them and skills related to them. The aim is, however, not to find the singular essence, but the variation and the architecture of this variation in terms of the different aspects which [sic] define the phenomena.
Marton (1996) pointed out that the meaning of a phenomenon is often taken for granted in relatively stable fields of knowledge. But phenomenographic research on central principles of fields, such as the principle of the mole in the field of chemistry (Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl and Tullberg (1988) has shown that individuals can have different experiences of even supposedly well understood phenomena. Knowledge is seldom stable, with authorised theories considered the bedrock of disciplines for years, decades or even centuries eventually superseded (Marton, 1981; Chalmers, 1990). Less stable principles can develop and evolve quickly with new ways of understanding a single phenomenon possibly emerging over time.
In phenomenography, it is assumed that knowledge about reality varies depending on thinking. This differs from the dominant positivist assumption that observation can lead to facts, which, through induction can be generalised into universal knowledge (cf. Chalmers, 1976, 1990; Guba & Lincoln, 1985). It also differs from mentalist, rationalist and constructivist assumptions that knowledge is a rational or mental construction in a closed rational or mental system (Svensson, 1997).
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Phenomenography includes the assumption that knowledge is holistic (Svensson, 1997). According to Svensson (1997), it is assumed that "reality presents itself in human thinking as different related entities having the character or forming units as a whole". For this reason, scientific knowledge about ways of experiencing is based on an exploration of delimitations and holistic meanings of objects as experienced (Svensson, 1997). Sandberg (1994), in an interpretative analysis of competence at work, described the nature of findings from research utilising a phenomenographic approach as being in the form of a holistic and integrated description of the phenomenon and a relational description of the person and the phenomena. Sandberg argued that such a finding is better than two separate descriptions requiring an assumption that they are related.
In phenomenographic research, experience of a phenomenon is dependent upon contextual variables. Thus, beliefs, values, morals, culture and place in time all determine the nature and boundaries of the categories of description (Marton, 1981). Because phenomena are context dependent, phenomenography is neither concerned with classification, comparison or prediction nor explaining sources of variation in emergent categories of description, behaviour or psychology of individuals or groups (Marton, 1981, 1996; Saljo, 1988; Van Rossum and Schenk, 1984).
According to Marton (1981, 1996), it is possible to describe a limited number of ways of experiencing a phenomenon, be it the mole concept (Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl & Tulberg, 1988), speed distance and time (Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton, 1993), public education, or any other phenomena. This emphasis
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upon a limit to the number of ways a phenomenon can be described is at the heart of phenomenographic research as it allows research to achieve an outcome focused upon structurally and referentially representing the categories of meaning matching the limited number of qualitative variations in ways of experiencing a phenomenon. Marton (1996) emphasised that phenomenography is deliberately employed for the specific purpose of gaining a description of this variation in ways of experiencing a phenomena, and as such the outcome of the research process is that information is presented at a collective rather than individual level. It is this collective nature of the research outcome that has been referred to negatively as the denial of individual voices in the research by its critics (Bowden, 1996). Marton (1996, p.186) unapologetically acknowledged that this description is one where "individual voices are not heard", with the findings being "stripped" [of the] scent and colour of life", because it is this collective feature of phenomenographic research findings that has been integral to their practical worth for educators and learners.
3.3 SUMMARY In summary, phenomenography is second-order research that uncovers and describes ways of experiencing in a relational, holistic, collective and schematically related way. The following two extracts from the literature encompass key aspects of phenomenography. Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton (1993, p.303) provide a succinct summary of phenomenography: The discovery and description of a parsimonious structure of understandings or set of categories for a particular phenomenon is the chief goal of phenomenographic analysis. Presentation of logical relations between categories
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of description corresponding to different conceptions of the same phenomenon is the feature that most clearly distinguishes phenomenography from other kinds of qualitative analysis in social science and education. Such a set of categories aims to be generalisable across individuals, time, space, and psychological actions.
Trigwell (2003, p.3) summarised the key aspects of phenomenography as follows: The key aspects of a phenomenographic research approach ... are that it takes a relational (or non-dualist) qualitative, second-order perspective, that it aims to describe the key aspects of the variation of the experience of a phenomenon rather than the richness of individual experiences, and that it yields a limited number of internally related, hierarchical categories of description of the variation.
Phenomenography has been repeatedly demonstrated to be of benefit in guiding education and learning (Ramsden, 1992; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999) and has revealed that approaching education and learning in different ways can influence educational outcomes. Prior research has also demonstrated the capacity of phenomenography to inform about uncertain phenomena (Hasselgren and Beach, 1997; Marton, 1996). As such, a belief that a phenomenographic study of public education will be informative is well justified.
The next chapter will introduce the design that will guide the application of phenomenography in this research. This will be followed by a summary of techniques that will be used during the studies to ensure the value of eventual research findings. Finally, the chapter will include a brief description of how outcomes will be used in the subsequent discussion of public education for disaster management.
----o----o----o----
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CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH DESIGN ----o----o----o---In the kind of research that constitutes the basis for arguing for the discerning of the domain of “phenomenography” we have repeatedly found that phenomena, aspects of reality, are experienced (or conceptualized) in a relatively limited number of ways. (Marton, 1981, pp. 180-181) ----o----o----o----
4.0 RESEARCH DESIGN OVERVIEW This chapter presents the design of the phenomenographic study in this research thesis followed by a brief description of the types of conclusions that can reasonably be drawn from the study. The research design employed is typical of phenomenographic research. It is relatively simple at a macro-level: an interview based around the open-ended issue of what public education is and involving a series of different research participants, then the subsequent transcription then exploration of data to identify the divergences in themes in the ways in which individuals understand or experience public education. Yet in execution, the phenomenographic research incorporates much at the micro-level. The research undertaken was very highly structured and undertaken in accordance with a set of specific and exacting rules to ensure the method supported the intention of phenomenography. In this instance the research design was rigorously planned and executed to ensure that research findings truthfully identified senior Australian disaster managers’ ways of experiencing public education, as revealed in categories structurally
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related within an outcome space. The research design was founded upon rules of phenomenography that guide the researcher to honest, rigorously obtained, defensible results based on a strong research approach. Such commitment to correct research methods is important to avoid the pitfalls potentially awaiting an ill prepared, lax or blasé phenomenographic researcher. As Entwistle (1997, p.128) states: Some qualitative research, claiming to be phenomenographic, has been conducted without the necessary rigour, either in design or analysis. One of the reasons for that, however, may be the lack of precise descriptions of what is necessarily involved in phenomenography. The practical details of the research procedures used in identifying categories were not explained sufficiently fully in the early publications to allow other researchers to ensure the quality of their own methods. And still the path from interviews through inference to categories can be difficult to follow, leaving the findings unconvincing. It is thus quite a challenge for researchers coming fresh to the field to see, and utilise effectively, the crucial strengths of the approach.
With heed given to Entwistle’s warning, the research method was planned and executed to utilise these “crucial strengths” of phenomenography which have been widely documented as being highly successful in similar, previous research, as previously discussed. The remainder of this chapter details this research design with due consideration given to the rigour of the study.
4.1 THE PHENOMENOGRAPHIC STUDY: DISASTER MANAGERS' WAYS OF EXPERIENCING PUBLIC EDUCATION The framework guiding the analysis was developed in accordance with precedent phenomenographic research. The particular flavour of the framework guiding the analysis is the outcome of an incremental development of a suitable framework as the
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researcher’s understanding of the phenomenon continued to develop, right through to the end of the research process. As pointed out by Bruce (2001): The framework guiding the analysis can be only partly specified prior to the research being undertaken. In other words what we can say about the character of categories and outcomes spaces, for example, in the early stages of projects, is limited; and does not, indeed cannot, take into account the specific phenomenon being investigated.
This phenomenographic study explored the various ways in which disaster managers' experience public education. The execution of the study designed to achieve this aim can be understood as occurring within five sequential stages:
(1) Identification of the research issue and selection of phenomenography as a research approach; (2) Implementation of a preparatory pilot study; (3) Selection and recruitment of disaster managers and educators as research participants; (4) Data collection, through interviews and supplementary written discourse; and (5) Data transcription, analysis and presentation of research findings.
The particular details of each of these stages are now considered in order of conduct.
4.1.1 Identification of the Research Issue and Selection of Phenomenography
The research study commenced with an identification of the broad objective of the research: to generate new and original knowledge about public education of practical relevance to disaster managers. According to Ashworth and Lucus (2000),
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phenomenographic research commences with an initial scoping of the broad research objectives and phenomenon under investigation while maintaining realisation that the researcher’s own meaning of this phenomenon may be very different from those of eventual research participants. In recognition of the necessary generality of the research genesis, the research topic of disaster education was the broad starting point for the research. Subsequent definition of the study became increasingly specific over a period of several months during discussions between the PhD researcher and the research supervisor. It became apparent very quickly that public education lacked conceptual clarity and was an extremely important type of education neglected in the literature that would benefit from research attention. An appropriate research approach was sought. The study had initially been conceived as being quantitative in approach. The researcher’s background was strongly quantitative and included several years of experience in applying statistics via research assistance, employment as a senior level officer in a statistical planning unit, and completion of a Master of Education (Research) structured around a set of linked multivariate statistical analyses. Discussion of various research approaches, including questionnaires and statistical analyses led the researcher and his supervisor to conclude that statistical research was perhaps not very suited to the particular research issue and that phenomenography was the approach most appropriate for the yielding of a meaningful outcome able to address the broad objective of contributing to understanding and practice of public education. An initial focus on public education as it relates to disaster safety led to increased familiarisation with the issue via the subsequent literature review that has evolved into the review included in this thesis.
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4.1.2 Piloting of Research Procedures
According to Guba and Lincoln (1981), preparing and rehearsing an interview increases the qualitative researcher’s capacity to gather sound data. With this in mind, phenomenographic interview materials and procedures were tested to improve interviewing technique, instill confidence with the procedures and to refine the design of the study in light of any possible issues not anticipated.
Interviews were selected as the method of data collection for two reasons. Firstly, prior phenomenographic research has demonstrated the success of this method in uncovering the ways of understanding a phenomenon (e.g. Åkerlind, 2002a ; Boulton-Lewis, Smith, McCrindle, Burnett, & Campbell, 2001; Dahlgren, 1978; Evans & Fuller, 1998; Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl & Tulberg, 1988; McCosker, Barnard & Gerber, 2003; Marton, Dall’Alba and Beaty, 1993; Neuman, 1987; Petocz, 2002; Ramritu & Barnard, 2001; Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton, 1993; Saljo, 1979). Secondly, interviews were identified as providing maximum freedom for individuals to express their way of understanding the phenomenon, an issue Ashworth and Lucus (2000) identified as important in their guidelines on phenomenographic research.
Preparatory work included an initial rehearsing of interviewing techniques and testing of interview materials during two role-plays involving individuals in hypothetical disaster management positions. A decision was made not to trial materials and procedures with
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actual Australian senior disaster managers because the pool of available participants was limited and it was recognised that there might be a need to retain all such individuals for participation in the actual study.
Research questions tested in the first interview were developed based on materials used in other phenomenographic studies (e.g. Bruce, 1992; Dahlgren, 1978; Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl & Tulberg, 1988; Marton, Dall’Alba and Beaty, 1993; Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton, 1993; Saljo, 1979).
A total of fifteen questions were developed during the pilot study. Based on the guidelines of Lucus and Ashworth (2000), attention was given to ensuring questions being developed were not based on researcher presumptions about either the phenomenon or the participant being interviewed but instead were developed with the intention of facilitating clear articulation by the participants of experiences and ways of understanding the phenomenon. These questions were tested, and accepted, improved or rejected during the three trial interviews. The tangible outcome of this three interview pilot phase was a semi-structured interview schedule. The semi-structured interview schedule included a final set of eight open-ended questions, a list of key prompts, and an introductory transcript to be read at the beginning of each interview. Aspects of these materials are discussed in the data collection section (See 4.1.4). After the third pilot interview, the written survey was developed and tested on a further two individuals. At the end of each of these trial interviews the role-playing interviewee was asked to provide feedback on the researcher’s interview skills including stylistic traits that could
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possibly limit responses. This approach accords with Lucus and Ashworth’s (2000) recommendation that the phenomenographic researcher’s interview skills be reviewed and developed as necessary on an ongoing basis. Throughout these trial interviews items were modified to suit the medium of data collection.
4.1.3 Selection and Recruitment of Disaster Managers
The selection and recruitment process was purposive in nature. In other words, participants were selected intentionally and on the basis of particular characteristics rather than as a random sample of the larger population (Merriam, 1988, p.48). In particular, individuals with senior disaster management or disaster education roles were targeted for this research, as the intention of this research was to uncover ways of understanding public education by a group of senior Australian disaster managers and educators. A precedent for purposive recruiting of participants exists within phenomenographic research. Previous such studies have focused upon experience of a range of phenomena by individuals learning about a particular phenomenon or participants experiencing a phenomenon from the viewpoint of those who have direct experience of the phenomenon. One such example is of the experience of domestic violence by women who have directly experienced domestic violence (i.e. McCosker, Barnard & Gerber, 2003). However, during the selection process attention was given to Lucus and Ashworth’s (2000) guideline to avoid presuppositions about the phenomenon or ways of experiencing by particular ‘types’ of individual and maintain a commonsense approach to maintaining a variety of ways of experiencing. Thus, further attempts were not made to delimit the disaster managers and professionals demographically,
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except for an attempt to ensure a reasonable representation of women due to criticism of phenomenographic studies as often being patriarchal (Hazel, Conrad and Martin, 1997) and a well-documented imbalance in the number of women in Australian disaster agencies (Wraith, 1997). By selecting a variety of managers and educators from a range of states, a range of disciplines within the sector (e.g. fire services, emergency services, professional consultants including academics), and a range of experiences, it was intended that the opportunity to identify the largest range of parsimonious variations in understanding or experience of public education would be supported. The intention of this, ultimately, was that the legitimacy of approximating the range of ways of understanding amongst the research participants with that of the larger population of Australian disaster managers would be maximised.
A total of 29 senior managers and educators from various Australian disaster management agencies were approached to participate in the phenomenographic interviews. These individuals were selected from a population of possible participants estimated to be in the hundreds. Twenty-five of these individuals agreed to participate in the interview phase of the research project. This translates to a participation rate of eighty-two percent. Six of the participants were female and 19 were male, and thus included a deliberate over-proportion of women relative to their numbers in disaster management (cf. Wraith, 1997).
Face-to-face interviews were considered better suited to the phenomenographic process than telephone interviews due to the added empathy afforded by the face-to-face
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technique. To facilitate undertaking as many interviews as possible on a face-to-face basis the interviewer travelled from his state of Queensland to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory to undertake additional face-to-face interviews. Fifteen of the 25 participants were interviewed face-to-face. Nine participants were interviewed via the telephone. One participant contributed through the provision of a set of written responses via email, including follow up questions returned from the interviewer to the participant.
Disaster managers were primarily recruited for interviewing from eastern Australia. Overall the breakdown of research participants by state was as follows: Queensland (9), the Australian Capital Territory (6), New South Wales (5), Victoria (3), Tasmania (1) and the Northern Territory (1) [See Figure 4-1].
The organisational seniority of research participants can be categorised as follows: 3 participants were organisational heads or chief executives, 3 participants were divisional heads, 12 participants were unit heads or managers, and 7 participants were disaster management professionals with activities extending to educational practice or planning.
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NT 1 QLD 9
NSW 5 VIC 3
ACT 6
TAS 1 Figure 4-1
Number of Research Participants by State of Employment
Whether being interviewed face-to-face or via telephone, participants needed to satisfy a number of prerequisite criteria to be included in the study. First, a participant had to be a manager as defined by the Australian Statistical Classification of Occupations (Department of Industrial Relations and Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1986) or a disaster educator as identified by job duties. By such a definition, a manager refers to being a 'manager' in their job description, directly supervises at least one person, and has skills commensurate with completion of a 3-year degree or 5-years of relevant experience. Second, each participant had to be currently employed within an Australian organisation with a primary focus on disaster, hazard, risk or emergency services. The third criterion for an individual to participate in the study was that he or she was
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considered to occupy a key position in relation to his or her organisation's public education strategies or initiatives. More specifically, to be included in the study, an individual needed to have immediate responsibility for, or authority over, other staff with immediate responsibility for the organisation's public education practices. An individual occupying the highest attainable level of employment for local based organisations or the highest attainable level of employment in a department or unit for state or national level organisations was considered to have such authority over the organisation's public education practices.
Initially, it was anticipated that a sample size of twenty interviewees would be appropriate for this study, based on insight afforded by researching successful sample sizes in previous phenomenographic studies. While it was anticipated that approximately twenty individuals would be interviewed, the final number of participants in the study was determined by the nature of the emerging data. According to Bogdan and Biklen (1982) and Lincoln and Guba (1985), an appropriate number of participants in a qualitative study can be assessed as having been reached when the data is either producing no new information or has reached a point of diminishing returns. In this phenomenographic study, sampling ceased when information being provided was determined by the researcher to be reflective of experiences provided by other participants (Francis, 1996). The final sample size was also considered appropriate for this qualitative study in that the modest number of participants afforded extra focus on ensuring the data could be collected and analysed in depth and to a high level of richness (Patton, 1990).
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As mentioned, as well as interviewing disaster managers face-to-face, some disaster managers were interviewed over the telephone. In accordance with the principle of horizontalisation (Sandberg, 1997), which is discussed at the end of this chapter, data obtained through each process were treated as equally important. Based on the piloting of interview procedures together with insights afforded by existing phenomenographic literature (Marton, 1994a), it was expected that the interviews would provide a plentiful amount of rich data.
The proportion of women participating in the interviews (24%) was higher than the proportion of women occupying senior disaster management positions in Australia. Hazel, Conrad and Martin (1997) have previously criticised the tendency of phenomenographic studies to occur in areas where women are under-represented and in disciplines traditionally patriarchal in nature. The representation of women at a rate of 24% was well above the rate of women in senior management in Australian disaster management (5% according to Wraith, 1997) to attempt to redress any potential gender differences in ways of experiencing public education by disaster management.
4.1.4 Data Collection
While all collected data was treated as equally important, face-to-face interviews were the primary means of data collection, providing the greater amount of information and the opportunity for the interviewer to gain from the additional interactive cues and empathetic benefits afforded by one-on-one direct interviewing. Face-to-face interviews
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are the predominant means of data collection in most phenomenographic research (Ashworth
&
Lucus,
2000;
Dall'Alba,
1996;
Marton,
1996).
Previous
phenomenographic research has demonstrated that interviewing is an effective means of data collection when used appropriately. As a qualitative research approach, the researcher as an instrument of data collection brings to the interview process the benefits of responsiveness, flexibility, capacity to see social organisation holistically, prepositional knowledge, tacit knowledge and ability to recognise the unusual (Guba and Lincoln, 1981; Cantrell, 1993).
The aim of the phenomenographic interviewer was to assist interviewees to articulate their personal thematisation of the phenomenon being studied and to make their thoughts explicit via the processes of reflection and report (Ashworth & Lucus, 2000; Francis, 1996; Marton, 1994a, 1996). The interviewer avoided asking questions that direct or lead discussion towards personal conceptions of the phenomenon of public education, while simultaneously guiding the interview in terms of maintaining focus on the relevant thematic area of public education (Francis 1996, Marton, 1994a). Beyond phenomenography, Miles and Huberman (1984) refer to such a process of maintaining focus on the area of interest while ruling out other variables and relationships during data collection in qualitative research, as a pre-analysis attending to variables due to preexisting reasons and as anticipatory data reduction.
A non-structured interview approach was used in the interviews to facilitate uncovering the interviewees' ways of experiencing public education and to avoid directing their
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comments away from these. It consisted of a schedule with an introductory transcript, an introductory open-ended question and a list of key prompts and follow-up questions. It was decided that, similar to many other phenomenographic interview schedules, the question used at the start of the interview would be open-ended to facilitate extended discourse by allowing participants to articulate their personal structuring of the aspects of the phenomenon (Johansson, Marton and Svensson, 1985), focus on understanding and not explanations (Van Rossum and Schenk, 1984), express their reasoning and thoughts about the phenomenon (Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl and Tullberg, 1988), and allow the participant the freedom to express their experience (Lucus and Ashworth, 2000). Follow-up questions included both direct and indirect questions. The introductory transcript was used to begin each interview in a standardised way and to help the interviewee focus upon the phenomenon of public education and discuss his or her own experience with it. The introductory transcript read: This interview is an open one where I am interested in your thoughts. I will provide you with a summary of what I have been doing in my research at the end of our discussion so that I do not bias any comments you are about to make beforehand. I will start off with a general question and as you answer I will make notes and follow up on issues you raise.
People understand public education differently. The role that you see public education having in disaster management will be influenced by what public education means to you. In this interview I want to find out about your ideas about public education. I am interested in how you understand it in a disaster management context. So lets begin this interview with you spending a few minutes discussing your understanding of public education.
Examples of follow-up questions used across a number of the interviews to facilitate discussion included:
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•
“What do you mean by public when you use or hear the term public education?”
•
"Can you provide an example of a public education that has taken place in your organisation?"
•
"Do you think public education is an effective strategy within disaster management, and why?"
•
"What do you think is the responsibility of the public in regard to its own safety?"
•
"You have talked about legislation and public education. Can you give an example of when one might be more effective than the other?"
•
"What do you mean by education when you talk about public education?
•
"What do you believe is the purpose of public education?"
Prior to each interview each participant was informed that his or her participation in an interview was completely voluntary, that all responses were anonymous and confidential, and that he or she was free to withdraw from the interview process at any time. All individuals chose to complete the interview process.
The length of time it took to conduct a phenomenographic interview from the initial reading of the transcript to the closing comments ranged from between thirty-five and seventy minutes in length. The mean length of each interview was approximately 50 minutes. Interviews were audio taped with the prior permission of the subject. Interviews were transcribed using a standard word-processing computer package.
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Once the interview data were transcribed, a technique called face validity data checking (or member checking) (Guba and Lincoln, 1981) was used for three of the interviews. The technique involved interviewees being provided with a copy of the transcript of their particular interview and the opportunity to provide feedback about the accuracy and veracity of the transcribed interaction. The many work responsibilities and level of seniority within the various organisations of the participants made it impossible to involve too many participants in such a feedback process. All three individuals indicated that the transcripts were an accurate reflection of their thoughts and the interview process.
4.1.5 Data Analysis and Presentation of Findings
The technique for analysis of phenomenographic interview transcripts is well documented (Francis, 1996; Lucus and Ashworth, 2000; Marton & Saljo, 1984; Marton, 1988a, in particular) though no one particular algorithm for uncovering categories of description exists (Marton, 1988a). Characterising the phenomenographic method of data analysis is a systematic process of data sorting and reduction and the eventual uncovering of major categories of description for ways of experiencing (Francis, 1996; Marton, 1981, 1986a, 1996). The procedure involves shifting transcribed comments into groups reflective of underlying ways of experiencing. Marton (1986a, 1988a) described the procedure as analytic, recursive cyclical, and the stabilising of a system of categories of description.
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The data analysis phase of phenomenography requires the researcher to focus upon uncovering ways of experiencing a phenomenon. But the researcher is not limited to a particular method of analysis for discovering and describing logically underlying categories of description for obtained data (Marton, 1986a). A number of variations to the data analysis procedure exists, although an overall process of identifying data relevant to the phenomenon (i.e. establishing 'pools of meaning'), sorting data and developing categories of description, is similar across all phenomenographic research. Marton (1986a, 1988a) and Marton, Carlsson and Halasz (1992) reported utilising a four stage approach to phenomenographic research: identifying relevant data as ‘pools of meaning’; sorting data in the 'pools of meaning' based on similarity and without reference to any particular participant who provided the data; contrasting groups of similar data and writing categories of description for each; and, establishing inter-judge reliability through the verification of a section of the data by an independent judge. Saljo (1988) agreed with the use of these four stages, but extended the analysis process with two additional stages that preceded the other four. To Saljo, the analysis process should commence with familiarisation with the data to gain an understanding of patterns in the data. Then, the researcher, while viewing the data, increases focus on the understanding of conceptions through self-questioning regarding the construing of the phenomena, concepts used to explain the phenomena and similarities with other phenomena. Offering yet another variation to the analysis procedure, Dahlgren and Fallsberg (1991) and McCosker, Barnard & Gerber (2003) report successful application of a seven stage cycle of analysis of phenomenographic data: familiarisation, condensation, comparison, grouping, articulating, labeling and contrasting. Dean (1994) used an eight-stage cycle
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of analysis familiarisation, reflection (surface), comparison, reflection (deeper), condensation, explication, categorisation and articulation. The analytic technique is iterative rather than sequential and performed in an iterative manner until the analysis is complete.
After consideration of the various interpretations of appropriate stages of phenomenographic analysis, it was decided that data analysis in this study would follow four broad recursive stages encompassing the iterative sorting of expressions in terms of differences and similarities to arrive at an eventual outcome. These four stages were: 1. familiarisation; 2. identifying pools of meaning; 3. establishing categories of description; and 4. presentation of outcome space.
The four stages of the cycle are now considered in detail.
Stage 1: Familiarisation
During Stage One of the analysis, the researcher became re-familiar with the transcribed data, through a reading of the entire content of the set of transcripts in the reverse chronological order to that in which the interviews were undertaken. The researcher then returned to the transcripts 24 hours later and read the set again in a random and different
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order. Following this familiarisation process the researcher began Stage Two of the analysis process.
Stage 2: Identifying Pools of Meaning
Stage Two of the analysis involved an initial synthesis of data, linking similar responses from across the subjects’ responses within 'pools of meaning' (Saljo and Marton, 1984, Marton, 1996). The Identifying Pools of Meaning stage broadly encompassed Dean’s (1994) processes of reflection (surface), comparison, reflection (deeper), condensation and explication. The process of sorting pools of meaning required consideration of issues such as how the phenomenon was related to other phenomena and the way the subject constructs and explains the phenomenon. Attention was paid towards reproducing the interviewees' intended meaning of expression, with consideration given to other information from the same subject and in relation to all pooled information (Marton, 1994a) and with effort towards empathetic understanding (Ashworth & Lucus, 2000). Public education as understood by the disaster managers had substantial linkages with other phenomena including communication, risk, disaster and disaster management.
It was recognised that this stage must necessarily be thorough and made as overt as possible if it were to be rigorously honest to the phenomenographic process (Marton, 1994a). Statistical research is arguably prone to research bias when statistics are trusted to guide to an answer without due preparation ensuring against flaws in experimental
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design. By contrast, it was felt that perhaps the greatest risk in this phenomenographic research was to allow the researcher’s personal understanding of the phenomenon under scrutiny (i.e. public education) that had taken shape from a familiarity with existing literature to be the navigator that uncovers meaning in the phenomenon rather than the answers of the research participants. Effort was made to control for personal presupposition as part of a broader focus on ensuring awareness of and eliminating as much as possible researcher presuppositions. It was explicitly recognised that there was a need to minimise personal presuppositions from four sources as described by Ashworth and Lucas (2000), namely: (1) other earlier research findings; (2) pre-given theoretical structures or particular interpretations; (3) the researcher’s personal knowledge and belief; and (4) the researcher's notions of cause-and-effect into the description of participants’ experience. Research methods were required to avoid eventual research findings being an echo of the researchers’ understanding of the phenomenon: a reflection of the researcher’s understanding rather than the participants’ experience of the phenomenon.
When the researcher was reading the manuscripts any text that matched ideas in the literature or the analyst's own ideas was bracketed to attempt to make overt any biases, preconceptions or presuppositions (Ashworth & Lucus, 2000; Marton, 1992, 1994). The researcher’s understandings were essentially those that had emerged by the end of the literature review process. The researcher was the fulcrum between the literature and the literature review chapter provided in this thesis, synthesising and summarising existing research literature. The literature review provided in this thesis is given in an
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argumentative form: supporting the argument that multiple factors potentially shape public education and the various ways that public education had been practiced to date and inability of current research to fully account for the process. Thus, at one level, the literature review can serve as a record of biases or preconceptions of the researcher. Perceived omissions or over-emphases in the literature summary are available as indicators of high-risk areas where the researcher may have personal understanding of what public education is and how it is delimited. This is not to say that the literature review has not been approached without effort to avoid subjectivity and that particular themes echo major themes and implications available within the literature.
This process of bracketing involved highlighting sections of the transcript related to sections of the literature to make them overt within the transcript. The following is an excerpt from a transcript selected from the data for this study to exemplify the process of bracketing. Three different issues of which the researcher was self-aware via existing literature were highlighted (these are distinguished by being underlined, italicised or emboldened in the transcript though actual transcripts used various colours). The underlined font type bracketed the literature topic of awareness-raising. The italicised font type bracketed the literature topic of community engagement. The bold font type bracketed the literature topic of public experience of disasters. The transcript read:
We - emergency services - produce a whole range of pamphlets and good information, and then they get buried in the community. They are buried. They are buried in council chamber front offices. They are buried at police stations. They're buried in libraries on display cases, or they're buried in the front of our offices. Now the percentage of the population that actually goes into any of those places is very small. So we encourage our brigades to work the local shows and shopping
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centres so that we can put information in front of the community, so that parents, families with young children are able to access that information. Again, it's always very, very closely related with events. You've got to have the first storm before anyone thinks about lightning or storms. You've got to have the first bushfire that burns a house down before people think about cleaning out gutters. (Anonymous research participant)
In a similar fashion, other various issues found within the literature were bracketed along with personal preconceptions about how this literature might be integrated. These bracketed sections had two roles. First, as well documented (e.g. Ashworth & Lucus, 2000), they allowed consideration of pre-existing conceptions during the next stage of establishing categories of description. Secondly, and unexpectedly, they allowed reflection upon the nature of these pre-existing conceptions. Though bracketing is meant to account for these pre-existing interpretations of the phenomenon, the very activity of bracketing pre-existing ways of understanding the phenomenon ensures that they are brought to the attention of the researcher. Denying the existence of these existing interpretations was not achievable, as they had gained meaning in the researcher’s worldview. Instead these categories cannot help but be considered as reference points for exploring the various ways of understanding the phenomenon under investigation. The best approach to these preconceptions ended up being an honest and open reflection upon the existence of these pre-existing interpretations. Pre-existing interpretations were included in developing pools of meaning if these interpretations ended up being appropriate within the phenomenographic analysis.
The procedure for familiarisation with the transcripts and an uncovering of meaning followed a procedure similar to that described by Ackerlind (2002, p.3):
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In the early stages, reading through transcripts is characterised by a high degree of openness to possible meanings, subsequent readings becoming more focused on particular aspects or criteria, but still within a framework of openness to new interpretations, and the ultimate aim of illuminating the whole by focusing on different perspectives at different times.
Once the data had been shifted into reasonably stable pools of meaning the Stage Two of the analysis was essentially concluded. Attention then turned to Stage Three: Establishing categories of description.
Stage 3: Establishing Categories of Description
The third stage of research began with the identification of differences between pools of meaning that served as the basis of the categories of description. As mentioned in the previous chapter, ways of experiencing are discovered through the phenomenographic research process and categories of description are devised from these (Johansson, Marton and Svensson, 1985). The pools of meaning were sorted to form a hierarchy of similarities and differences. The analytic procedure used in this study allows for the emergence of more than one way of experiencing the phenomenon of public education within a single transcript. This means that the analysis allowed a single individual to have more than one way of experiencing a single phenomenon (Marton, 1981). Indeed, every single individual’s transcript was grouped into multiple pools of meaning, varying from two to six in number. Thus, the very process of analysing the data generated the research finding that individuals all had multiple ways of understanding the phenomenon of public education within their worldview. As will be discussed later,
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these understandings become more or less salient within the worldview of the individual at different times.
As previously mentioned, Bruce (2001) highlighted that discovering ways of experiencing and devising categories of description usually occur simultaneously in phenomenographic practice even though they can be distinguished. Pools of meaning were separated prior to labeling of categories of description, though in practice, the very act of sorting pools of meaning led the researcher to begin internal assignment of headings and labels to the similarities and differences upon which the pools of meaning sorting occurs and that these tend to form the basis of the eventual categories of description. Regardless, by the end of this stage, the data analysis had led to the development of comprehensive and qualitative descriptions of the differing interpretations of the investigated ways of experiencing within qualitatively different categories of description (Saljo, 1988). These categories of description were the initial outcome sought from the phenomenographic procedure (Marton, 1981; Saljo, 1988) and are the referential aspect of ways of experiencing public education. During this stage emphasis remained upon the referential aspect of ways of experiencing. While emergent categories are related structurally as well as referentially, a premature search for structure within the transcripts can arguably lead to a failure to allow as full an appreciation of meaning in the data as is attainable by the researcher (Marton, 1981; Saljo, 1988). These categories of description are presented in the results section of this thesis, accompanied by relevant quotations that reflect the emergent category. They encompass the variation in interpretation of public education amongst the disaster
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managers and educators and are not assessed as right or wrong, even though one category may represent a view legitimised by a particular discipline (Marton, 1981) or paradigm or theory in the literature.
Once the categories of description had been developed the Stage Three of the analysis process was completed. Phase Four – Presentation of Outcome Space - was then commenced.
Stage 4: Presentation of Outcome Space
Stage Four of the analysis involved presentation of the emergent categories of description for public education, which represent the meaning of each way of understanding or experiencing. According to phenomenography, the uncovered categories of description are related to each other (Marton, 1988a). Therefore, after uncovering categories of description, the structure that logically links these categories needed to be identified and modeled. Francis (1996) describes this process of exploring the relations between obtained categories and the subsequent derivation of a structural model of ways of experiencing as the ultimate aim of phenomenography. This stage involved modeling the uncovered categories of description as inter-related outcomes in an outcome space: a schematisation of the essential differences between the categories of description. According to Ackerlind (2002b, p.2), an outcome space is regarded as a 'space of variation', ideally representing the full range of possible ways of experiencing the phenomenon in question, at this particular point in
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time, for the population represented by the sample group. description of the phenomenon, as experienced.
Samuel William Nielsen
It constitutes a
The outcome space is included in the results of this study presented in the next chapter. The outcome space unified differing ways of understanding and represents the structural aspect of the phenomenon of public education (Marton, 1988a). It shows the logical relationships, such as complementarities and inclusion, between the emergent categories of description (Marton, 1996).
According to Marton and Booth (1997) three criteria underlie the quality of a phenomenographic outcome space. Firstly, uncovered categories in the outcome space must all individually reveal something distinctive about a way of understanding the phenomenon, Secondly, all categories in the outcome space need to be logically related, typically, but not always, within a hierarchy of inclusive relationships. Thirdly, outcomes should be parsimonious: variation in experience that has been critically observed in the data should be represented by a set of as few categories as possible. These criteria were attended to during the creation of the outcome space.
4.2 ENSURING RIGOUR OF THE RESEARCH A major issue in all research is that of ensuring the value of eventual findings while being consistent with assumptions that have guided research to that point. Kvale (1989) is frequently cited within phenomenographic research publications for having highlighted that the criteria of reliability and validity, in their quantitative sense, are inappropriate for qualitative research because they are based on a positivist
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epistemology and not an interpretativist one. On such a basis, phenomenographic researchers, amongst the more well known being Sandberg (1994, 1997), have argued that it would be inaccurate to evaluate knowledge gained through phenomenography against criteria of reliability and validity. The concern for Sandberg is that phenomenographic research focuses on processes that are "internal" to the individual, but reliability and validity are concerned with "external" processes. It would be inappropriate to be consistent with phenomenographic assumptions throughout most of the research process and then justify the research primarily against positivist criteria. Yet, according to Giorgi (1994), this too often happens, with many researchers using principles and concepts of phenomenological philosophy to legitimise interpretative research as qualitative, then justifying research results in similar ways to positivist research.
Instead,
according
to
Sandberg
(1994),
the
inherent
worth
of
phenomenographic research findings must be considered in relation to the particular assumptions that have guided it thus far. Ultimately, the validity and reliability of a phenomenographic study is its credibility and trustworthiness as determined by the reader and best obtained by a full and open account of the research method and results (Booth, 1992; Cope, 2002).
The phenomenographic analysis procedure undertaken, by its nature, involved a closeness with the data which provided an opportunity to reflect deliberately and constantly upon the process of data collection in order to account for researcher effects on interpretation of meaning, weighing of evidence, searching for negative evidence, contrasting and comparing, using extreme cases, ruling out spurious relationships, and
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testing rival explanations. The close relationship between the phenomenographic researcher and the data makes phenomenographic research susceptible to a number of problems associated with similar forms of qualitative research: the researcher reflecting his or her own perceptions and biases during data analysis, poor data due to the interviewees' physical or mental mood or the dynamics of the interviewer-interviewee relationship, and poor interviewing skills (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Patton, 1990). However, a number of procedures were included in the research design to ensure credible research findings, explicit not hidden interpretations, appropriate participants selected, and justified research procedures. Some of these procedures are implementations of recommendations and guidelines by researchers including Sandberg (1997), Francis (1996) and Ashworth and Lucus (2000), and have been detailed already. These include bracketing of researcher biases and piloting of interviewing techniques, for example. Many of these techniques were implemented to ensure the researcher achieved empathy and engagement throughout the research process (cf. Ashworth & Lucus, 2000). Further emphasis was placed on ensuring the rigour of the research study such that qualitative validity and reliability were attended to appropriately throughout the research study.
Different researchers investigating the same phenomenon with the same participants may identify different category of meaning sets. Although different researchers may uncover different categories of description for the same phenomenon the categories can be shown to be reliable and valid. Five techniques employed were: 1. inter-judge reliability (replicability);
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2. aiding replicability through a detailed research summary; 3. interpretative awareness; 4. other methods to obtain phenomenographic validity; and 5. adopting a phenomenographic attitude.
Each of these techniques is now considered. Additional support for the value of findings is continued in the Discussion Chapter (Chapter 6), addressing the relationship of categories with conceptions in the literature, the value of the categories in the education environment and the acceptance of the categories by participants.
4.3.1 Inter-Judge Reliability (Replicability)
Replicability of identified categories of description was assessed through inter-judge reliability assessment (Marton, 1986a, 1996; Saljo, 1988). Inter-judge reliability is a form of replicability, measuring communicability of categories of description as evidenced by the extent to which others can recognise ways of experiencing as described by categories of description (Sandberg, 1997; Marton, 1996). Inter-judge reliability is a percentage score based on level of agreement between the primary and a secondary researcher, with a desirable rating of 80 percent reliability or above after consultation between the phenomenographers and the co-judge (Saljo, 1988; Sandberg, 1997).
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Inter-judge reliability is an appropriate technique for phenomenography because it provides a measure of the extent to which the categories of description, as descriptions of ways of experience, can be relied on. Phenomenography differs from other interpretative research in that it has findings at a collective level. Therefore, inter-rater reliability, though usually associated with positivism, is arguably justified. As Marton (1996, p.169) emphasised, inter-judge reliability reflects a certain degree of "intersubjectively shared meaning" about categories of description, which is required if they are to be "instruments for making sense of and describing phenomena which they [other people] have studied and which they find in other contexts".
The process used in this study was similar to that of other phenomenographic research such as that by Renstrom, Anderson and Marton (1990) and Saljo (1988). First, the primary researcher, having developed the categories of description, provided these, including example statements belonging to the various categories, to the co-judge. A portion of each of the 25 transcripts was ‘extracted’ and provided to the co-judge. The co-judge was asked to classify each boxed section against a single category of meaning. The co-judge was not aware of the classification that had been assigned by the primary researcher to any of the 25 examples. Once the co-judge had classified each of the 25 examples, the assigned classifications were compared with those of the primary researcher. The percentage of the co-judge’s classifications in agreement with the primary researcher’s classifications was recorded. The two researchers then met and discussed the examples where they disagreed in order to discuss the rationale for their differences. After this, the two individuals again classified these examples and a new
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proportion of agreement between the primary researcher and secondary researcher was calculated and recorded. This obtained percentage of replicability is reported in the results section of this thesis.
4.3.2 Aiding Replicability through a Detailed Research Summary
The preceding detailed and specific description of the study, including a thorough description of participants in the study allows the reader to assess the relevance of the study to another context when reading the analysis of phenomenographic data in future chapters (Cantrell (1993). The outline of the research design has been structured to comprehensively attend to clarity of description in order to assist any possible future reconstruction and corroboration and to allow the reader insight into the way in which categories of description and the outcome space were developed
(Cantrell, 1993;
Ashworth and Lucus, 2000).
4.3.3 Interpretative Awareness (Truthfulness)
Kvale (1991, 1994) argued that within research it is possible that biased subjectivity can lead researchers to distort research as a means of bolstering their own views, through focusing on statements supporting their own viewpoint, interpreting findings so as to justify their own beliefs or conclusions, and overlooking evidence that contradict these beliefs. This is linked to the particular argument by researchers such as Francis (1996) and Ashworth and Lucus (2000) that phenomenographic research should utilise
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bracketing to ensure that personal meaning ascribed to a phenomenon by the researcher including views and experiences obtained from the literature are bounded and accounted for within the research process. The manner in which this bracketing occurred was exemplified earlier in this chapter. As Kvale further argued, a researcher can have perspectival subjectivity and be more aware of how personal interpretations may influence the research process. Awareness of personal interpretations becomes a researcher’s strength because the researcher can reflect upon these biases and attempt to remove their influence.
Accepting Kvale's argument (1991, 1994), Sandberg (1994, 1997) developed and argued for a process he called interpretative awareness (Sandberg, 1994, 1997), an argument Marton (1996, p. 169) conceded was "fairly convincing" and has been specifically detailed by numerous phenomenographers such as Cope (2002) and Sandberg (1997). Essentially:
In order to be as faithful as possible to the individuals' [the research participants'] conceptions of reality, the researcher must demonstrate how he/she has controlled and checked his/her [the researchers'] interpretations throughout the research process: from formulating the research question, selecting individuals to be investigated, obtaining data from those individuals, analysing the data obtained, and reporting the results. (Sandberg, 1997, p.210)
The detail within this chapter documents the various means by which such interpretative awareness was attended to by a carefully developed and rigorous research design. The process of bracketing was perhaps the most demanding and effective of these techniques. Interpretative awareness during the phenomenographic studies was also
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facilitated through the use of a diary in which personal assumptions about learning and public education were recorded throughout the research process.
4.3.4 Obtaining Phenomenographic Validity
Validity means truth or correctness (Russell, 1919; Campbell, 1986). Given that the aim of phenomenography is to describe ways of experiencing truthfully, validity in this study may be claimed if ways of experiencing were faithfully described and defended. Procedures were included in this research to address internal validity (credibility), communicative validity, and pragmatic validity.
Patton (1990) reported that the credibility of an interpretative study was based upon rigorous techniques and method, researcher credibility, and the philosophy of the interpretative paradigm. A number of techniques were included in this study to help ensure the credibility of research findings. These techniques include four processes. 1. The triangulation of face-to-face, telephone and email data sources, though acknowledging that supporting email data was sourced from only one participant (Cantrell, 1993; Guba and Lincoln, 1981; Lather, 1986, 1989; Miles and Huberman, 1984, 1988). 2. Face validity data checks, also known as member checks, to gain participant's feedback on the veracity of findings (Cantrell, 1993; Guba and Lincoln, 1981; Miles and Huberman, 1984; Patton, 1990). Three participants provided feedback
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indicating that they were satisfied that the findings were thorough and convincing. 3. Ensuring appropriate representation of participants in the study (Cantrell, 1993; Miles and Huberman, 1984, 1988). This involved targeting of appropriate individuals from disaster management and the inclusion of a representative group of women. 4. Making explicit within the final thesis the subjective nature of the research procedure (Cantrell, 1993). It has been repeatedly emphasised throughout this process that research subjectivity has guided the emergence of this research and been the engine that has driven the development of this thesis.
Communicative validity (Kvale, 1989) was addressed through testing knowledge produced by means of communication throughout the research process. Communicative validity was pursued through dialogue between the researcher and participants rather than simple questions and answers during interviews; the researcher communicating with the transcript during its analysis; and, dialogue between the researcher and other practitioners and researchers to challenge findings and procedures (Sandberg, 1994).
Pragmatic validity (Kvale, 1989) was achieved through testing knowledge that was produced during the data collection process. This involved double checking the meaning of statements given by a participant during interviews by asking follow-up questions and requiring answers that demonstrated what is meant in a practical way (Sandberg, 1994). Kvale (1989) argued that reflection of a statement back to the interviewee and observing
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their reaction is another useful procedure and such a process of active listening was implemented during the interviews.
4.3.5 Adopting a Phenomenological Attitude
This research attempted to avoid or overcome pre-definitions by adhering to Sandberg's (1994, p.66) advice and precedent research whereby the phenomenographer should “enter into the phenomenological attitude”. Sandberg (1994) transferred this phenomenological process found in the work of Ihde (1977, p.36) to phenomenography. The phenomenological attitude is “that looking precede judgment and that judgment of what is 'real' or 'most real' should be suspended until all the evidence (or at least sufficient evidence) is in.”
A five-step reduction process suggested by Sandberg (1997) as a means of adopting an appropriate phenomenological attitude was used in this research. First, the researcher oriented to the phenomenon and how it appears. Second, the researcher oriented towards describing the phenomenon while avoiding descriptions that vary from the experience reported by each participant. Third, the researcher attempted to ensure horizontalization during research by treating all aspects of lived experience as equally important, both when obtaining and analysing data. Fourth, the researcher searched for structural features of the phenomenon by varying interpretations while reading through the data "until the basic meaning structure of the individuals' conceptions of their reality has been stabilised" (p.139). Fifth, intentional analysis involved identifying what it is
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individuals experience of reality, how individuals experience that reality, then the relating of ways of experiencing to what reality is conceived to be.
4.3 DISCUSSION OF WAYS OF EXPERIENCING PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR DISASTER SAFETY Research findings from the phenomenographic study were compared in isolation and together then against existing theories in disaster and education. Findings emerging from this process have been included in the discussion of this thesis, and extend to an analysis of which theories have similarities and differences with the categories of description that describe ways of understanding. The intention of the next chapter of this thesis – Ways of Understanding Public Education [Chapter 5] – presents the emergent categories of description and logically relates these in an outcome space. These results help account for the contradiction in current theory shaping contemporary education for disaster safety. The limitations of the research outcomes, in terms of the collective and decontextualised nature of phenomenographic findings have been identified and included in the thesis discussion. ----o----o----o----
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CHAPTER FIVE: WAYS OF EXPERIENCING PUBLIC EDUCATION IN A DISASTER MANAGEMENT CONTEXT ----o----o----o---Public education is a bit like Joseph and his Technicolour Coat. It's different things to different people. (Anonymous Research Participant in this Phenomenographic Study)
----o----o----o----
5.0 OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH FINDINGS This research study sought to: Describe the limited number of qualitatively different ways of experiencing the phenomenon of ‘public education’ as understood by senior Australian disaster managers and disaster educators who have been active in the promotion of public education.
The research results addressing this problem are presented within these four sections.
1. The referential component of the emergent ways of experiencing public education is presented in the form of categories of description.
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2. The structural component of the emergent ways of experiencing public education is presented in an outcome space where the categories of description associated with the referential component are structurally related.
3. The replicability of emergent categories of meaning is included as the correlation of inter-rater reliability.
4. The variance underlying ways of understanding public education is included as dimensions of variation.
The first two components of the above results constitute the way that participating disaster managers and educators experience public education. The third component of these results is a quantitative indicator of the generalisability of the emergent categories of description. The fourth component of these results provides a basis for elaborating the dimensions along which variations exist between individuals and across times and contexts and underlie the various ways of understanding.
The ways of experiencing public education as uncovered in the categories of description and outcome space represent the range over which the participants’ thoughts ranged. All ways of experiencing public education are legitimate. None are incorrect but rather represent different ways of viewing the phenomenon of public education.
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5.1 CATEGORIES OF DESCRIPTION: REFERENTIAL COMPONENT OF WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING ‘PUBLIC EDUCATION’
The disaster managers who participated in this study expressed various experiences of public education during the course of the interviews. As a result of the phenomenographic analysis, ten discrete, parsimonious and qualitatively different ways of experiencing public education were identified: •
as a non-effective process;
•
as a way of managing a public issue;
•
as promoting an issue;
•
as issuing expert instructions;
•
as changing individuals;
•
as strategic teaching and training;
•
as collaborative partnerships;
•
as empowering learners to make informed decisions;
•
as negotiation; and
•
as an element in societal learning.
The referential component of these ten ways of experiencing public education is presented as ten discrete categories of description in which the meaning of the category is contained within the abbreviated title, concise description and explanation. Each category of description represents key aspects of the variation in meanings and
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experience constituted from the interview transcripts. The categories of description are not attributable to any one individual. They are a collective description of the qualitatively different ways in which the collective set of twenty-five disaster managers and disaster educators who have been active in the promotion of public education made sense of their experience of public education. They are not assumed to represent all possible ways of viewing public education but instead have emerged from the collective, contextual experiences of the research participants. These complete categories of description are now presented in turn, each with a brief description and accompanied by examples of key aspects of each category in the form of verbatim quotations 8 from interview transcripts. Quotations are included to augment the description with tangible examples, chosen as typical of the category and other comments for the particular category.
8
As quotations are faithfully reproduced, errors in grammar have not been corrected.
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Category of Description #1 Abbreviated Title: Non-Effective Process Concise Description: Public Education as a Non-Effective Process Explanation: In this “non-effective process” category of description, public education is characterised as ineffective, based on previous thwarted or unsuccessful efforts to educate the public. Individuals predominantly express confusion or ambivalence in regard to public education and are unsure as to how to make it effective and integrate it within a more global address of the social issue being attended to. This experience is typically accompanied by the negative emotion of frustration. The education process is considered either so complex or so entwined with other factors that a way to educate beneficially is not clear to the individual. Public education is viewed as either largely ineffective either in general, in current practice as perceived resource or logistical constraints dictate, or when compared as a preventative measure against response efforts to the issue (i.e. disasters). Examples from transcript: •
"I don't think we can reliably educate the public on anything."
•
"I can see that the community aren't being given the right kind of information to make decisions. But taking it that step further is beyond me."
•
"I'll show you what complacency's like… We organised a public meeting. We advertised it through the local papers. We had ten experts in the meteorology field. And not one person turned up. So [this town]* obviously doesn't put bushfire risk very high....So that's community interest." Name of town withheld to ensure participant anonymity.
•
"The thing that nobody really knows is how you enhance or change or modify behaviour to take the message that is offered in education… and engender sustained ongoing change which will then result in benefits and community safety outcomes. So in that respect I think we've taken this notion of educating the public as far as we can."
•
"The educational approach hasn't worked as effectively as it could have.”
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•
"I think it'll be a long time until it's a good process. I think there are a lot of people paying lip service to it at the moment...”
•
"I find our public education / awareness strategy unfocused and untested. I don't believe it’s comprehensive."
•
“My experience of what we’ve done is that it [public education] is generally pretty ineffective.”
•
“To educate our communities about storms, we’ve done quite a bit, but we’ve done it on the smell of an oily rag. I think what we’ve done has been extremely cost effective and useless. Cost effective in the sense that it hasn’t cost anything, so any effect it’s had has been cheap per unit impact, but we’ve had almost no impact.”
•
“Our work, because it has been done on the smell of an oily rag, because we’ve not been able to put real investment punch behind it, its been ineffectual though has not wasted a lot of money. I’m not sure where we go from there because it’s a negative finding.”
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Category of Description #2 Abbreviated Title: A Part of Managing A Public Issue Concise Description: Public education as part of the process of managing or addressing an issue affecting members of the public.
Explanation: The “a part of managing a public issue” category of description is characterised by a focus on an issue or risk in need of attention and an accompanying perception that public education is one of the options available to attempt to address that issue. Espoused ways to manage disasters included mitigation, prevention and risk reduction. There is often an emphasis on the goals of education, such as the reduction of loss of life or property damage in the context of disaster safety, but there is little emphasis on education processes or methods. Reference to actual education practices is secondary and restricted to general description of teaching or information dissemination processes. The sentiment is often paternalistic in tone, with an emphasis on safeguarding members of the public whose interests are perceived as being at risk. Focus is upon a relationship between the social issue, the educator or educating agency or agencies, and the public. Education is understood as being either a major communication process between disaster agencies and the public or as encompassing the entire communication flow between these groups. Regardless, the commonality is that public education is part of the process of managing or addressing an issue effecting members of the public. Examples from transcript: • • •
“Most effort is going into the response side of disaster management. But this will be shifting to 75% prevention and 25% response. We will be putting 1/7 of our effort into public education and 1/7 into industry information.” "I see all [education] that we do as being of benefit, ultimately, to the community." “Part of the job of an emergency service organisation is to ensure that, for those threats for which it is responsible under the combat agency structure, we have in Australia, whereby individual agencies are given the legislative function of dealing with particular threats, we … make sure the community is flood smart and storm smart.”
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•
“There's a responsibility on any emergency service to ensure that the community is informed.”
•
[discussing public education] “The nature of the organisation historically has been that it has evolved towards begrudgingly accepting that prevention is better than cure”.
•
“If preparedness is becoming more of a priority (as people say) need to find some ways to talk about it in concrete terms..”
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Category of Description #3 Abbreviated Title: Promoting an Issue Concise Description: Public education as experts promoting an issue perceived as threatening of public interests. Explanation: This category of description is “Promoting an Issue” to the public. This promotion is typically in the form of a warning to the public about a perceived threat to public interest but can also be in the form of advertising the benefits of recommended courses of action. The warning or advertisement can be in any of the many available forms of media. The intention of the warning is to get members of the public to focus attention or awareness upon the issue (e.g. perceived risk, threat, issue or hazard) in expectation that the public will then prepare in ways designed to mitigate the possible consequences of the hazard or risk. As such, it is implicit within this understanding that any warning or promotion is a catalyst for public action in his or her self-interest. In the case of warning of rare negative events (e.g. floods or cyclones), emphasis is often the substantial consequence of being ill prepared, as the perceived catalyst for public action is a combination of consequence and likelihood. Emphasis is upon marketing or popularising the promotion and reaching a wide or appropriate audience. Emphasis is also upon the gaining of attention or awareness rather than upon prescribing subsequent actions that should be taken. It is important to emphasise that reference to warnings in this category of meaning was in regard to a generalised threat (e.g. storms or bushfires) and not a specific event (e.g. a particular and immediate instance of a cyclone such as Cyclone Tracy). Specific warnings do focus attention and allow for education and experiential learning but emphasis is upon the immediate issue of safety. Examples from transcript: •
“You [the public] can do a lot for yourself. Indeed you must. Part of that is knowing what a warning is about, and having a feel when you get a warning that there is A, B and C that you can do.”
•
“But the media can also be very useful in educating. Responsible media is I think, and agencies work with the media in developing warning messages before the cyclone and fire seasons.”
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•
"I think the way you get attention is if people know they've got a hazard."
•
“What we have to do is get an advertising agency in there to teach us how to sell the messages once we’ve decided what the messages ought to be.”
•
“If people don't have any understanding of dangers they might expose themselves to, and don't have to, there is going to be more life and property damage.”
•
“We need to get into peoples’ minds the notion that this thing is real though rare, and it’ll hurt, but that they can manage that hurt to their own advantage.”
•
“Unless you're living in a highly frequent cyclone area, you become immune to it because of the low frequency.”
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Category of Description #4 Abbreviated Title: Issuing Expert Instructions Concise Description: Public education as issuing a set of instructions listing behaviours deemed appropriate by experts. Explanation: This category of description concerns provision of a set of instructions or behavioural guidelines to the general public. Either implicitly or explicitly, there is an assumption that the instructions are issued by knowledgeable experts to a naïve or non-predictable public and the public should sensibly heed this expert advice and respond. There is little or no attention to differentiating the public as thoughtful and capable of decisionmaking. Instructions are devised on the assumption that there are appropriate or selfresponsible ways an individual should behave. As such, the purpose of education is to instruct the public as to ‘appropriate’ behaviour. For disaster safety, the outcome sought is typically assumed to be increased safety through disaster mitigating behaviour. However, little or no explanation is offered as to the psychological or social processes that translate instructions into subsequent desired behavioural outcomes. There is often a secondary emphasis upon maximising the effectiveness of these instructions by attempting to reach either as large an audience as possible or by targeting key groups who would benefit most from the instructions. Emphasis is upon traditional one-way communication channels whereby the expert instructor informs the public via mechanisms of instruction with little opportunity for the public to engage in the process. Examples from transcript: •
• •
"The important thing is that a magnetic sticker on a fridge or information on a calendar behind the toilet door or in the back of the cupboard is there. And they know it's there. They might never read it in detail but they know its there if the time comes." “They [the public], nevertheless, need to be led, as we all need to be led, in various things about which we are not expert.” "Sometimes you need people to just follow instructions without arguing the point. And I think that's important. I think if the community has faith in the emergency managers they'll do that. To make that more likely you have to step back in the process and give them more information before you need them to take instruction."
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“The way we’re managing it is we’re telling the public what we think they should do and need.”
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Category of Description #5 Abbreviated Title: Changing Individuals Concise Description: Public education as changing aspects of individuals to change behaviours that accord with expert opinion.
Explanation: In this category of description, public education is a process wherein an educator attempts to change personal aspects of individuals to produce behaviours that experts consider responsible or effective. Fundamental to this category of description for public education is the perception that education involves experts developing members of the public to affect issues. It is not the aspect of the individual being changed that is the commonality in this category of description. Rather, the commonality is an assumption that changing a key aspect or key aspects of either enough members of the public or susceptible members of the public will represent a shift in behavioural patterns that addresses the issue at hand (i.e. disaster mitigation in this instance). Emphasis is upon changing either a single or multiple aspects of individuals, whether knowledge, skills, attributes, priorities, values, competence, resilience, motivation level, beliefs, awareness or the like, to address the issue. The implied intention of changing underlying psychological or social determinants of behaviour is in order to bring about sustained shifts in subsequent behaviour that, when involving appropriate or sufficient members of the public, translates into sustained shifts in epidemiology of the issue affecting the public. Examples from transcript: •
"Education to me means bringing down an attitudinal change…”
•
“The ultimate aim of public education is behavioural change in the community or communities at risk.”
•
“My key problem or issue in looking at a flood problem is that if there is very limited behavioural change when you go back to the prerequisites in terms of knowledge, attitudes, values leading to behavioural change, there is nothing in it [motivation wise] for them to change their behaviour.”
•
“There are things each person, family, business owner, manager of property can do to lessen the threat, to mitigate against its impact, to manage that threat when it occurs and to recover from it.”
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“I’ve been known to say that we should take notice of the great propagandists of human history like Goebbels. These guys were effective at changing people’s minds and behaviours. Now, they had some advantages that we don’t have, like a totalitarian state behind them. But you get my drift.”
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Category of Description #6 Abbreviated Title: Strategic Teaching and Training Concise Description: Public education as using strategic teaching and training methods to educate the public.
Explanation: In the “Strategic Teaching and Training” category of description emphasis is upon using eclectic teaching and training methods or approaches to educate the public. As such, it is an understanding of public education as the application of either a specified or multiple teaching or training methods from an available repertoire and to appropriate audiences. Emphasis is upon selection of a combination of actual teaching methods of which the individual is aware and advocates. The rationale for selection of any given teaching technique involves the individual evaluating the perceived effectiveness of the various methods in addressing an issue based upon personal experience of public education or indirect accounts of the successes of certain approaches. The rationale for selection also often includes consideration of available education resources. The focus is less upon the tactics and methods of any particular form of teaching or learning and more towards the strategic selection of teaching methods and audiences to best address the issue. The setting for the education can be formal, informal or non-formal, from the classroom to non-government organisations to the home, for example. Examples from transcript: •
"I don't think there's any one answer, any one effective public education / awareness mode. It has to be on many different levels to many different targets."
•
“I don’t know that you can do everything you’d like to do in one message.”
•
“You have to use a number of strategies which will together increase the chances of people saving their lives or being assisted to save their own lives, or to minimise damage to their property in cooperation with emergency services.”
•
"In the past, education has just been leaflets and a small component in school curriculum studies... At a community level, there was an awareness campaign at the beginning of the season. It's shifting a little bit now towards more face-to-face. Another important shift is there's now live-to-air. There has also been information in the phone book...”
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•
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“… teach them what to do.”
• "I believe that we should target school age children, particularly primary school. It's my belief - and I think there are lots of studies to back it up - that if you educate a primary school child, say grade 4 or 5, you educate a whole family. They all know with fire to 'stop, drop and roll'."
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Category of Description #7 Abbreviated Title: Collaborative Partnerships Concise Description: Public education as establishing and maintaining collaborative partnerships with the public. Explanation: In this category of description, public education is the establishment and maintenance of collaborative partnerships with the public. The partnerships tend to be selected strategically, though selection of partners can also be opportunistic or all-inclusive when there is little public interest. These partnerships have two-way communication and are established on the basis that the public and the educators’ agency / agencies will be more successful in addressing an issue when the public and educators combine to address the issue. Depending on the perceived relative power dynamic, dialogues between the educator and learner may be in order to learn from each other, clarify the expectations of the educator and learner, the educator to engage the learner, and / or to better improve the transfer of expertise from the educator to the learner. This dialogue is usually intended to also develop the level of commitment of the public to sustained address of the issue. The relationship is understood as a new entity in itself that is sometimes akin to a fulcrum the educator can lever to induce change in public behaviour and sometimes akin to a pipeline through which the educator seeks to flow teaching to a learning public. The view that individuals may be able to self-change behaviour without outside expert advice is not a dominant part of this category of meaning. Examples from transcript: •
"Via understanding what the community's concerns are, we can engage in a way that will enhance community safety."
•
“That’s the ideal situation. If you can go in and involve people at a grass roots level…”
•
“The purpose is to have sustained change within the parameters of community safety as an outcome of activities via engaging with your communities."
•
"I think the educators have to be more informed about the community need and understanding before they impose an educational program or an awareness program on a community."
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•
I think it’s very effective if the local people can do it properly, targeting the specifics in their own communities.”
•
“I think the best way is actually involving people in the process in a two way process. From an emergency management point of view this is no simple task because a lot of the people in it have not come up from a community facilitation / adult education background. They've been brought up in, sort of, a response agency approach. "
•
“It has to be a fairly personal level: small groups rather than the broad blanket approach.”
•
"It's not a process of saying you should do this because of that, but coming in and engaging them in a process where you might have to unfreeze their experience, get them to tell you what the problems are, because they've got a history of activity, a history with authority, and you may have to get a full picture of their history before you can really know how you might appropriately assist them in becoming safe."
•
•
"It [effectiveness of education campaigns] depends on a fair degree of local commitment. For instance, in areas like [a town]*, campaigns have been fairly successful with a large level of community involvement in public meetings etc because they have very good people at the local level who support it. They have a particular vulnerability to storm surge in [the town]* and people are aware of it. The local council has developed storm surge maps and delivered them to the local community. That makes people look at their particular situation rather than be up in the ether." Name of town withheld to ensure participant anonymity.
•
"The public are our ultimate clients.”
•
“I think some of it comes down to getting closer to the individual.”
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Category of Description #8 Abbreviated Title: Empowering Learners to Make Informed Decisions Concise Description: Public education as empowering learners to make informed decisions in their best self-interests.
Explanation: This category of description is empowering learners through education to make informed decisions that best address their self-interests in regard to a particular issue. Educators actively seek to provide centralised resources to support the ongoing learning of the public in regard to the relevant issue such that personal capacity to make informed decisions is enhanced via appropriate knowledge and information. It includes an emphasis upon viewing individuals as self-actualising rather than uniformly non-expert or naïve, having a capacity in regard to their own learning, a contributory role in society and being self-responsible. It also includes an emphasis upon facilitating knowledge sharing amongst the public to support decision-making, with a predominant part of understanding being that members of the public possess much of the knowledge required to best address public interests, often acquired through prior experience with the issue within a geographical region or social group. The emphasis is upon both the role of the educator making an effort to support the learning and the role of the public in being motivated and proactively seeking learning opportunities. It is understood that education requires that a learner either initiates or sustains motivation to learn. Examples from transcript: •
“That would be the aim of public education … to increase their self-reliance and to operate in a risk management environment where they could make rational decisions on the basis of knowledge.”
•
“Public education as providing ‘the facts’ so that people can ultimately make an informed opinion.
•
“We need to ensure individuals develop skills and an appreciation of when and how to use them.”
•
“It’s an empowerment game. It is trying to get them flood ready, flood prepared, flood smart, where at the moment they’re not because they haven’t had a decent flood for 35 years.”
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•
"It comes down to a caveman adage: 'You have to look after yourself'. And how can you look after yourself unless you're well informed?"
•
"In its broadest sense, it [public education] is informing the public and giving them enough information that they can make good decisions about their own actions."
•
"In terms of disaster management, we need to evaluate the effectiveness of what we do and identify the gaps, identify why people turn off. Identify the entry into the community's awareness."
•
"People's level of danger or comfort can be very influenced by their own actions: not exposing themselves to unnecessary danger, knowing where to shelter, knowing what supplies to put by, and those sorts of things."
•
"Information that you give cannot be couched in the old terms: ‘You will! You will! You will!’ because people in the 90's won't even read that. It should be: ‘These are the facts about it. We encourage you to make some considered decisions.’ "
•
"You involve them [the public] by giving them information that they can make their own decisions on."
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Category of Description #9 Abbreviated Title: Negotiation Concise Description: Public education as negotiation between the public, central agencies and other stakeholders to manage public interests. Explanation: In this category of description, public education is a negotiation between the public, central agencies and other stakeholders to manage public interests in regard to an issue. The aim is to share interpretations of the issue, and negotiate roles and responsibilities of the public and society in managing the issue. Negotiating to manage an issue means that social policy is not automatically determined by central authoritative agencies but rather is explored and negotiated in terms of acceptable risks and societal priorities. Thus, the educational process is overtly political and aims towards negotiated consensus. Securing the trust of the public becomes a step in the education process. Members of the public are considered to have their own priorities and agendas, as are educators from central disaster agencies. It is recognised that negotiation is a necessary part of making progress in relation to an issue given competing priorities amongst different segments of society. Examples from transcript:
• "Certainly, in areas of high risk, the community needs definitely to be involved." • “Unless people are willing to accept some responsibility for their own risk, they shouldn’t actually expect any assistance from anyone else either.”
• “None of the governments are very serious about either risk assessment or reducing the costs of disasters. It is a political trade off between doing the sensible things and things that won’t offend the voters…. If government were serious about risk management, they would actually override the objections of home owners, for example, simple things like painting the level of the 1 in 100 year flood on telegraph poles so that everybody in a flood prone area can look out their front window and say ‘Oh shit, the one in a hundred year flood is there’…Only if there was political will, and I don’t think there is political will because politicians are not inclined to focus very often on long term.”
• “… it's classical stuff where you have this trust gap between one group of affected
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people, stigmatised individuals...and experts.”
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Category of Description #10 Abbreviated Title: Element of Societal Learning Concise Description: Public Education as an Element of Societal Learning. Explanation: In this category of description, public education is viewed as an element of societal learning. Education occurs throughout societal processes and across social groups and individuals, with societal learning reflecting the complex inter-relations of individuals and processes within that society. Education is seen as occurring within the web of actions that give society structure and direction, and as such educational decisions by central agencies and learning choices and opportunities for the public occur against the backdrop of societal politics. The tangible and intangible developments and benefits of the societal structure are seen as being reflected in society’s efforts to respond and adapt to ongoing and new issues that challenge its members. Issues needing consideration are seen as emerging from within society. The education level of society is considered as the net learning and capability within a society. Education is a process for attaining societal stability, sustainability and ultimately achievement and progress. Learning is considered to occur at many levels within society, with the machinations of societal functioning part of the education process. Successful education endeavours are considered to be attained where the process is holistic, consensus-driven, utilises societal strengths and seeks to improve societal weaknesses, particularly vulnerabilities of the least resilient or most susceptible social groups. Whether or not the ownership of responsibility for education belongs to centralised agencies or societal members is not resolved. Examples from transcript: •
"There is still a distance to go to apply what is currently done. To go beyond that, we have to do something different. Things do work, but things have been shown to be non-sustainable because people only keep certain things in their mind, translated from face-to-face learning, forced or sought learning experience, and the lifestyle or behaviour. To go beyond that, given we are in an evolving society, we can't see the end, we can't see the beginning as we're participating in it, you can use scientific methods, but because we're in a situation where we're participating in an evolving societal group."
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•
"It has to be strengthening of community at a deeper level, not just at emergency management level. Preparing for disasters is really quite small when you look at the big picture of community life."
•
"There are a whole lot of important target groups such as councils, developers, architects, engineers. They're part of the public. Yet if you don't focus on them you'll get developments in inappropriate places or to inappropriate standards. Just giving a little campaign at cyclone time is not enough if development has been allowed to go on in a storm surge area when people know it will put people at extreme risk. That's where a lot of policy is education but not in the usual form of education. It's trying to influence the way people in significant and influential areas think and act. That I think is really vital."
•
“I guess I would understand public to be a very wide concept that means everybody and every organisation. I guess I would use public education to include private education. So if one were targeting a private organisation to reduce their risk of property loss as a result of the impact of a natural hazard, I would still regard that as public education. Probably, they’re inseparable in that if you have a group of people from a company in a room and you were haranguing them successfully about reducing risk in the company, I would find is pretty inconceivable that some of that didn’t wash over into their own family or private circumstances. So in that way it’s public education as well.”
•
"In relation to chemical hazards one participant reported that:" They (industry) perceive this sort of information [about hazards] passed to the public could cause deep concern and anxiety. So they're reluctant to pass that information on because they fear the local community will rise up and protest against them, will agitate to get rid of them, that sort of thing. But in reality we are saying that there is a public right to know."
•
"It could be a case of equity, in terms of access to resources to afford two or three smoke alarms in the house. It could be a factor that because we are going to look at lower socio-economic communities the high level communities probably don't need any help at all... they are in a position to afford and / or get access to information to self-protect. We are going to work with the principle that many people can't afford necessarily to make use effectively of fire education in a conventional sense."
•
The purpose is to have sustained change within the parameters of community safety as an outcome of activities via engaging with your communities."
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As common in phenomenographic research, the analysis in this study recognised multiple categories of description within individual transcripts, which Renstrom, Andersson and Marton, 1990, p.558) referred to as ‘intraindividual variation’. All of the research participants expressed more than one way of experiencing of public education at different times. The number of ways of experiencing public education expressed by a given research participant was determined to range from a minimum of two to a maximum of six. To assist the reader in understanding the grouping of ways of understanding and accept the categories as credible and to provide a reference for any future replications of this study, a graph showing the percentage of research participants that expressed a way of understanding categorised by those ways of understanding is included as Figure 5-1. While this research provides this distribution to assist the reader in assessing the credibility of findings, other phenomenographic research has presented a distribution to allow comparison of various cohorts against categories (e.g. Marton, Carlsson & Halasz, 1992).
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% of Research Participants
60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Non-effective Part of Promoting an Issuing process managing a issue expert public issue instructions
Changing individuals
Strategic Collaborative Empowering teaching and partnerships learners to training make informed decisions
Negotiation
Element of societal learning.
Ways of Understanding
Figure 5-1
Percentage of Research Participants by Way of Understanding
5.2 OUTCOME SPACE: STRUCTURAL COMPONENT OF WAYS OF EXPERIENCING ‘PUBLIC EDUCATION’ The structural component of the emergent ways of experiencing public education is presented as an Outcome Space where the categories of description associated with the referential component are structurally related. This Outcome Space is presented diagrammatically in Figure 5-2. Each of the 10 categories of description is numbered in accordance with the numbering scheme of the previous section.
Four structural aspects of the Outcome Space are noteworthy. Firstly, an effectiveness boundary separates category of description #1 – public education as a non-effective
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process - from the other 9 categories of description wherein public education is understood as effective or potentially effective. Secondly, four semi-boundaries (identified by dashed lines) are included to relate a majority of the categories of description within four meta-groupings: (i) guidance, (ii) engagement, (iii) consensus, and (iv) societal learning. Thirdly, the structural relation of categories three through ten is hierarchical, as indicated by the arrow. The hierarchy is not of fully inclusive relationships, where aspects of lower categories are fully existent within higher categories of meaning. Rather, categories of description three to ten inclusive are subjectively considered hierarchical on the basis of classification against a number of possible underlying dimensions of variation. Identifying underlying dimensions of variation is a recent concept in phenomenography and included in the results of a few recent phenomenographic research studies. As such, dimensions of variation are a legitimate phenomenographic research outcome though still neither a standard in such research nor a major focus within this research. Given this, these possible underlying dimensions of variation are included at the end of this results section though are considered secondary phenomenographic results against the primary categories of meaning and outcome space achieved. Fourthly, the representation of the second category of description -
part of managing an issue – vertically across the other
categories (3 to 10) is to emphasise that this category is inclusively hierarchical, with aspects of this category of description included in subsequent higher categories of meaning.
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2. part of managing a public issue
10. element of societal learning 9. negotiation 8. empowering learners to make informed decisions 7. collaborative partnerships
CONSENSUS
ENGAGEMENT
6. strategic teaching and training
5.changing individuals 4. issuing expert instructions 3. promoting an issue
Effectiveness Boundary
Figure 5-2
SOCIETAL LEARNING
Outcome Space for the Phenomenon of Public Education
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GUIDANCE
1. non-effective process
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5.3 REPLICABILITY OF EMERGENT CATEGORIES The inter-judge reliability percentage was 92.0%, reflecting agreement between the primary and secondary researcher upon 23 of the 25 excerpts from the transcripts. This inter-judge reliability percentage score is the percentage of agreement on the category of meaning to which a given individual transcript was allocated by the primary phenomenographer (judge) versus the secondary researcher (co-judge) after consultation (Saljo, 1988; Sandberg, 1997). This compared with a pre-consultation agreement of 72.0%. The inter-judge reliability percentages, pre- and post- consultancy, are graphically represented in Figure 5-3. Pre-Consultation
Post-Consultation
8%
28% Agreement
Agreement
Disagreement
Disagreement
72% 92%
Figure 5-3
Inter-Judge Reliability Percentage Pre- and Post- Consultancy
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5.4 DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION UNDERLYING EXPERIENCE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
The categories of meaning and the outcome space, as referential and structural aspects of a phenomenon, are considered the primary results of this thesis. However, as discussed in Chapter Three, developments in phenomenography offer an account of how it is possible for an individual to see the same phenomenon in different ways at different times as depending upon the aspects of the phenomenon that are more or less figural in awareness at a given moment (Ackerlind, 2002; Marton, 1994a; Marton and Ming Fai, 1999; Marton and Booth, 1997; Bowden and Marton, 1998). These aspects, identified by Marton and Ming Fai (1999, p.7) within new directions for phenomenography, can be considered as key dimensions of variation in the structure of the ways of experiencing. Thus, in terms of phenomenographic results, it is possible to express the phenomenon of public education not only in terms of categories of description and an outcome space that logically relates these categories, but also to reconsider the outcome space in terms of underlying key dimensions of variation in understanding or experience explaining categories of description. These dimensions “mark aspects of similarity and difference between the categories (and thus between different ways of experiencing the phenomenon) and allow the relationships between the categories to be elaborated” (Ackerlind, 2002a, p.4). They allow elaboration upon the structure of the outcome space (i.e. relationships between categories) and as such offer a framework for considering the structure of the phenomenon.
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Recently, some phenomenography research has presented underlying key dimensions of variation as part of the overall set of phenomenographic results (e.g. Ackerlind, 2002a). However at this point in time, this is not the standard practice in the majority of phenomenographic research studies, let alone a requisite outcome. Dimensions of variation are reported in this section as legitimate phenomenographic results. However they are considered secondary results to the primary category of meaning and outcome space results already presented. These research results include relating dimensions of variation and ways of understanding. However, this research does not seek to explore fully the relationship between ways of experiencing and dimensions of variation but rather to use the latter to aid in elaboration of the former.
A number of dimensions or factors underlying the existing ways of experiencing public education exist. The labeling of these dimensions of variation highlights that how an individual understands public education at a given time entwines with the salience of aspects of underlying dimensions of variation to the individual in that time and context. An initial set of divergences or themes included: •
the public as educator-assisted to educator-controlled;
•
valuing the public as equal to valuing educators as experts;
•
agency-centric to public-centric;
•
educators as instructors to educators as negotiators;
•
public education as process or content or outcome;
•
perceived roles;
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•
perceived responsibilities;
•
interactive versus indirect education;
•
unidirectional versus reciprocal communication;
•
learner-focused versus message-focused;
•
seeking reestablishment of status quo to seeking improvement;
•
focused versus diffuse understanding; and
•
individual versus community outcome focus.
Samuel William Nielsen
After analysis and rationalisation, combinations of awareness along each of nine major dimensions were found to constitute the qualitatively different ways of experiencing public education in a disaster management context. These nine dimensions were: •
perceived effectiveness of public education;
•
directionality of communication;
•
the property of public education;
•
the differentiation of public;
•
basis of disasters;
•
extent of interaction;
•
educator or learner driven;
•
success indicators; and
•
power dynamics.
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These dimensions of variation are now presented in turn (labeled A to I alphabetically), each accompanied by a brief description and a diagrammatic representation of the range of the dimension.
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Dimension of Variance A Perceived Effectiveness of Public Education
Effective
Ineffective
Description: The Perceived Effectiveness of Public Education dimension reflects variation in experience-based understanding of the effectiveness of public education from ineffective to effective.
Dimension of Variance B Directionality of Communication
Reciprocal
Unidirectional
Description: The Flow of Communication dimension reflects variation in understanding of the communication flow during the education process from a unidirectional (1-way) instruction from the educator to a fully reciprocal exchange of ideas.
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Dimension of Variance C The Property of Public Education
Content
Process
Outcome Description:
The Property of Public Education dimension, is actually a triangular matrix rather than a linear dimension, and reflects the relative extent to which an individual views public education as an outcome, content or process based phenomenon. As such, each of the three vertices can be considered as a dimension in itself (i.e. low to high content base, low to high outcome base and low to high process base). The salience of one aspect over others is variable. This classification is best understood as a relationship whereby a relative emphasis upon each of these aspects can be considered.
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Dimension of Variance D The Differentiation of Public
Uniform Collective
Many Individuals
Description: The Differentiation of Public dimension reflects variation in understanding of the learners in the education process from a collection of non-uniform individuals to a grouping of individuals at a societal or even national level without focus upon individual distinctions.
Dimension of Variance E Basis of Disasters
Social
Physical
Political
Description: The Basis of Disasters dimension reflects variation in understanding of the causality and exacerbation of disasters from physical to social through to political. This dimension is not related to public education as a process so much as disaster mitigation as the public education issue, but on this basis was inextricably entwined with understanding of public education by the disaster managers and educators.
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Dimension of Variance F Extent of Interaction
Frequency
Duration
The Extent of Interaction dimension is a two-dimensional variation in understanding of the extent of interaction, in terms of the frequency and duration of interaction. The extent of variation is a combination of these two related dimensions and the category reflects relative emphasis upon frequency and duration (e.g. occasional, long term).
Dimension of Variance G Educator or Learner Driven
Educator Driven
Learner Driven
Description: The Educator or Learner Driven dimension reflects variation in understanding of the driving influence behind education and change sought via education from being educator driven to learner driven.
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Dimension of Variance H Success Indicators
increased awareness
behaviour change
public capability
Quantitative outcomes
agreed risks
societal development
Qualitative outcomes
Individual outcomes
Group outcomes
Psychological outcomes
Social outcomes
Description: The Success Indicators dimension concerns the outcomes against which the educator measures the success of education. Three sub-dimensions underlie the shift in categories (as shown in the diagram above): (i) quantitative to qualitative outcomes, (ii) individual to group outcomes, and (iii) psychological to social outcomes. Categories in this meta-dimension include: increased awareness, behaviour change, public capability, agreed risks and societal development.
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Dimension of Variance I Power Dynamic
Central authoritive
democratic
Description: The Power Dynamic dimension reflects variation in experience or understanding of public education the basis of the power dynamic between the educator and the learner, from a perception of the educating agent as possessing power referenced from being a central authority through to a view of the power dynamic as being an equal one based upon principles of democracy and cooperation.
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These nine underlying dimensions are those along which variation in understanding public education exists between individuals and also within individuals at different times and contexts. Table 5-1 is a matrix that relates the ten categories of description to the nine underlying dimensions of variation. As previously stated, the ten categories of description for public education (section 5.1) were the ten discrete, different and parsimonious ways of experiencing public education. In the matrix, each way of experiencing is allocated a value that positions it within each dimension. Thus, the aspects of underlying dimensions that are figural for a particular way of experiencing are represented.
It should be remembered that these phenomenographic results are representative of ways of experiencing of all research participants at a collective level. The relationship between ways of experiencing and dimensions of variation is representative of the focus of an individual in a given context and time and as such is an approximate relationship rather than a proscriptive one. As previously discussed, the relationship within the matrix is intended as a framework for discussion of ways of experiencing, rather than as a limitation upon the meaning of these ways of experiencing.
Finally, as well as dimensions of variation, two factors of consensus delimited the extent of the outcome space. All understanding of public education includes an understanding that public education: •
has as a goal the address of an issue; and
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•
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includes an educator and learner (though the role of the educator can vary dramatically) and a relationship between them.
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Table 5-1 Educator
Samuel William Nielsen
Key Aspects of the Range of Variation in Ways of Experiencing Public Education as a Disaster Manager or
Way of Experiencing
(A) Perceived Effectiveness
(B) Basis of disasters
(C) Property
Dimensions of Variance (F) Power Dynamic any any
any
(H) Extent of Interaction any
none
various
educator
any
uncertain
collective
central authorative
educator
occassional
increased awareness
central authorative
educator
occassional
collective
increased awareness / behaviour change
educator
occassional
behaviour change
educator
occassional / long term
behaviour change
long term
behaviour change
lifelong
Public capability
occassional / long term
agreed risks
lifelong
societal development
(D) Directionality of (E) Differentiation Communication of Public
(A) As a non-effective process
ineffective
any
outcome
any
(2) As a part of managing a public issue
effective
any
content
either
(3) As promoting an issue
effective
any
content
unidirectional
(4) As issuing expert instructions
effective
physical
content
unidirectional
collective
(5) As changing individuals
effective
physical / social
process
unidirectional
(6) As strategic teaching and training
effective
physical / social
process
either
Either individuals or collective
central authorative central authorative (tendency)
(7) As collaborative partnerships
effective
social
process
reciprocal
individuals
various
(8) As empowering learners to make informed decisions
effective
social
process
reciprocal
individuals or collective
supportive
(9) As negotiation
effective
process
reciprocal
(10) As an element of societal learning.
effective
process
reciprocal
social / political social / political
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collective
individuals individuals
democratic democratic
(G) Educator or Learner Driven
educator both learner and educator (learner sustained) both learner and educator both learner and educator
(I)
Success Indicators
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CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION
----o----o----o---My experience of what we’ve done is that it [public education] is generally pretty ineffective. The challenge is to stop it being like that. To do that we’re going to have to have a sharper focus on it than we have in the past. (Anonymous Research Participant in this Phenomenographic Study)
----o----o----o----
6.0 OVERVIEW OF DISCUSSION This chapter discusses the phenomenon of public education, both holistically and in terms of constituent structural and referential aspects. It includes: •
A critical consideration of the ways of experiencing public education that emerged from the research study, including the relationship of these results with existing theories in the literature;
•
Discussion of implications of research findings for public education;
•
Discussion of implications of research findings for phenomenography;
•
A listing of identified research limitations; and
•
A listing of recommendations for future research.
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6.1 EXPERIENCING “PUBLIC EDUCATION”
This phenomenographic investigation has highlighted the relationships between different ways of experiencing public education while approaching the phenomenon holistically, and despite public education being experienced differently between individuals and also by individuals at different points in time and context. Public education has been simultaneously portrayed both as a whole and as the parts in an outcome space of variation. The results document a collective view of the range of ways of experiencing public education by a diverse group of Australian disaster managers and educators. This “collective experience” (Ackerlind, 2002a, p.3) was obtained by a phenomenographic focus upon key referential aspects and structural relationships of the range of understanding of the set of research participants.
The findings of the phenomenographic study highlight that disaster managers do not experience public education as an absolute phenomenon. It can be experienced differently by different individuals and can even be experienced differently in the awareness of an individual in different contexts and at different times. The categories of meaning and the outcome space, accompanied by description of underlying dimensions of variance, describe the major features that distinguish differing interpretations of public education by disaster managers, and hence the phenomenographic study has successfully achieved the general aim of phenomenography (Bowden, 1996).
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The ways of experiencing emerging from the phenomenographic study are legitimate research results in themselves that can enhance our ability to learn about public education (cf. Marton and Svensson, 1979; Marton, 1996; Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard, & Marton, 1993). By first making public education an object of reflection, it can then become a tool for improvement (cf. Saljo, 1979). Previous research has demonstrated the benefit of phenomenography in guiding education and learning and influencing educational outcomes (Ramsden, 1992; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999). The relationship between the research findings in this thesis and disaster practice are not predictive but are guiding in the sense that they can help interested parties to make informed guesses (Marton, 1986b) and can be used to guide educators when selecting appropriate training and development (Sandberg, 1994).
This study revealed that, as a whole, the 25 disaster managers participating in the research collectively experienced public education in ways that phenomenographic analysis successfully reduced into ten parsimonious, discrete and different categories. As the research participants were all Australian disaster managers and educators, these ways of experiencing are a subset of the ways of experiencing by the wider population of disaster managers and educators in the country. Beyond this, as generalised phenomenographic outcomes, they can be used legitimately as a basis for discussion of the ways in which all Australian disaster managers and professionals experience public education.
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The additional secondary result of nine underlying dimensions of variation, some complex and some single dimensional, were associated with the ten ways of experiencing public education. Public education can therefore be considered a complex phenomenon in terms of how it is understood. Despite the complexity of the phenomenon of public education, this research has accounted for the structural and referential variation within it and provided insight into these aspects of the phenomenon. While this differentiation of meaning and structure is artificial, it allows description and analysis of the phenomenon (Ackerlind, 2002). These differentiations of meaning and structure are now discussed.
6.1.1 The Referential Aspect of ‘Public Education’
During the process of interviewing research participants for this study, prior to the analysis phase, it became quickly apparent that public education is in some ways an eclectic, if not amorphous, terminology. Despite this, all participants were able to talk about their experience of the phenomenon in a limited number of ways. The titles of these ten categories of description for public education are now presented once again given their centrality to the remainder of the discussion. The ten ways the disaster managers and educators understood public education were: •
As a non-effective process;
•
As a part of managing a public issue;
•
As promoting an issue;
•
As issuing expert instructions;
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•
As changing individuals;
•
As strategic teaching and training;
•
As collaborative partnerships;
•
As empowering learners to make informed decisions;
•
As negotiation; and
•
As an element of societal learning.
Samuel William Nielsen
The title and description of each category (see Chapter Five) documents a way of experiencing that is analogous to a lens through which an individual can look at public education. Individuals whose relationship with public education is similar in structure and meaning are, essentially, looking through a similar lens. The categories of description detail the meaning perceived through each of ten ‘lenses’ of public education that were chosen to reflect discrete, parsimonious categories. Each category of description is now discussed on an individual basis.
6.1.1.1 Public education as a non-effective process
Implicit within research into public education in a disaster management context has been an assumption that public education is an effective educational process, as expressed on more than one occasion (e.g. Australian Counter Disaster College, 1983; Boughton, 1990; FEMA, 1996; Lystad, 1988; Press, 1989). The existence of an experience of public education as a non-effective process in practice, as revealed in the current research, is an account in alignment with the evidence documented earlier in the thesis
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against the knowledge-attitude-behaviour linkage, which showed that many public education programs were ineffective.
Within this experience of public education as a non-effective process, the meaning of public education in the individual’s awareness is focused upon negative outcomes. The end of awareness of an individual (i.e. external horizon) with this experience excludes any significant direct or indirect experience of educational strategies or processes that lead to successful practical outcomes. In other words, people understanding public education in this way have experienced public education but have had little or no experience of successful education practice or a vision of how such practice can realistically be achieved. The comments of some participants in this study highlighted that in certain contexts or at certain times, educating the public is not always easy to plan. For many, positive outcomes are considered unlikely. Instead, ambivalence, uncertainty and frustration can arise from the experiencing of unfocused strategies and poor resultant outcomes from educational initiatives. Phenomenographically, public education exists in a relationship between the phenomenon and the individual understanding. Emotional aspects of public education, excluded from most research, exist legitimately within the relationship of an individual and the phenomenon being experienced. An understanding of public education as ineffective has a substantial emotional component. Arguably, part of this frustration has arisen because of the culture that remains in certain Australian disaster agencies of valuing disaster response above disaster preparation and prevention. Comments by research participants elaborate upon
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the legacy culture that exists valuing responsive efforts over preventative ones, including education initiatives. As an example, one participant stated: There are only so many resources we have as an emergency response organisation. We have always been responsive, as in, when the bells go the big trucks drive.
Public education is often not considered as a primary agency task, and even when it is, is often addressed without the involvement of dedicated educator staffing. Where education efforts were experienced as ineffective, there was often a lack of educational resources and the valuing of education as secondary to response activities. Often educational processes tended to lack guidance of a skilled educator or strategic initiative, replicating prior efforts within the organisation concerned, such as distribution of leaflets.
The experience of public education by some public educators and managers as a noneffective process is a reminder that education initiatives do not always achieve the desired outcome. On one level, this experience is not surprising given education initiatives in the industry have been undertaken by non-educators and often with scant resources. While shifts in understanding of the managers and educators may shift policy and priority for education, the importance of supporting such shifts with adequate resources and skilled personnel cannot be ignored. This is whether change is away from a response focus towards prevention and preparation foci or even across entire paradigms, for example away from a PPRR model basis towards other models such as the currently favoured Emergency Risk Management. Otherwise, valuable outcomes of
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public education may continue to be less common than failures. As expressed by one research participant: I think what we’ve done has been extremely cost effective and useless. Cost effective in the sense that it hasn’t cost anything, so any effect it’s had has been cheap per unit impact, but we’ve had almost no impact.
Salter identified for the Australian emergency management community policy (1998, p.11), a cultural shift away from an internal agency focus to a community-centered focus. For some organisations, where public education initiatives are perceived as ineffective, a shift from education-prohibitive to education-supportive, though already happening in many organisations, is arguably another cultural shift that should be overtly acknowledged and supported. A research participant’s comment exemplifies the difficulty inherent in any culture change at a broad level: The prevention side is much more difficult to combine with regional response in the one organisation. The nature of the organisation historically has been that it has evolved towards begrudgingly accepting that prevention is better than cure.
6.1.1.2 Public Education as a way of managing a public issue
Another way public education is thought about or experienced is as a way of managing or addressing an issue affecting members of the public. When public education is experienced in this manner, an individual is not attending to particular educational methods, but rather is focusing upon public education in a general way. In phenomenographic terminology, the external horizon, or perceptual boundary, of individuals experiencing public education in this way excludes the actual practice of public education. The internal horizon, or figural awareness, of the participant is upon
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education as a means of issue management. Practicalities of education are not figural in the participants’ awareness for this understanding of public education. Essentially, this way of experiencing public education is at a surface level without reflection upon or articulation of educational specifics. Drawing upon common analogies, understanding public education in this manner could be compared to looking at the forest and not the individual trees, or looking at a map of the entire phenomenon at once and understanding the breadth and height of the phenomenon yet in so doing losing the small-scale detail. This would be ineffective if the task at hand for a manager or educator involved implementation of actual operational educational processes, as the individual would not be attending to practical educational options. It is very possible that the criticisms that were directed towards public education at the beginning of this thesis, as being amorphous in concept and vague in expression, are at their most applicable when public education is discussed in these general terms when a more practical approach is warranted.
6.1.1.3 Public education as promoting an issue
Managers or educators experiencing public education as promoting an issue have their awareness focused upon marketing or popularising the promotion, reaching a wide or appropriate audience, and gaining the public’s attention or awareness. It is this marketing or selling of the issue that is the focus rather than any educational process in the traditional teacher-to-student sense. Repeating a previously presented statement of one participant exemplifies this marketing focus:
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What we have to do is get an advertising agency in there to teach us how to sell the messages once we’ve decided what the messages ought to be.
Education in regard to disaster safety is not a compulsory activity for Australian citizens. The educators and managers focus upon education as gaining the attention of the public, whose attention, at a collective level, is easily distracted by other interests against which the issue being promoted (i.e. “the message”) must compete. In phenomenographic terms, the awareness structure for this category includes an external horizon that includes delivery of the message or warning but excludes from awareness the actual detail of educational processes beyond. The focus of an individual’s awareness with this way of experiencing is upon delivery of the message or warning. The intention of the warning is to get members of the public to focus attention or awareness upon the risk, threat or hazard in expectation. It is anticipated that, in turn, the public will prepare in ways that mitigate the possible consequences of the hazard or risk. As such, it is implicit within this understanding that any warning or promotion is a catalyst for members of the public to take action in self-interest. As the literature review documented, there is no substantial body of literature or research that supports the argument that delivery of a message will result in wide-scale appropriate disaster preparative behaviours occurring (e.g. Sims and Baumann, 1983). This brings into question the value of educational initiatives that emerge with a focus aligned with this view of public education.
Some disaster managers focus upon the special consideration needed in marketing warnings of rare hazardous events (e.g. floods or cyclones). In these instances, the
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consideration was that it is even harder to draw the attention of the public away from competing interests to consider the warning or educational message for an event that may not have occurred in recent times, and is not a salient concern for the public. Willingness to prepare for such risks may have diminished as individuals with prior experience of comparable disasters leave communities or become complacent with the passing of time. This view echoes the argument of researchers like Lustig and Maher, (1997) and Bernard (1999) that as new individuals move to a community, the experience is dissipated and preparedness declines. For such rare occurrence disasters, the educational solution in the awareness of the participants often included an attendance to ensuring marketing occurs immediately after a disaster when either the public’s perception of a threat or the public’s level of interest in the disaster or hazard means the attention of the public is more easily maintained or directed towards the educational content of the warning or promotion. In these instances, emphasis is often upon the substantial consequence of being ill prepared, as the perceived catalyst for public action is a combination of level of consequence and likelihood. As one public educator mentioned: We need to get into peoples’ minds the notion that this thing is real though rare, and it’ll hurt, but that they can manage that hurt to their own advantage.
A couple of pertinent points arise when the crux of public education is seen as promoting an issue in competition with the noise of competing information from the everyday life of Australian citizens in an era of unprecedented information availability. The first is that the disaster managers or educators believe that the message they are trying to promote is a valuable one, worthy of attention in relation to competing
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interests, and important to disseminate. The second point is that the focus of public educators and managers is on ways to optimise this dissemination such that as many people as possible that may potentially benefit from the message get to hear it. As such, this way of understanding has a strong association with marketing and information dissemination via mass media education campaigns, though the possibility of more targeted marketing activities is not excluded. Education as promoting an issue makes figural the marketing aspect of engaging with the community. While educational content is the product being presented, figural in awareness is how this content can be sold to the public. To an extent, education tends to reduce to promoting of an issue via mass media types of interaction, which tend to be indirect due to perceived limitations to resources denying direct engagement between agencies and the public on a large scale. So, experiencing public education as promoting an issue often includes attendance to the role of external media agencies and other message carriers who can disseminate or popularise the message or warning. The competing noise of infotainment that sensationalises disasters and other misinformation sources are figural concerns for educators with this understanding as these threaten the success of the marketing of the message.
6.1.1.4 Public education as issuing expert instructions
Of all of the ways of experiencing public education, that of the issuing of expert instructions most closely approaches the traditional, stereotypic, mainstream education model of an instructor instructing a learner. This way of experiencing public education
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aligns with technocratic, physical, controlling models of disaster as described by researchers such as Smith (1996), Maskrey (1989), Bolin & Stanford (1998) and Hewitt (1983, 1998). Echoing the argument of researchers such as O'Riordan (1977, 1981, 1989) and Hewitt (1983, 1998), in this way of experiencing, focus upon disasters as having a physical cause and impact relates to a non-social response to disaster. Instruction equates to this non-social response. Via instruction an agent disseminates perceived expert knowledge outwards to direct the naïve public as to how to behave. The disaster managers and educators issue directive instructions, referencing authority as experts from central agencies in regard to the physical hazard or disaster of concern. The disaster managers and educators view expertise as belonging to staff in the central agencies with skill in addressing the physical threat of disaster. They issue instructions as to appropriate behaviours to respond to the particular physical occurrence, generally with little regard for public autonomy or capability. This is evident in examples from participants’ transcripts, repeated from the results section: They [the public], nevertheless, need to be led, as we all need to be led, in various things about which we are not expert.
and
The way we’re managing it is we’re telling the public what we think they should do and need.
Hewitt’s (1998) comment that the hold of the physical view of disaster should not be under-estimated remains a caution that has not lost its currency. By a more extreme view of Hewitt’s (1998) identification of technocentric values inherent in the physical
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view of disasters, education becomes part of a mechanistic approach, and, as part of a regime of control, the disaster managers neutralise the contribution of the public as much as possible via assumption of a centralisation of authority and knowledge. Inadvertently or deliberately, the opportunities for the public to learn in ways that are meaningful or valuable for disaster mitigation are, arguably, neutralised also.
6.1.1.5 Public education as changing individuals
The literature review in this thesis documents that back in the 1980s, Sims and Baumann’s (1983) meta-analysis of disaster education concluded that a causal link between provision of information, awareness and behaviour was insupportable on either rational or empirical grounds. This was similar to the research findings of researchers such as Miletti, Drabek and Haas (1975), Saarinen (1979), for example. There has been no substantial evidence since of sufficient persuasion to overturn this finding. Despite this lack of support for the psychological models of the 1970s and the 1980s, their legacy still resonates within the understanding of public education as changing individuals.
Experiencing public education as changing individuals has the manager’s or educator’s awareness turned towards changing either one or multiple aspects of members of the public, whether knowledge, skills, attributes, priorities, values, competence, resilience, motivation level, beliefs, awareness or the like, to address the issue. Their focus is upon
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characteristics of the individual and the individual’s psychology but excludes social interaction between individuals.
Within the experience of public education as changing individuals, the characteristic that is the focus of change is an aspect of the psychology or capability of individuals, yet education is a process of changing many individuals. The intent is that changing a key aspect, or key aspects, of either enough members of the public, or susceptible members of the public, will represent a shift in behavioural patterns of sufficient scale at a social level that disasters are mitigated. As such, though the focus is upon changing the psychology of individuals to mitigate disasters, educational solutions have been envisaged and applied as broad sociological solutions. Upon reflection, this echoes the mismatch of psychology and sociology in the literature that has arguably rendered sociopsychological based public education initiatives ineffective or inconclusive in outcome at best. Even if it is possible to account for the psychology of each individual in a population, it does not follow that educational campaigns can then be applied collectively to shift the psychology of individuals en masse to affect behaviour measurable at a societal level, such as increased average disaster resilience or widespread ‘appropriate’ behavioural change. The new generation of eclectic models of risk, hazard and behaviour (e.g. Enders, 2001; Rhodes and Reinholdt, 1999) are similarly susceptible to failure without giving a full account of the relationship of the adjustment of psychology of individuals to wide-scale societal behavioural pattern changes. Hence behavioural change, identified by Enders (2001) as the essential way to achieve increased community preparedness for disasters, still requires both conceptual
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and practical leaps. While intuitively, the relationship is not unappreciated, and may be predictive, in terms of educational theory, it requires justification.
6.1.1.6 Public education as strategic teaching and training
Another experience of public education is as the strategic application of either single or multiple teaching or training methods from an available repertoire to appropriate audiences. In this way of experiencing, figural in the awareness of the educator or manager are multiple education options, along with a valuing of the opportunities or hindrances associated with each.
Within this way of experiencing public education, the choice of educational approach or approaches from the possibilities that exist has a major influence upon the way in which education will occur. It is noteworthy that the capability of the educator to decide upon suitable educational types for different audiences or to achieve particular educational goals is assumed. Arguably, this assumption is too often flawed in the disaster education context. In particular, this is of concern, given comments by some research participants suggest that the actual level of teaching or training skill held by the educators in an organisation, whether one individual, a team or staff from across the whole organisation, is often minimal. As previously identified, the culture of disaster management agencies has emerged from a legacy of armed services organisations and disaster response oriented processes (EMA, 2004d). This culture has led to an under-representation of social science or education trained individuals for the social and educational aspects of
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disaster management. Arguably, the qualifications of such individuals are accompanied by skill sets suited to the educational tasks at hand. At the time of data collection for this study, many public education activities were not actually undertaken by qualified teachers, trainers or educators, but rather by individuals with armed services or emergency response backgrounds, often undertaking education as a peripheral job responsibility. It is questionable whether non-qualified individuals can strategically determine education initiatives.
6.1.1.7 Public education as collaborative partnerships
Collaboration with the public is the focus of awareness when public education is experienced as collaborative partnerships. As such, this way of experiencing represents a marked shift away from formal models of education wherein the relationship is often not questioned, but rather is considered established as a condition of the formal setting. In a formal setting such as a classroom, the relationship is often assumed to occur when the educator and learner when the teacher turns up to teach and the learner arrives to be taught. Roles are guided by social mores and educational expectations. As such, the relationship also includes a power balance predominately in favour of the educator over the student via the assumed authority of the teaching role in the formal education hierarchy. However, by contrast, when the relationships are formed between disaster agency representatives and the public or community members, then the basis of the relationship is not as readily assumed. Different members of the public may or may not seek to collaborate with, and learn from, disaster agency representatives. The goal of the
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partnership for the member of the public is not necessarily learning or disaster safety, but may include other objectives, such as a landowning member of the public seeking to achieve minimal adherence to legislative requirements as a landowner, for example. Preconceptions of power dynamics between agency staff and the public are tenuous at best given the uniqueness of each partnership. A major issue for individuals approaching education on the basis of establishing collaborative partnerships is to establish the legitimacy of their role in the relationship and often to secure a power balance that will provide a sustained relationship through which the educator can seek behavioural change in the public or disseminate information.
When partnerships are formed between the public and disaster agencies, these may be indirectly via educational materials or correspondence or via direct communication. Indirect information from central agencies may equally be welcomed and used for learning or rejected as intrusive or irrelevant. Depending on the expectations of the learner and educator, dialogues between them may be in order to learn from each other, clarify the expectations of the educator and learner, the educator to engage the learner, and / or to improve the transfer of expertise from the educator to the learner. This dialogue is usually intended also to develop the level of commitment of the public to sustained address of the issue. The agents often assume a primary expert role within the relationship.
The view that individuals may be able to self-change behaviours and mitigate disasters without outside expert advice is not a dominant part of this category of meaning. The
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public is not focused upon as a group of self-capable lifelong learners but rather as individuals open to behavioural change and mitigating actions if appropriately guided in the relationship via an expert. As such, awareness often includes the idea that sustained behavioural change leading to disaster mitigation requires a long-term commitment to the relationship by the agent, refreshing public knowledge and renewing public motivation to behave in appropriate ways.
6.1.1.8 Public education as empowering learners to make informed decisions
The autonomy and capability of the public to contribute to their own well being is the focus of awareness in the experience of public education as empowering learners through education to make informed decisions that best address their self-interests in regard to a particular issue. Educators actively seek to support the ongoing learning of the public in regard to the relevant issue via provision of centralised resources, knowledge and skills. The public capacity to make informed decisions is enhanced by appropriate knowledge and information. As such, this way of experiencing represents a further shift in focus away from the educator-centric view of education to a view of education where the learner and educator both have responsibilities that make learning possible and can also enhance it. This understanding is far more sophisticated, than, for example, experiencing public education as instruction, as issues of learner motivation, self-responsibility and self-actualisation underlay the possibility of successful educational outcomes. The distinctions between learning and education essentially dissipate in this experiencing where the idea of an authoritative expert instructing a
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naïve public is not present. Instead, the learner is not naïve but valued as able to selfdirect learning, and make decisions in his or her own best interest. The ‘educator’ role becomes one of optimising this learning through providing relevant educational resources, facilitation and assistance.
In this way of experiencing, the educator’s awareness includes an emphasis upon learner-driven learning. There is an expectation that public capacity to learn is partially driven by their own ability and motivation to search for relevant information, a feature of learning which has not been salient in research about experiences of adults in formal education (cf. Saljo, 1979; Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty, 1993). Arguably, prerequisite to this ability and motivation may be awareness-raising allowing the public to recognise the problem. This emphasis has strong associations with the view of education as being a lifelong process that can occur in any context. Lifelong learning for disaster mitigation or personal safety is obviously not driven by vocational ambitions, but instead is arguably driven by other psychological needs. Using Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs, these needs would perhaps range between a basic need for survival through to the most complex needs of self-actualisation and self-transcendence.
The understanding of the participants included awareness that, ultimately, when it comes to safety in regard to disasters, it is each individual that has the most important role in regard to self well being and improving the decision-making capabilities of the public enhances their resilience, or inversely, reduces their vulnerability, in relation to disasters. This aligns with the focus upon resilience or vulnerability by many disaster
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researchers (e.g. Buckle, Marsh & Smale, 2000; Handmer, 2003; Lunn, 2001; Morrisey and Reser, 2003; Sullivan, 2003). One participant’s statement provides a good example of the awareness of individuals viewing public education through this lens: In its broadest sense, it [public education] is informing the public and giving them enough information that they can make good decisions about their own actions.
This philosophy of increasing resilience or reducing vulnerability of members of the public is presumably founded upon the same argument used by Lidstone (1992): that during the actual occurrence of a disaster it is very possible that individuals will not be able to depend on central government agencies for anything. By this view, the ultimate intent of education is to bolster individuals’ self-resilience for when external support is not available, and hence for the time when resilience becomes the mechanism for selfsafety and mitigation of disaster on an individual-by-individual basis. It extends beyond education as changing individuals, as empowering learners to make informed decisions emphasises the role of learner motivation, self-learning and decision-making as ways that education can achieve increased resilience of individual, and de-emphasises attending to behavioural change via psychological change.
6.1.1.9 Public education as negotiation
The political aspect of knowledge and its entwinement with authority, public rights and legislation is figural in the awareness of individuals whose experience of public education is as negotiation between the public, central agencies and other stakeholders to manage public interests in regard to an issue. The aim of educators with this
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experience is to share interpretations of the issue, and negotiate roles and responsibilities of the public and society in managing the issue. Negotiating to manage an issue means that social policy is not necessarily determined by central authoritative agencies but rather is explored with the public and negotiated in terms of acceptable risks and societal priorities.
This way of understanding is one where the border of education with legislation becomes apparent. Legislation and statutory requirements delimit those decisions and policies that are to be excluded from negotiation involving the public, and instead are established as statutory obligations for the public, government or central agencies. Further, when public education is equated with negotiation, then when consensus cannot be achieved, legislation can be introduced to mandate an outcome.
This way of experiencing has obvious associations with the political view of disasters (Bolin & Stanford 1998; Cutter, 1993; Maskrey, 1989; Shrader-Frechette, 1991). Negotiation shifts the focus upon public education to include the idea that values are inherent within social decision-making processes. Education aligns with negotiation about risks and their management. As such, this way of experiencing public education also aligns with the Emergency Risk Model that has recently emerged as the driver of Australian disaster management into the future (EMA, 2004a). Processes of this model context definition, risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk treatment, monitoring and reviewing, and, communicating and consulting (EMA, 2004a) – all become relevant to managers and educators concerned with negotiation.
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Parker’s (1992) suggestion that public attitudes towards risks will influence any attempt to educate the public makes sense when risk assessment is fundamental to a negotiationbased form of public education. Repeating a quotation from the literature review by Schrader-Frechette (1991, p.206): Once one realises that the process of hazard assessment and management is highly value laden and politicised, then negotiation (rather than mere expert decision making) becomes a virtual necessity for ensuring free, informed consent in situations of controversial risk.
It is not known to what extent disaster managers implementing public education as negotiation reflect upon the values of their agency as a central authority. If the educational solution to disasters is in terms of negotiation, a process with obvious political overtones, then it supports the possibility that disasters are, to an extent at least, “symptoms of more basic political and economic processes” making some vulnerable because of others maintaining or enhancing their own social or economic circumstance (Bolin & Stanford 1998, p. 231). Social equality was not a major focus of awareness of individuals experiencing public education as negotiation. This is an obvious point of departure of this way of experiencing from the political view of disasters in the literature. This may be because the issue of social equity is not as prominent in Australia where poverty and social stratification is perhaps not considered a material consideration or may even be overlooked. Based on the literature (e.g. Bolin & Stanford 1998), there may be opportunities to improve the educational outcomes of negotiation for the most vulnerable in society if disaster managers and educators who approach public education as negotiation reflect upon: (i) their own values, and (ii) the socioeconomic strata of Australian society, as
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influences upon how and where negotiations, as value laden processes (SchraderFrechette, 1991), are allowed to occur.
In this way of experiencing, the concept of trust between the educator and the learner is noteworthy. In the preceding ways of experiencing public education, the possibility that information or knowledge is not power-neutral, and that educational decisions potentially favour some individuals over others, though sometimes present on the margins of awareness, was not the center of awareness. However, by this way of experiencing, trustworthiness or credibility of the disaster agency or agency representative or educational materials becomes a major consideration. The educator or manager viewing public education as negotiation has in his or her awareness that the public may be wary of the educational process as a potential manipulation of public behaviour or maintaining social injustices. As one participant stated: It's classical stuff where you have this trust gap between one group of affected people, stigmatised individuals...and experts.
Given the finding of Thomas (1989) that public wariness exists over the extent to which government information can be trusted, if public education is experienced, and in turn, implemented, as a negotiation process, then risk managers could do worse than heed the advice of Schrader-Frechette (1991) to adequately present arguments as to why a controversial risk should be accepted and to avoid one-way dialogue. Negotiation is not likely to shift values fundamental to an individual, but ensuring arguments are provided clearly and with full information is perhaps the most conducive option to persuade individuals that risks are in accordance with personal values. Ensuring arguments during
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negotiation are educative, in the sense of being comprehensive and meaningful in content, minimises opportunity for misunderstanding by the public that potentially leads to a cycle of mistrust, rejection of centrally provided information and assessment of risk without the full story.
6.1.1.10 Public education as an element in societal learning
In this way of experiencing, public education occurs within the fabric of societal structure and the everyday activities and machinations of society. Educational decisions by central agencies and learning choices and opportunities for the public occur against a backdrop of societal politics. Disaster agencies, disaster educators and public citizens all co-exist in society. Roles as educators and learners are fluid and the knowledge in society is the net learning and capability within a society. Education is a process for attaining societal stability, sustainability and ultimately achievement and progress. Similarly, education is not a preventative that is applied to society to mitigate disasters. Agencies educating the public are located within society and public education is simply part of the overall process of social activity. If society were to exist both in absolute equilibrium within itself and with the natural environment then there would be no disasters. As such, disasters represent examples of when society is not in equilibrium. But equilibrium is never achievable as social activity is too chaotic to have any meaningful internal balancing point and civilisation’s progress is seldom harmonious with the natural environment. Hence, disasters are a part of social activity. Rouhban’s (1997) argument that zero risk is out of reach in the contemporary world holds for this
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view. The important point to note is that disasters are a part of social activity, akin to the argument of the likes of Quarantelli (1991), rather than events that emerge separately from society and then impinge upon it. As social equilibrium is not achievable, let alone sustainable, disaster agencies seek to work with the public to find practical solutions that become integrated into the everyday activities of individuals and the society in which they live. Education may therefore be directed towards attempting to shift the balance of the public’s social activities, such that the overall functioning of society, reflecting the sum of personal activities, goals and ambitions within it, better manages risks and increases societal resilience, as a sum of individual resiliencies.
Within such an understanding, mainstream educational concepts of teacher, student and classroom are not dominant concepts. Rather, society as a whole is analogous with the classroom wherein learning occurs. In some ways, this understanding has parallels with Candy’s (1991) concept of education for the environment, though it extends far beyond it. In some ways, this way of understanding public education offers less direction than other ways of understanding as it is a lens of awareness wherein there is acknowledgement that the complexities of society are such that there is no one easy educative solution. It acknowledges that the challenge for educators is to lever outcomes within a complex and continuous process from which the educators cannot be separated. This complexity echoes a comment by, Evans, Water, Lany and Halcrow (1999, p.106) that flood risks result from a complex interplay of physical, environmental, socioeconomic and political circumstances. Their comment was that mitigation measures “need to be underpinned by public awareness of flood risks, and public participation in
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decisions on how best to manage these risks”. Within a learning society, in an ideal form, such mitigation efforts would go far beyond this, involving participation of the public in a shared responsibility for society, attending to equity and justice by sharing knowledge and promoting learning in ways that suit individuals to attend to the resilience of all societal members. The extent to which such a learning society can deliver safety to its citizens remains uncertain. Complete safety, of course, is Utopian in concept given the chaotic interplay of society processes and the current dominance of individualism that arguably denies equality in society and in societal safety. When society is viewed as increasingly individualistic, as people keeping to themselves more than in prior generations and the notion of community having been altered by technology, then educators might also focus upon increasing cohesion in society as much as, or more than, helping each person to look after their own interests.
6.1.2 The Structural Aspect of ‘Public Education’
The structure of the phenomenon of public education was visually represented in a 2Dimensional outcome space. The dominant features of this outcome space were (i) a hierarchical relationship of eight of the ten categories of meaning (Categories #3 to #10 inclusive), (ii) an effectiveness boundary (separating Category #1 from other categories), and (iii) 4 meta-categories. These features and the structure of ‘public education’ as a whole are now discussed.
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A central aspect of the structure of public education is a hierarchy that extends through eight categories: •
Public education as promoting an issue (Category of description # 3);
•
Public education as issuing expert instructions (Category of description # 4);
•
Public education as changing individuals (Category of description # 5);
•
Public education as strategic teaching and training (Category of description # 6);
•
Public education as collaborative partnerships (Category of description # 7);
•
Public education as empowering learners to make informed decisions (Category of description # 8);
•
Public education as negotiation (Category of description # 9); and
•
Public education as an element in societal learning (Category of description # 10),
and four meta-groupings: (i)
guidance,
(ii)
engagement,
(iii)
consensus, and
(iv)
societal learning.
According to Bruce (2001), the outcome spaces that have been developed for various phenomena investigated in phenomenographic studies have typically represented either historical views of the phenomenon, a widening awareness, or a hierarchy of increasing complexity and sophistication. To an extent, these three aspects all underlie the outcome space for public education as experienced by disaster managers and particularly the
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hierarchical aspect. This is because, as the view of public education has evolved across its history, it has simultaneously become incrementally more complex, and, also simultaneously, has allowed some educational practitioners a widening awareness of public education and its practice. As such, the outcome space provided in this research study has, as a major feature of its structure, a non-inclusive hierarchical transition (Category of Description 3 to Category of Description 10 inclusive) from simple, narrower understandings of education that mirror older educational models through to complex, open-viewed experiences of education that challenge educators to approach educating as a process extending far beyond simplistic practices. The dimensions of variation included in the results as an outcome of new phenomenography detail the many dimensions that together reflect the overall hierarchical aspect of the 2Dimensional representation of the structure of public education. These dimensions of variance underlying the hierarchy of categories and the overall structure of public education are, once again: •
Perceived effectiveness of public education;
•
Directionality of communication;
•
The property of public education;
•
The differentiation of public;
•
Basis of disasters;
•
Extent of interaction;
•
Educator or learner driven;
•
Success indicators; and
•
Power dynamics.
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These underlying dimensions are also each a dimension upon which the emergent history, and trend towards a broader awareness of educational possibilities and increased sophistication of practice and theoretical and policy underpinnings in Australian disaster management can be seen.
The meta-groupings for the eight hierarchical categories of description (#3 to #10 inclusive) emphasise that these categories, though discrete at the level of results provided (i.e. 10 categories of description), have some conceptual similarities at a broader level. These meta-grouping are valuable in aiding discussion, although it must be remembered that they are grouped at such a level that they conceal the additional variation that exists in regard to the experiencing of public education at the phenomenographic level wherein 10 categories of description co-exist. Nevertheless, these meta-groupings highlight that effective public education is broadly experienced in terms of guidance, engagement and consensus or societal learning and that these groupings are more or less hierarchical as reflective of underlying dimensions of variation. In some ways these meta-groupings can be considered as broad schools of thought or visions of public education as held by Australian disaster managers and educators.
The two ways of experiencing public education that exist outside the increasing hierarchy central to the structure of the phenomenon of public education are (i) public education as part of managing a social issue, and (ii) public education as a non-effective
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process. Public education as part of managing a social issue (Category #2) was represented as occurring across the eight hierarchical categories. This is because public education as part of managing a social issue is both a category of meaning in itself, and, also a prerequisite to an individual viewing public education as any of the hierarchical categories of meaning (Categories #3 to #10 inclusive). When this category (#2) is an individual’s way of experiencing public education, its ill fit with actual practical public education practice can result in an ambiguous, vague approach to public education at an operational level. This aspect is represented structurally by the separation of this way of experiencing from those hierarchical categories of meaning which have a practical public education aspect, ordered in accordance with the theoretical and social history, sophistication and wideness of awareness associated with the category of meaning. Public education as a non-effective process was separated from the other categories of meaning by an effectiveness boundary.
This delineated an experience of public
education as non-effective from the other experiences wherein public education was thought of as able to achieve beneficial educational outcomes. The separation of this category of meaning emphasised that the external horizon of individuals’ experience of public education as non-effective was entirely distinct from other experiences wherein public education was perceived as a definite process with achievable and worthwhile outcomes.
The predominately hierarchical outcome space derived from this study provides a framework for public educators to reflect upon educational practice and the existence of alternate ways of ‘seeing’ public education that may be worthwhile. If this study does nothing else, it will at least inform public educators that other educators have different
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experiences of public education and that other possibilities for education exist. It will also inform educators that their understanding of public education is a reflection of their experience with disaster management and education.
6.1.3 Other Phenomenographic Research Findings
6.1.3.1 Replicability of the Findings
The phenomenographic research conducted for this study included an assessment of the replicability of the established categories of meaning through inter-judge reliability assessment (Marton, 1986a, 1996; Saljo, 1988). This assessment provides a measure of the extent to which the categories of description, as descriptions of ways of experience, can be relied on. The level of agreement between two researchers, post-consultation, as to how they categorise each of 25 example transcripts against categories of meaning (Marton, 1986a, 1996; Saljo, 1988) was 92% (i.e. agreement upon 23 of the 25 classifications). This result compares favourably with a cut-off of 80% proposed by Saljo (1988) as a desirable level. This cut-off figure, though arbitrary, and without statistical basis, is well established within phenomenography, founded upon the principle that, to be pragmatically meaningful, obtained categories of description need to be sharable to a reasonable extent across individuals.
While another researcher or individual may not have identified the same variations in public education this researcher established, the high replicability score reveals that a
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co-judge is able to perceive similar distinctions as found by the primary researcher. As such, the categories of description have been shown to be replicable across individuals.
6.1.3.2 Level of Intraindividual Variation
The results of this research included a graph detailing the proportion of individual transcripts that the researcher identified as including a category of description for each category. This result was included as part of the effort towards ensuring openness of the entire phenomenographic research process. It was intended to allow the reader to assess the credibility of the ways of understanding and appreciate the extent of intra-individual variation (Renstrom, Andersson and Marton, 1990). As phenomenography develops an outcome space mapping of a phenomenon, it was considered legitimate to include on that map a legend detailing the relative commonality of ways of experiencing for the particular set of research participants. It also made transparent that research participants expressed different experiences of public education at different times within their individual interviews. In fact, a total of 96 instances of an individual expressing a given category of description existed across the 25 interviews, reflecting that participants expressed an average of 3.84 experiences within their individual interviews. Thus, the ‘lens’ through which an individual views public education tends to vary when the phenomenon is being discussed and, presumably, planned. Obviously, if on average educators or managers have multiple experiences of public education, then potential exists for miscommunication with others or selection of a practical intervention not
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suited to a particular approach to public education (i.e. mismatch of understanding and practice).
6.1.3.3 Quality of Findings
According to Marton and Booth (1997), the three main criteria for evaluating the quality of the results of a phenomenographic study are that:
1. Something distinctive about a way of experiencing the phenomenon exists for each category in the outcome space; 2. Categories are logically related, typically but not necessarily, as a hierarchy of inclusive relationships; and 3. Outcomes are parsimonious, in that critical variation in experience observed in the data is represented by a set of as few categories as possible.
The findings of this study fare very favourably against these criteria. Firstly, the ten categories that resulted from the study each include a distinct way of experiencing the phenomenon of public education. The evidence of this distinctiveness is documented in the categories of meaning for the phenomenon, where distinct titles are apparent and different themes and foci distinguish the accompanying descriptions of each category. The examples of comments from participants can also be seen to be unique. The reader may wish to review the categories as presented in Chapter Five and consider the distinctiveness of each of these facets of each category of meaning. Secondly, the categories were logically related within the outcome space, as presented in Chapter Five
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and discussed in Section 6.1.2. The relationship included a hierarchical aspect, acknowledged as generally non-inclusive, reflecting the history, sophistication and complexity of the phenomenon. Thirdly, evidence of parsimony is considered to be evident within the description of the structural and referential aspects of the phenomenon as documented in the results of this thesis, and the subsequent discussion of these aspects in this chapter.
6.1.4 Variation in Experience
The new phenomenographic focus upon awareness allows discussion of those nine major dimensions that were found to constitute the qualitatively different ways of experiencing public education in a disaster management context. These nine dimensions were: •
Perceived effectiveness of public education;
•
Directionality of communication;
•
The property of public education;
•
The differentiation of public;
•
Basis of disasters;
•
Extent of interaction;
•
Educator or learner driven;
•
Success indicators; and
•
Power dynamics.
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The relationship of these nine dimensions of variation to the ways of experiencing public education was presented in Table 5-1.
6.1.4.1 Perceived Effectiveness of Public Education
Variation in understanding of the perceived effectiveness of public education ranged from ineffective to effective. There was a reasonable level of reference to the effectiveness of public education within the interview transcripts in the study. This dimension was the primary variation between an understanding of public education as effective and the other nine understandings. While some who understood public education as ineffective, still believed it had the potential to be effective, individuals were not sure as to how to achieve this effectiveness. Some of these individuals expressed the view that they knew intuitively what worked and did not work and had ideas as to where they would like to position their organisation to improve public education. When individuals understood public education in one of the nine ‘effective’ ways, the perceived effectiveness of public education ranged from moderately effective to extremely effective.
6.1.4.2 Directionality of Communication
Underlying experience of public education is a view of the process ranging from unidirectional to reciprocal communication between the learner and the educator. Unidirectional, or instructional, modes of communication were associated with public
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education types lower in the structural hierarchy that have strong association with the physical model of disasters such as ‘promoting an issue’; ‘issuing expert instructions’; and ‘changing individuals’. Reciprocal communication was associated with education categories that were higher up in the structural hierarchy, including: ‘collaborative partnerships’, ‘empowering learners to make informed decisions’, ‘negotiation’, and ‘as an element of societal learning’.
6.1.4.3 Property of Public Education
Underlying experience of public education is variation in the extent to which it is viewed as an outcome-based, content-based or process-based phenomenon. Education can be variously focused upon in terms of processes occurring between learner and educator, content of the educational program, and educational outcomes. These aspects are not mutually exclusive, and hence it is possible to have focus directed towards a singular aspect or a combination of the above. Experiencing public education as part of managing a public issue, promoting an issue, and as issuing expert instructions tended to involve a focus on content. . Experiencing public education as ineffective involved a negative view of outcomes. Other ways of experiencing public education tended to have a greater focus upon the process of public education, which is arguably associated with their potential for success.
Public education content can be general or specific and related to particular physical instances of disaster such as bushfire precautions. For disaster management, the content
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of educational initiatives is safety and disaster mitigation. Public education processes can include such initiatives as instruction, negotiation or simply communication. Public education outcomes can include public safety, disaster mitigation or negotiated risks.
When analysing the data for this study, the question arose: should the descriptions of how public education is experienced be developed such that the process of public education is isolated from the context and content of disaster management or should public education descriptions be developed that include reference to the disaster management context and content? This issue arose because of the interweaving of the content, processes and outcomes of public education as evident in the interview transcripts obtained from the research participants. The experience of public education as a phenomenon and the issue of disaster safety to which the educational effort was being applied are in many ways entwined. An issue throughout the phenomenographic analysis was how to uncover the various ways public education as a phenomenon was experienced given that this phenomenon was in many ways bound with the content areas of public disaster safety and disaster risk management. Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton (1993, p.303) provided the advice that: “Such a set of categories aims to be generalisable across individuals, time, space, and psychological actions.” Attending to this concern during the research process extended the time taken to perform the analysis quite extensively and led to a great deal of caution during the analysis from which the categories of meaning emerged.
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The process of public education without content such as disaster for an outcome such as mitigation arguably becomes meaningless. The property of public education dimension highlights that different ways of experiencing public education place differing emphasis upon these underlying dimensions of public education.
6.1.4.4 Basis of disasters
The basis of disasters is a dimension of variation underlying experiences of public education. The literature review documented that the diversity of definitions of disaster reflects a lack of consensus on what disaster are or their cause (Hewitt, 1983; Lystad, 1988; Quarantelli, 1991, 1998). As documented in the literature review [Chapter 2], physical, social and political views are broad paradigms of thought as to the basis of disasters (Hewitt, 1983; Maskrey, 1989; Smith, 1996). Gradually, social and political views of disaster have gained favour over the physical view within the rhetoric of disaster management research. Participants in this study varied in terms of their understanding of the basis of disasters, with a range of views from the physical, social and political to an amalgam of these.
In the literature review, it was argued that the meaning of public education would be splintered, if not shattered, if individuals held idiosyncratic views of disaster based on hybrids or amalgams of the physical, social and political views. Despite such idiosyncrasy, phenomenography allowed the establishment of discrete categories of
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meaning for public education and accounted for the relationship between the basis of disasters and public education.
A physical view of disasters underlies several of the ways of experiencing public education situated lower within the structural hierarchy of the outcome space: as promoting an issue; as issuing expert instructions; as changing individuals; and as strategic teaching and training, in particular. This relationship mirrors the linkage in the literature between the physical or technocratic view of disasters and ‘traditional’ instructional education techniques (Fien, 1993). The physical view links with the argument that disasters happen to people. It is arguable that viewing disasters as having physical causality relates to the view that experts best know the appropriate response, and, in turn, the public should heed expert instructions or be led towards appropriate behaviours to safeguard their best interests. The physical basis still equates with an emphasis upon behavioural change and ways to affect it. On the other hand, a social view of disaster is associated with experiences of public education as: changing individuals; strategic teaching and training; collaborative partnerships; empowering learners to make informed decisions; negotiation; and, as an element of societal learning. The latter two of these processes are also associated with the political view of disasters. Thus, hierarchically, physical, then social, then political views of disaster are increasingly associated with more sophisticated and recent views of disaster, and underlie the understanding and practice of disaster education of the public.
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6.1.4.5 Differentiation of public
The individual-centric perspective that dominated the public and disaster education literature during the 1980s still echo within the discourse of many professionals. However, it appears that the focus upon individuals is no longer the focus of attention for many and that instead attention has shifted towards models that acknowledge that individuals do not exist in uniform sets where education can be applied to a multiple number with little need to differentiate the public. When public education is viewed as instructional or as changing individuals en masse then such prioritisation still resonates (i.e. public education as part of managing a public issue; promoting an issue; issuing expert instructions; or changing individuals). Arguably, en masse approaches may be critical when alerting populations of imminent disaster, though overlook the vulnerability of at need sections of the community. However, many ways of experiencing public education are now underlain by focus upon the public as a dynamic, complex, social entity wherein individuals interact with their environment, with educators and amongst themselves (i.e. public education as collaborative partnerships; empowering learners to make informed decisions; negotiation; and, as an element of societal learning).
The salience of this dimension becomes dominant when public education is experienced as an element of a learning society. It is argued that the issue of whether emphasis should be upon ‘the public’ or ‘the community’ may have actually evolved into a different issue as to whether emphasis is now upon ‘society as a learner’ as opposed to ‘individuals as learners’. Further, it is suggested that the term ‘public education’ is becoming outdated
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with associations with what are becoming the legacy models of the physical view of disasters. The term “public” carries with it a legacy of association with a perception of the public as a grouping devoid of idiosyncratic individuals. “Community” has association with underlying processes and is more suggestive of idiosyncratic individuals and is thus perhaps more relevant to socially focused views of disaster education.
6.1.4.6 Extent of interaction
The “extent of interaction” dimension included occasional, long term and continuing categories of interaction. Public education as an element of societal learning was the only understanding where the extent of interaction in the awareness of the participant was of a continuing nature. Interaction between educators and learners was seen as a continuous process within the functioning of society. Other categories higher in the hierarchy of categories were associated with a long-term view of public education, while the categories lower in the hierarchy were associated with an occasional or sporadic view of education. For these lower categories, there is arguably a need for ongoing education programs to compensate for diminishing levels of public experience between successive events if they are to be successful. This is especially the case when events or hazards are infrequently experienced, such as with tsunamis (Bernard, 1999).
Achieving sustainable outcomes requires a long-term commitment in recognition that the public is made up of individual learners whose contribution, if it is to be meaningful must be sustained and one that develops over time. As such, education shifts from a
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‘quick fix’ solution to a long-term developmental basis. Lifelong education has strong associations with the long-term or continuing perspectives of the higher hierarchy experiences of public education.
6.1.4.7 Educator or learner driven
Variation in understanding of the driving influence behind education and change sought via education ranged from educator-driven to learner-driven. Experiencing public education as empowering learners to make informed decisions, as negotiation, and as an element of a learning society are all views of education where the learner is seen as having an active role in the education process. As discussed earlier, there was an implication within experiencing public education as empowering learners to make informed decisions that by enabling learners to self-learn and be able to make their own decisions that they would be self-capable or more resilient into the future, and further, develop in resilience. This way of experiencing and experiencing public education as an element of a learning society both emphasised long-term involvement with the public as aspects of public education. Arguably, such emphasis upon helping the public towards an autonomous learning capability is beneficial. There are many ways members of the public can be introduced to lifelong, learner-driven learning, being motivated to participate in education via methods as traditional as sharing of experience with new members of a community through to use of new technologies such as the Internet.
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6.1.4.8 Success indicators
The Success Indicators dimension concerns the outcomes against which the educator measures the success of education. Categories in this meta-dimension include: increased awareness, behaviour change, public capability, agreement on appropriate risks and societal development. Three sub-dimensions underlie the shift in categories: (i) quantitative to qualitative outcomes, (ii) individual to group outcomes, and (iii) psychological to social outcomes. Different combinations of these sub-dimensions lead to various indicators of success for the different ways of experiencing. The success indicator in an individual’s awareness when public education is viewed as managing an issue is uncertain. This lack of a definite measure of success may explain why this way of experiencing is related to a vagueness of meaning for public education at anything beyond a broad strategic level. Increased awareness is a success indicator when public education is viewed as promoting an issue or as instructing. The latter also has behavioural change as a success indicator, along with views of public education as changing individuals, as strategic teaching and training, and as collaborative partnerships. The success indicator for public education as empowering learners to make informed decisions is increased public capability or public resilience, or decreased vulnerability. The success indicator for public education as negotiation is agreed risks. The success indicator for public education as an element of societal learning is societal
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development, leading to a safer society, though how this could be measured is not readily apparent.
Disaster management models guiding Australian practice have various definitions of success with strong parallels to those of the public education that takes place in Australian disaster management. The Emergency Risk Management model (EMA, 2004a), gaining strong favour in current Australian practice, and its emphases upon risk identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment has obvious relationships with a view of success in terms of agreement on appropriate risks. Arguably, the PPRR model is more likely to have strong associations with success as a measure of individuals to prevent and prepare for disasters, through actions such as behaviour change or increased awareness.
6.1.4.9 Power dynamics
Variation in the focus of awareness upon power dynamics underlies different ways of experiencing public education. Variation ranges from a perception of the educating agent as possessing more power than the learner as referenced from being a central authority, through to a view of the power dynamic as being an equal one aligning with principles of democracy and cooperation.
Disaster agencies are, predominantly, government bodies and empowered through federal, state and local government legislation. Authority via legislation (e.g. State of New South
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Wales, 1989) is given to these agencies to intervene, to varying extents, on behalf of society in regard to disasters. Authorised powers include evacuation, entry of premises, and reasonable use of force in specified circumstances. The ability of government bodies to declare a ‘state of emergency’ is another such example of this authority. The existence of such overriding authority for emergency and disaster response arguably has implications for interpretations of power during disaster education that occurs outside actual disasters. It is very probable that the authority vested in government agencies via legislation shapes public perception of these agencies as being authoritative. Thus, many individuals may perceive educational efforts by government agencies on such a power basis, and consider their role in the educational process as a subordinate one. Potentially, other individuals may perceive educational initiatives as intrusive and an extension of government authority into the routine activities of everyday life. Such considerations confront educational activities that occur outside formal contexts.
6.2 INSIGHTS INTO PUBLIC EDUCATION 6.2.1 Trends in Public Education
As introduced within the literature review, there has been growing favour amongst disaster researchers and practitioners in the last few years for a society-focused educational policy attending to social vulnerabilities and resiliencies and involving individuals and communities in managing uncertainties and negotiating risk in society (e.g. Crondstedt, 2002; EMA, 2003a; Oliver-Smith, 1998; Quarantelli, 1998; Salter, 1999; Sullivan, 2003). The trend towards social models of disaster and disaster
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education practice is especially evident in Australia literature but also reflects a more global shift in perspective. The innovation and advancements in Australia’s disaster management (Aquirre, 2002) places it as a leader in a new era of global disaster management policy formulation based upon the new paradigm of Emergency Risk Management that is community-centric and aligns closely with Quarantelli’s (1987, 1998) social paradigm of disasters. Such a perspective has been characterised by a shift in the language, focus and policy of disaster education away from earlier psychological models of awareness raising and attitude change towards social, communication and risk models favouring engagement and partnership between agencies and a community educated about risks, actively participating in negotiation of, and taking increased responsibility for, managing these risks. The social paradigm of disasters and vulnerability has opened up the whole meaning of disasters and placed the learner in the centre of the education process. The infallibility of disaster experts has been usurped and has led to a focus upon didactic exchange where the community is not a target of education but socially and politically entwined in it.
The results of this study show that the new, social theoretical perspectives are manifest in some of the collective ways in which disaster managers experience public education. For example, the emergence of ‘negotiation’ as a category of description reveals that this concept of involving the public in deciding how to address the social aspect of disaster has found its way into the ways of experiencing public education.
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As this study shows, not all disaster managers and educators experience public education in a way that is compatible with this new visioning of public education. More traditional views of education associated with raising of awareness, attitudinal and other attribute or psychological change, behaviour change and instruction are also prevalent. Hewitt’s (1998) warning to not underestimate the extent to which the physical view of disasters has a hold again appears justified given its association with these traditional forms of public education.
The shift to a new paradigm of disaster management, and hence the experiencing and practice of education within it, is not a sharp transition, but more akin to a gradual shifting of the dominant viewpoint. The legacy of prior theoretical perspectives, a defense and response oriented view of disaster management, and the speed with which change is occurring in the sector have left different individuals and different sections of disaster management at different stages of development in regard to current priorities for disaster management and public education within it. The current status of experiences of public education within the Australian disaster management context is perhaps best characterised as transitional: representative of both the new directions aspired to and pursued through new policy directions, and yet still substantially anchored within the legacy models and theories that guided the sector through the latter decades of the Twentieth Century.
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6.2.2 The Relationship of Research Results and Existing Literature
When a comparison is made between the findings of this phenomenographic study and the research literature chronicled within the literature review of this thesis, areas of consensus and omissions are both evident. In disaster management, the types of educational process being mentioned in the literature to date have not been a full and effective reflection of views and experiences of public education that have driven professional practice in recent years. For example, nowhere is there a way of experiencing based upon public education as a driver of social equity, a theme of much interest to researchers concerned with public education for disaster management in countries with socio-economic disadvantage or political instability. There was no way of experiencing public education as a process of development or a process rectifying socioeconomic imbalance despite arguments in the literature (e.g. Stallings, 1998) that disaster agencies arguably have economic imperatives that shape the safety imperatives for some over others, hence perpetuating vulnerabilities for the disadvantaged. Nowhere was there mention of the political nature of disasters or the possibility that the processes and structures of society, including its disaster agencies, may perpetuate vulnerability of the economically or socially disadvantaged or marginalised. On the other hand, there was no evidence in the results showing agencies do perpetuate vulnerability.
The ten experiences of public education expressed by study participants have various associations with both the legacy disaster management models and the newer models and policy directions in the sector. As such, there is a strong relationship between
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priorities for public education as documented in the literature and the collective ways that public education is currently understood. The extent to which practice leads theory or theories precede practice is not answered within this thesis. Perhaps practitioners’ interpretations are guided by the literature. Perhaps the literary rhetoric has its genesis in practice. Perhaps rhetoric and practice emerge and grow in a symbiotic relationship. Regardless, much disaster management practice tends to be discussed in the literature, but in a scattered way that has shed virtually no light on effective education practice, let alone what public education theory is, or the state of public education in the sector. Of course, literature is not constrained by a lack of resources, bureaucracy or political frustrations, as practice is susceptible too. It is noted that psychological, social, communication, marketing and risk theories present within the public education and disaster management literature resonate within the collective experience of public education of the research participants. Overall, the main criticism of existing public education literature is that it has not come to terms with the many ways the phenomenon is experienced within practice. Assumption of public education as being a single approach or a single solution leads to uncertainty and communication problems that can only undermine attempts to practice it.
6.2.3 The Evolving Meaning of Education
The phenomenographic map of public education reveals much about current views, with the absence of particular categories offering insights as much as the presence of included categories. There has been much change in social views in the disaster arena.
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Perhaps in another 10 years there will have been an even greater shift. Instruction and awareness-raising appear to be in the wane while new as yet unrealised ways of understanding are likely to emerge.
The existence of trends in public education literature suggests that the ways of experiencing as revealed in this study are a ‘snapshot’ of an evolving public education in a given time and context. In phenomenography, experience is context-based (Marton 1988a). The rapid rate of change to the context in which public education for disaster mitigation is occurring is likely to translate into a rapid evolution in the ways public education is experienced. This phenomenographic study has been applied at a point in time within ongoing disaster management reform that surely has an effect upon the place education is considered to hold. The various ways of experiencing exist within a particular population at a given point in time. It is anticipated that ways of experiencing will change over time and that a “snapshot” at another time will reflect the ways of experiencing that have lost salience and reveal yet further ways of experiencing public education that reflect a further maturing of the sector in such regard.
Phenomenographic studies of many different phenomena document that the assumption of absolute understanding for even the simplest of terms is typically ill founded. This includes physical motion (Svensson, 1989; Prosser & Miller, 1990), speed, distance and time (Ramsden, Masters, Stephanou, Walsh, Martin, Laurillard and Marton, 1993). Even something as simple as gravity can have various meanings that change over time, as evidenced in a shift in acceptance from a Newtonian to quantum-based modern physics
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view. The experiencing of a phenomenon is entwined with the perceptions, experiences and focus of the individual experiencing the phenomenon. Even an individual’s own understanding can change across time and context.
It is suggested that trends in ways of experiencing public education will shift at the collective level across time. In other words, the ways of understanding the phenomenon evolve. The disaster literature provides an example of how favour for particular theories shifts over time. The literature review in this thesis documents a shift from a physical towards a social view of disasters. The historical interpretation of disaster as deity driven is another example of how perceptions have come and gone. Phenomena differ in the rapidity with which new or alternate understandings develop. The basis of phenomenography is that all knowledge exists within a relationship between an individual and the external. Thus, as individuals progress through their lives, and society likewise progresses, understandings shift accordingly and become lost, some understandings of a phenomenon may disappear and new experiences and understandings may become commonplace. For social phenomenon, it is likely that some meanings will lose social relevance. Just as a disaster meant “an obnoxious planet” several centuries ago, a meaning that is now essentially discounted, so too has the meaning of public education changed and will continue to change. Using phenomenography we can map the variation that exists at a particular moment and in a particular context. But the literature can offer insight into the chronology and currency of different understandings.
Phenomenography shows us that, despite currency or
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priority for a particular view as correct, it often remains that various alternative experiences exist amongst individuals.
Change in favour of an emerging experience can be a rapid process. Paradigms supporting particular phenomena change over differing lengths of time. Thus, what is a ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ understanding can shift. As such, phenomenography is a research approach that supports Kuhn’s argument that paradigms for a particular phenomenon are replaced when the weight of evidence for a new and alternative paradigm becomes sufficient that more people adhere to the new theory than to its predecessor.
Phenomena have differing rates of change in terms of the ways in which they are experienced. Public education is a phenomenon deriving meaning within an unstable context of shifting paradigms of disaster and of education. The very meaning of disaster continues to develop at a rapid rate given technological and social change altering human relationships with others and their environment. Education theory, too, continues to advance. Some topics, like gravity may undergo a paradigm shift in a very definite and delineated step. But a large majority of understanding in this world is not contentoriented but is political and social. The boundary of the phenomenon is limited by the boundaries of experience and understanding amongst those interviewed. When boundaries become distinct enough and are used by enough individuals, then a new phenomenon is likely to branch forth. When attendance to that form is sufficient for boundaries to form, then a new phenomenon can be said to exist. This may occur if enough change continues to occur that the very meaning of ‘public education’ is no
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longer relevant but a term like ‘community risk management’ makes more sense for the phenomenon that replaces the legacy model.
6.2.4 Insight into Why Public Education Interventions May Succeed or Fail
It is again argued that within disaster management, public educators and managers have been disadvantaged by not having been provided with any overarching theory or insight into public education. The results of this phenomenographic study shed some light on the phenomenon and why some approaches are more successful than others.
As previously discussed, all phenomenographic ways of experiencing are equally legitimate research findings. However, according to Marton (1976, 1994), within a phenomenographic set of results, some ways of experiencing a phenomenon can be considered better than others on the basis that they are more efficient in relation to a determined criterion or were closer to an original conception (Marton, 1976). On this basis, it is possible to explore the possibility that educational efforts of Australian disaster agencies have a higher likelihood of not succeeding when certain ways of experiencing public education occupy the focus of a manager or individual guiding educational policy or practice.
The ten ways of experiencing public education encompass understandings and views emerging from different stages within the history, or evolution, of public education in disaster management and reflect different levels of complexity. All are legitimate
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phenomenographic outcomes. Despite this, it is obvious that some of the views that are higher in the hierarchy of categories are more aligned with the new directions evident in the disaster and disaster education literature and the new risk and community based objectives they seek to achieve in order to obtain the goal of disaster safety.
The idea that there has been an evolving of public education suggests there has been a shift away from some models towards others, presumably as dissatisfaction with preceding models has led individuals to seek newer and more effective approaches. Certainly, some of the older understandings are not supported by existing literature as being especially successful in obtaining consistently successful educational outcomes. Disaster management is an area undergoing a degree of change in its theoretical underpinnings and practice that has no precedence within the last few decades at least. The rebirth of public education as an aspect of risk management and community engagement provides an opportunity for disaster managers and educators to not only rethink, but, in turn, overhaul practice of public education.
The outcome space reveals an ordering of ways of experiencing public education from a non-effective process through to an element of a learning society. The numerical order of these categories of meaning reflects the increased awareness, sophistication and the emergent development of public education for each step of understanding. The combined referential and structural aspects of public education reveal a number of reasons why public education attempts may fail.
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One avenue of insight as to why public education initiatives may fail is to consider the category of description of public education as a non-effective process. When public education is experienced as non-effective, it reflects an apathy and frustration with education that is reflective of direct or indirect experience of failed public education initiatives. This way of experiencing incorporates those negativities towards public education based on the experiences of educational initiatives that have been frustrating, confusing or disillusioning. Within such expressed negativities are the experiences that shed insight into the causes of educational initiative failures. Primarily, these hard-learned experiences highlight that causes of educational failures include: •
when education does not get adequately resourced;
•
when disaster agencies lack educational skills or vision;
•
when there is an emphasis upon response rather than prevention; and
•
when relevant examples of public education do not exist.
Another major reason public education initiatives have failed is because guiding models available for practitioners have been inadequate. Even though there is enough understanding of public education now to refine its usage, there has been a lack of a coherent theoretical or policy base to support education practitioners in disaster management (Nielsen & Lidstone, 1998). As documented in the literature review, objective attempts to account for public education in disaster management, and in general, have led to increasingly complex models of the phenomenon with varying emphases upon psychological, sociological, communication theory or theoretical combinations. Such research has continued despite a failure of prior research to provide
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any substantial evidence that any such theoretical basis or bases account for why public education campaigns may succeed or fail. Models have tended to offer mechanistic or causal explanations. Perhaps many factors in educational initiatives do, ultimately, sum to an extent that it becomes possible to predict behavioural outcomes at a sociological level, as explored by researchers like Jensen (2001). However, predictive educational models are arguably going to be piecemeal and only part of the picture while a vision of education is lacking. It is important to consider that perhaps there has been a predilection towards finding a solution as to how public education works a bit prematurely. Perhaps this issue is best put aside while the prerequisite question - “What is this thing called ‘public education’ that everybody is talking about?” – is answered.
A major benefit of this phenomenographic research is its capacity to provide insight into the phenomenon of public education despite the complexities within it. Public education campaigns have probably failed because people have not stopped to reflect upon the assumptions they have of public education – its processes and goals – and the ways it can be approached. The way educators approach education affects learning outcomes. How disaster managers and educators approach public education for safety delimits education outcomes. If an individual’s experiencing of public education devalues the role of the learner, for example, then the opportunity for them to participate in risk negotiation is lost and their capacity to manage their own risks may be jeapordised. Public education can be approached broadly as instruction, marketing, partnerships, and negotiation, and so on; yet, nowhere in the disaster literature is the multiplicity of education, as it has been applied, seriously accounted for.
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Disaster managers do have a range of ways of experiencing public education. Despite these variations, they each also have fairly definite views on what makes effective public education. Sometimes, the reason why education initiatives may fail is perhaps less about the visioning of the managers and more about discrepancies between their beliefs about the practise of public education and those of their organisation on the grounds of funding, politics or other constraints. As one research participant reported: “Budget is a problem. Can try, but it is likely that we will fall back on what we know.”
6.2.5 The Legitimacy of Public Education
In disaster management, public education is experienced in many ways. Having an educator and a learner in a traditional didactic transfer of knowledge from expert instructor to novice learner has become but one of many possibilities. As articulated by the participants in this study, most public education efforts by disaster managers and educators occur within formal learning institutions. Such education is legitimate and utilised on the basis that it is perceived as the most appropriate education for the types of learning and outcomes sought by disaster managers and educators.
In disaster management, educational efforts are guided by the practical imperative of increasing safety, reducing vulnerability or preparing against hazards, often, it would appear, by whatever means is viable. Within disaster management, new priorities for education, community and social valuing have translated into various experiences of
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public education by disaster managers pragmatically seeking tangible outcomes regardless of educational perspectives or learning contexts.
The research findings in this thesis are available as a reminder to all educators, not just public educators, that education is more than a teacher instructing a student in a formal setting. Education models that assume a learner, educator and a formal context are the key ingredients fail to account for the majority of learning that occurs outside of such contexts (Candy, 1991). This study of public education for disaster management highlights that much learning occurs outside the classroom. Participants did mention the classroom and the benefit of educating children. However, the setting of education was peripheral to understanding against other aspects. Learning is entwined with all aspects of life and categorisation of educator and learner or expert and novice or processes like education and learning do not necessarily have delineated meaning.
This phenomenographic study reveals not only that a diversity of opinion on public education exists but also that many people have begun to entertain these newer perspectives of education wherein the entire relationship between educator and learner becomes blurred. The educator can facilitate, but the role may be as much about encouraging self-learning, decision-making or motivation, negotiating risks or values, or establishing relationships, as anything else. Indeed, it was acknowledged by a number of research participants that you couldn’t instruct people to change their actions or increase their preparation or preparedness and that this approach was ultimately non-successful. As one participant sarcastically noted:
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I’ve been known to say that we should take notice of the great propagandists of human history like Goebbels. These guys were effective at changing peoples’ minds and behaviours. Now, they had some advantages that we don’t have, like a totalitarian state behind them. But you get my drift.
One implication for education from this exploration of public education is that the meaning of education in education models needs to be encompassing enough to ensure the legitimacy of alternative models such as public education. The focus of this research was on public education, yet if public education is valued as a legitimate education form, has insights of relevance to all education.
6.3 PHENOMENOGRAPHY As considered in Chapter 3, despite debate as to its epistemology and ontology (Hasselgren and Beach, 1997), phenomenography’s adherents agree upon its utility as a means of mapping phenomena: uncovering and structurally representing the qualitatively different ways in which phenomena are experienced (cf. Marton, 1981). Practical research, such as the study documented within this thesis, affords an opportunity to contribute to this ongoing debate via comment upon practicalities of applying phenomenographic methods and theory to a previously unexplored phenomenon. Two main issues that will be discussed are: 1. Achieving parsimony; and 2. Shared Terminology to Describe Multiple Relationships of Individual to a Phenomenon.
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6.3.1 Comments upon Achieving Parsimony
Phenomenography takes idiosyncratic views of individuals and via the analysis of the researcher generates collective findings that are "stripped [of the] scent and colour of life" Marton (1996, p.186). This is an acknowledged act of reduction central to phenomenography. Such reductionism is phenomenography’s point of departure from other qualitative research, and as the cornerstone of its idiosyncrasy is both the source of its pragmatic outcomes and a likely target for criticism by advocates of non-reductionist research paradigms. The experience of researchers in reducing qualitative transcripts into logically related categories of meaning is therefore an especially significant aspect of phenomenography worthy of comment.
This phenomenographic study was successful in that it achieved referential and structural definition of a set of ten parsimonious ways of experiencing public education despite the complexities and uncertainties of the phenomenon. Ten categories of description is noteworthy as being a larger than usual number of emergent categories of meaning from a phenomenographic study, as based on observation on other studies (examples of which were provided in Chapter 3). Three to six categories of meaning are a more typical number of categories to emerge from phenomenographic studies. However, the 10 categories of description that emerged from this study were considered appropriate outcomes based upon a truthful attendance to the principles of phenomenographic analysis as outlined earlier in this thesis. Ultimately, that is the criteria mandated by phenomenography. Reflection on the process and why 10
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categories of description emerged from this study as compared with a lesser average from other phenomenographic studies led to the questioning of why phenomenography tends to generate smaller total numbers of categories of meaning. Several possibilities are suggested.
Firstly, it cannot be discounted that it is very possible that public education is simply a phenomenon that, overall, is more complex than other phenomena and as such requires more categories of meaning to describe it. It is also possible that the way this researcher undertook analysis was different from that of other researchers. If this is the case, then the best way to justify the emergence of 10 categories of description is to document the way in which this researcher achieved quality in research outcomes, with especial attention to achievement of parsimony of categories of description. However, it is also possible that some phenomenographic researchers have generated phenomenographic findings based upon criteria of (i) an expected number of categories and (ii) simplicity, on top of, or in lieu of, the appropriate guiding criteria of parsimony, distinctiveness of categories and logical structural relationships as detailed by Marton and Booth (1997). Perhaps some phenomenographers, aware of other phenomenographic studies, have an expectation that approximately three to six, perhaps seven at most, categories will emerge, and analysis by the researcher seeks structure and meaning at such a level. Simplicity of representation of outcomes may replace actual guiding criteria. If this is the case, then Entwistle’s (1997) comment that much research claiming to be phenomenographic is not is true.
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Within phenomenography, the researcher is an acknowledged instrument of analysis (Ashworth and Lucus, 2000; Marton, 1986a, 1996). Categories of description and an outcome space are research outputs derived by the researcher from an analysis wherein research design attempts to minimise biases, preconceptions or presuppositions. As Bruce (2001) points out, the process of obtaining categories of description involves both discovery and construction, as ways of experiencing reveal themselves through the data and the researcher, in awareness of structural and referential aspects, constructs categories of description for these. Different phenomenographic researchers have placed differing importance upon these two aspects of the process. The experience of this researcher parallels that argued by Bruce (2001): that the discovery and construction aspects of the process, while conceivable as separate, essentially occur simultaneously. More precisely, categories of description and ways of experiencing emerge in a cycle of discovery and construction of such a frequency that the two processes, for practical purposes, are simultaneous. Eventually, discovery of ways of experiencing is complete, and categories of meaning are constructed, and the analysis is essentially complete. A set of categories of description exist that may be considered of quality as a set. The important point to note in the current context is that the researcher felt the categories of description, as a set, were an honest, parsimonious, categorically distinctive, logically structured summary of the research participants’ experience of public education.
The reality of the present phenomenographic research was that the researcher spent much time analysing where the best delineations lay in terms of providing the categorical distinctiveness and logical structure of the phenomenon. In establishing
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categories of description, the question arose as to whether these categories are true to the research participants or contains bias the researcher has not been able to account for. Ultimately, as for all research, the analysis is finalised and attempts are made to acknowledge where researcher strengths and limitations lie.
Perhaps the most significant comment that can be made about the phenomenographic analysis is that it is important to remember that there is no one level at which a phenomenon can be discussed. If we consider something as simple as a chair, it might be possible to discuss this phenomenon at an objective, atomic, chemical or sub-atomic level for example. Individuals may relate to chairs in ways where health and safety, historical, comfort, aesthetics, functionality, or other foci are central in awareness. Each of these might equate to a dimension upon which an individuals experiencing of chairs may vary across time and context. The point is: there is seldom, and perhaps never, one hierarchy upon which all individuals differentiate a single phenomenon. The new direction of phenomenography towards variation and awareness allowed us to suggest nine dimensions (some of which were themselves summaries of sub-dimensions) that may distinguish ways of experiencing public education. Others probably also exist as phenomenographic analysis methods were not fully espoused at the time of this study attuned in regard to exploring such awareness aspects (hence the secondary nature of these research outcomes).
The analysis task for a phenomenographer is far more complex than it may appear on initial consideration. If the researcher makes too few categories then structural and
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referential aspects of the phenomenon are lost. If the researcher makes too many categories then conceptual overlaps begin and the tangible benefits of research findings are reduced, as pragmatic insight into the phenomenon has not necessarily been achieved.
The term public education had nine underlying dimensions of variation. Part of the process that occupied a large aspect of the analysis phase of this study related to the representation of underlying dimensions of variation in an outcome space. The phenomenographic outcome space is a reduction of a multi-dimensional phenomenon (i.e. nine highlighted underlying dimensions in this instance) to a 2-Dimensional space. Thus, it was not possible to express all dimensions of variation within the 2Dimensional space and a decision had to be made as to which dimensions were dominant in determining hierarchy of categories and structural priorities. The process of determining which dimensions should be dominant in terms of the representation of the structure in a 2-Dimensional outcome space and which are lesser underlying dimensions of variation along which variations in understanding of the phenomenon can occur requires further attention in phenomenography.
6.3.2 Shared Terminology to Describe Multiple Relationships of Individual to a Phenomenon
Within all 10 ways of experiencing public education, it was axiomatic to participants that it was a terminology being employed to allow individuals to refer to a particular phenomenon. Many individuals have an understanding of a phenomenon that has been
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given the banner of “public education”. Every single research participant was able to communicate to the researcher an understanding of the phenomenon of public education without any proscriptive definition being provided. The term (i.e. “public education”) is just that – a term – and is being applied to attempt to allow communication across individuals about their own unique experience of the phenomenon. It is the commonalities of experience that define “public education”. At the same time, phenomenography allows a researcher to consider the structural and referential variation of the phenomenon. Thus, arguably, one aspect of phenomenography is documentation of shared terminology and the variations that exist in the sharing of that terminology based on the different relationships people have with the phenomenon the terminology encompasses.
In some ways “public education” is two phenomena in one – “public” and “education” but as a single phenomenon is a sum greater than its parts. It is an entity unto itself and ways of experiencing of it are in terms of the entwined meaning of the conjoined term “public education”. Hence, you could get these people to talk about the public and separately about education but together the term gains it’s meaning. Thus, phenomenography has been successfully applied to a complex entity with a social process aspect and been fruitful in the insights it has afforded. This research provides yet another outcome demonstrating that phenomenography can account for complex social issues provided sufficient attention is given to analysis of and articulation of the boundaries of the phenomenon.
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6.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 6.4.1 Cautionary Approach to Generalisability
As identified in the design of this study, the selection of managers and educators with different backgrounds occurred to identify the largest possible range of parsimonious variations in understanding or experience of public education. Further, the interview process continued until information being provided was determined by the researcher to be reflective of experiences and understandings provided by preceding participants. The intention of this, ultimately, was that the legitimacy of approximating the range of ways of understanding amongst the research participants with that of the larger population of Australian disaster managers would be maximised.
Ultimately, phenomenographic outcomes are assumed to reflect way of understanding that can be generalised to the wider public. For this reason, as stated earlier in the thesis, the categories of meaning are deliberately "stripped" [of the] scent and colour of life" (Marton, 1996, p.186), because it is this collective feature of phenomenographic research findings that has been integral to their practical worth for educators and learners. At the same time, the reader is reminded that the meaning and structure of public education that has been uncovered is based upon the contribution of disaster managers and educators within a particular context: •
from a disaster management background;
•
in a particular work role;
•
interviewed at a particular point in time;
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•
in a rapidly developing work sector;
•
with particular priorities and agendas; and
•
contributors to Australian culture.
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6.4.2 Limits to applicability of the cohort views
This research approached the issue of public education with an assumption that managers and educators in disaster management were appropriate participants as it is they who ultimately have sway over educational practice in Australia. By focusing on the perceptions of public education from a disaster management context, practitioners of this education were limited to those in agencies with authority. This approach has achieved its objective of allowing such practitioners reflection upon their own experiences, and, ultimately, their own choices. However, given the conceptual and practical overlaps and slippages of education and learning in a field of social endeavour such as attempting to provide for disaster safety, it is important to acknowledge that the public – as individuals, communities, organizations or nations - also has experiences important for understanding the complexities of public safety – including their ways of experiencing phenomena of risk, learning for safety, public education, government responsibility and individual responsibility for safety.
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6.4.3 Gender imbalance
Twenty-four percent of the participants (6 of 25) in this research were women. This number over-represents the proportion of women within senior disaster management compared to the national average of less than 10 percent (Wraith, 1997). However, it still under-represents women to men in the larger scale of Australian society.
Hazel, Conrad, & Martin (1997) argued that women have often been overlooked in phenomenographic research for multiple reasons. Firstly, research has tended to occur in fields where women are under-represented. Disaster management is one such field. Second, the phenomenon under investigation has traditionally been patriarchal. While there is no evidence to suggest that public education is a patriarchal phenomenon, it must be acknowledged that the context of disaster safety in which the phenomenon was investigated has been acknowledged as strongly patriarchal (Wraith, 1997). Thirdly, phenomenographic outcome spaces have arguably been defined in cognitive terms and have thus neglected the affective aspect often associated more with women’s ways of understanding even though there is no actual onus upon phenomenography to exclude the affective from ways of understanding.
A potential limitation of this study is that the experiences of women are not adequately accommodated within this research. If ways female disaster managers experience public education extends in different directions to those ways male managers understand public education then there may not have been an adequate number of female participants to
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give voice to these experiences. Yet this risk was minimised as the cohort selected did deliberately target additional women to partially address this concern.
Reflection on the emergent ways of understanding public education months after the categories were revealed and re-exploring the data for emotional content did reveal that the emotion of frustration with public education was present amongst some practitioners and satisfaction or a sense of achievement amongst others.
6.4.4 Researcher Interpretation
The results of this study included an outcome space with a hierarchical representation of eight of the ten ways of experiencing public education within four meta-groupings: guidance, engagement, consensus, and societal learning. Reflection upon this outcome space in relation to existing research literature leads to an acknowledgement of the similarity of the hierarchy to some aspects of the literature. In particular, the literature documents a recent shift in practice towards social engagement and away from instruction. While the meta-groupings are arguably more sophisticated in hierarchy, similarities still exist. In turn, it is acknowledged that this potentially exposes the research to the criticism that the analysis is a reflection of the worldview of the researcher rather than the research participants. The following excerpt from Ackerlind (2002b) provides justification as to the necessary relationship between the researcher and data and the benefit still afforded by research outcomes: In line with the principles of awareness underlying phenomenographic research, the outcome space constituted by the researcher is seen as inevitably
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representing a relationship between the researcher and the data, i.e., the data as experienced by the researcher (Svennson and Theman, 1983; Bowden, 1996; Sandberg, 1996; 1997; Marton and Booth, 1997). Consequently, it is acknowledged that the final outcome space produced need not be the only possible outcome from the data. It is an outcome that can be argued for, not empirically proven, and inevitably represents a partial understanding of the phenomenon.
The arguments for the research outcome in this study have already been extensively documented in Chapter Four in terms of the efforts towards obtaining ensuring a rigorous research design, acknowledging the boundaries of meaningfulness to research results, and attending to reliability and validity as meaningful in a phenomenographic sense. Further, this draws a comment that is applicable to most research: that replication of research by other researchers is a valuable aspect of the research process as it provides support for initial research findings. Also, as Ackerlind (2002b, p.9) notes, high quality independent phenomenographic doctoral research “does not preclude the possibility that group research work may produce a better outcome”. This research makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of public education, though arguably future opportunities exist for group research to take understanding further.
6.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH A number of future studies are recommended. The ease with which such studies have been generated, and the huge void of knowledge about public education they need to fill, is an indictment upon the lack of prior attention by educators to endeavours of public education outside the mainstream interpretation of education. It is indicative of the general absence of substantial research concerned with public education. As such, scope
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is
vast
for
future
research.
Suggested
future
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studies
are
predominately
phenomenographic in focus, though it is suggested that other non-phenomenographic research that can shed light on public education is equally welcome to the field.
Possibilities for future research studies can be derived from the findings, implications and limitations of this current study. In total, these recommended future studies have the potential to extend research in new directions, address certain limitations of the present study, and, add to the acceptance of the study’s findings via replication of the current research study. Such research could offer further insight into public education in general and public education for disaster management in particular. Seven possible future studies are now suggested.
6.5.1.1 Exploring ways of experiencing public education with a cohort of international disaster managers
It is very possible that some ways disaster managers from other countries experience public education vary from those of Australian disaster managers. In particular, socioeconomic, cultural and political differences between countries may have a noteworthy influence on the way that education is perceived.
The cohort of Australian disaster managers and educators in this study made little reference to international perspectives on education and no reference to education having a political role in addressing socio-economic inequities as a causative agent in
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disaster or vulnerability. On one level, this is surprising given a perspective of the role of disaster education common in the literature is the need to focus upon vulnerable or marginalised groups within society. However, it is acknowledged that socioeconomic accounts of disaster and education are typically associated with studies related to developing countries. Regardless, if we accept as tenable the argument that public education has a political aspect, then differing experiences of the phenomenon are likely to exist between different cultures and nations.
As discussed within the literature review, public education appears to play an especially crucial role in disaster safety in poorer countries with less political and economic stability and consequently less opportunities for sophisticated technology such socioeconomic positioning affords (Handmer, 2003, for example). For poorer countries, education arguably becomes an achievable and cost-effective mechanism for disaster safety and cessation of a spiraling cycle of poverty and disaster.
Replication of this study across countries or cultural groups may very well uncover additional ways of experiencing public education that would provide domestic disaster managers, particularly those in worldwide relief agencies, as well as other nation’s disaster managers, a better understanding of the viewpoints on public education that potentially alters its implementation across countries.
6.5.1.2 Exploring ways of experiencing related issues with Australian disaster managers and educators
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As previously discussed, public education as applied in disaster management does not occur in discrete isolation from other phenomena or contexts. Additional research into disaster managers’ ways of experiencing disaster and learning would be beneficial. This research has advanced understanding of public education substantially. This outcome is however only part of the puzzle as to why education succeeds or fails.
6.5.1.3 Exploring ways of experiencing public education with a cohort of public educators addressing a different social issue
As mentioned previously, public education is constituted by a relationship between an educator, the public and a social issue. As such, a social issue is a core element of the way public education is understood. Disaster mitigation for public safety is only one of a diversity of social issues that exist and for which education has been perceived as a viable solution. There would be benefit in investigation of the ways public education is experienced by other professional managers and educators with responsibility for the address of other issues apart from disaster mitigation and public safety.
The ways of experiencing public education emerging from this study have relevance to other areas of social address via education such as health initiatives. Similarly, discovery of ways of experiencing in other fields means that those ways of understanding become available for discussion in disaster management. Each set of findings allows reflection upon the meaning of effective practice.
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6.5.1.4 Exploring ways of understanding public education with a cohort of the general public
This field would benefit from further phenomenographic research uncovering the various meanings ascribed to public education or learning by the public whose safety and well-being are the espoused goals of disaster management. The public, as both members of the public and enactors of public education, are likely to have a viewpoint of education different from that provided by disaster managers.
Phenomenography has already provided an opportunity to understand learning as a qualitative shift in understanding (Ramsden, 1988). Previous phenomenographic studies (Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty, 1993; Pramling, 1988; Saljo, 1979; Van Rossum and Schenk, 1984, in particular) have provided a fresh and innovative way to understand and document what learning is as experienced by those who learn. Landmark phenomenographic investigations (i.e. Saljo, 1979; Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty, 1993) have focused on understanding learning as experienced by those involved in a formal setting under the guidance of an external instructor. This focus matches the view of learning as being part of an organised education process (e.g. International Standard Classification of Education, cited in ASCEET, 1987). But phenomenographic research has not yet provided insight into how learning is experienced when not limited to a formal setting with immediate external instruction, as is the case for much of the learning for disaster safety. Learning for disaster prevention and preparation is eclectic
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in context, with most learning occurring beyond formal learning settings. It may at times involve purely self-directed learning (Candy, 1991) or incidental learning (Brookfield, 1983, 1986; Foley, 1993, 1995), which occurs beyond that organised by relevant disaster or formal agencies.
The roles of both the managers of the education process and those who learn are valuable in understanding the educational process as potentially reciprocal. This research has described education of the public as experienced by those with responsibility for education of the public. What is still needed is research that documents learning for disaster prevention and preparation as understood by the public who must ultimately assume some level of responsibility for their own actions in such regard.
6.5.1.5 Longitudinal study of ways of understanding public education
Phenomenography is the mapping of ways of experiencing a phenomenon with the experience occurring in a context. It has been argued in this discussion that the context for social phenomena changes over time and at a relatively fast pace. As such, ways of experiencing public education are likely to change over time. It would be beneficial to commence a longitudinal study to monitor this aspect.
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6.5.1.6 Interpretative model of public education
Though it was beyond the scope of this research, it is recommended that the results from this research be used as the basis of establishment of an interpretative model of public education. The current phenomenographic results achieved the goals of the research in documenting the current variation in experiences of public education. Future research could use these experiences to determine the relationship between each way of understanding and the effectiveness of any subsequent educational practice. An interpretative model, driven by results from the two studies could then be developed.
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CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION ----o----o----o---The object of phenomenographic research is the way (or the different ways) in which we experience – or are aware of – the world around us.
(Marton, 1994b, p.7) ----o----o----o----
7.1 ACHIEVEMENT OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Four specific objectives were introduced near the start of his thesis. These four specific research objectives are repeated now along with a summary of how this thesis, and the research supporting it, met these objectives.
Research Objective 1: Establish an integrated literature on public education, particularly in a disaster management context.
An integrated public education literature review, with a particular focus upon the disaster management context, was provided as Chapter 2 [Literature Review] within this thesis. It also included supporting literature on perspectives on disaster and the public.
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Research Objective 2: Gain an appreciation of the referential component of knowledge of public education via identifying and presenting a set of discrete phenomenographic categories of description for the phenomenon of ‘public education’.
The phenomenographic study was introduced in Chapter 1; phenomenography overviewed in Chapter 3; and the design of the study presented in Chapter 4. Supported by this detailed description of process and theory, ten categories of description were presented as outcomes of the research study in Chapter 5. These are the referential aspect of public education.
Research Objective 3: Gain an appreciation of the structural component of knowledge of public education via development and presentation of a phenomenographic Outcome Space.
The phenomenographic study was introduced in Chapter 1; phenomenography overviewed in Chapter 3; and the design of the study presented in Chapter 4. Based on this detailed description of process and theory, and using the categories of meaning obtained as Research Objective 2, a phenomenographic Outcome Space (Marton, 1988a), as a representation of the qualitatively different ways in which disaster managers experience public education, was developed and presented in Chapter 5 as an outcome of the research study.
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Research Objective 4: Critique existing literature and theories of public education in light of emergent research findings [dependent upon achieving objectives 1 and 3].
The research findings from the phenomenographic study were presented and critiqued within the Discussion [Chapter 6] of this thesis. Further to this critique, the phenomenographic results are presented to fill a void in public education research that currently exists within the literature.
In achieving its stated research objectives, a number of benefits were achieved, the four major ones identified at the start of this thesis particularly: •
an original and substantial contribution to knowledge of public education;
•
contribution to academic discussion about phenomenography;
•
improving education; and
•
improving links between literature and practice. ----o----o----o----
7.2 RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS Ultimately, the way an individual experiences a phenomenon is idiosyncratic. An experience of a phenomenon exists within the unique relationship between each individual and the phenomenon they relate to. This is as true of the phenomenon of public education as all other phenomena. Attending to the phenomenon as a ‘relation between the conceptualising individual and the conceptualised phenomenon’ (Lybeck, Marton, Stromdahl & Tulberg, 1988, p.83), phenomenography has allowed insight into
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the meaning and structure of public education. This phenomenographic study has revealed that there were enough commonalities in the view of disaster managers to represent structurally and referentially those major categories that capture the essence of each key way of understanding the phenomenon.
The phenomenographic exploration of ways a group of Australian disaster managers understand public education led to a mapping of the phenomenon comprising the referential and structural components of these conceptions in 10 categories of description and an outcome space respectively. This model of public education maps the variation in the collective ways of understanding public education of a group of 25 Australian disaster managers. The categories of description and outcome space have been demonstrated to be valid and reliable in a sense meaningful to phenomenography and to be legitimate outcomes of a comprehensive, phenomenographic study embedded within an appropriate research design, methodology and paradigm.
The research is at the forefront of phenomenographic research in that it takes advantage of most recent theoretical and methodological directions in phenomenography. It includes a convincing set of outcomes that detail the structural and referential aspects of the phenomenon of public education together with the analysis and presentation of underlying dimensions of variation that becomes available as an example of the new possibilities afforded to phenomenographic research by recent developments within the research approach. The research design was carefully structured to make a practical, relevant and urgently needed contribution to understanding of public education. This
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design was also supported by the presentation of a large body of relevant, synthesised literature.
How public education occurs in disaster management is essentially an outcome of choice driven by a combination of resources and social and political constraints alongside priorities shaped by the ways practitioners understand public education in the context of disaster management at a particular point in time. The continuity seen in practice is because the social and political values as a whole are a reflection of those held by the many individuals within the institutions etc that make up disaster management. The snapshot of public education in disaster management provided by this research is a chronicle of various experiences of individuals as expressed through their collective set of understandings of public education and hence sheds light on why public education practice occurs as it does today. It also allows educators and practitioners to reflect upon how public education can be improved by the embedding within disaster management practice of education opportunities contained within the thesis.
This thesis makes the phenomenographic account of public education available for use by the disaster management sector, phenomenographic research network, and academic and public education communities. These outcomes are intended as a basis for discussion and policy formulation. Such activities can facilitate the progress of Australian disaster management towards the goal of a broad-based, community-centred approach to disaster management as pursued within current Australian disaster management policy imperatives yet still ‘elusive’ despite a number of individual project
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successes (cf. Abrahams, 2004, p38). The availability of this research to the disaster education community allows educators and professionals to reflect upon and discuss with clarity the many practical opportunities for educational processes available within the research findings, which if taken up will improve public education and, in turn, increase public safety. ----o----o----o----
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APPENDIX 1 Selected Disasters in Australia 1945 - 2000 DATE
DISASTER CATEGORY & LOCATION
DEAD
INJURED EST. COST
1945 Mar 1946 May 1947 May 1947 Jun 1950 1954 Mar 1954 1955 Feb 1955 Apr 1958 1959 Jan 1960 Jan 1960 Jun 1960 Nov 1961 1962 Feb 1964
Drought (1939– 1945) Australia- wide Aviation Tas – near Hobart Land Transport – Train Qld – near Brisbane Land Transport – Train Qld – near Dayborough Aviation WA – near Perth Cyclone Southern Qld & Northern NSW Earthquake SA – Adelaide Flood NSW – Singleton/ Maitland Flood Eastern NSW Bushfire SA – Wandillo Heatwave Southern Australia Heatwave Southern Australia Aviation NSW – near Tamworth Aviation Qld – Mackay Aviation NSW – Botany Bay, Sydney Bushfire Vic – Lara Maritime – HMAS Melbourne / HMAS Voyager collision ACT (NSW) – Jervis Bay Structure Fire – convalescent home Vic – Melbourne Aviation Qld – Mt Isa Bushfire – ‘Black Tuesday’ Ta s – Hobart & region Drought – (1958– 1968) Most States Bushfire NSW – Blue Mtns & Sth Coast Aviation WA – Port Hedland Bushfire Vic – Southern regions Cyclone – ‘Ada’ Qld – Whitsunday Islands Land Transport Train/ bus collision SA – near Gawler Flood Tas – Deloraine and Latrobe Structural Collapse– Westgate Bridge collapse Vic – Lower Yarra River, Melbourne Cyclone – ‘Althea’ (incl. storm surge) Qld – Townsville Mining Qld – Ipswich Heatwave Southern Australia Cyclone ‘Madge’ (Nth Qld, NT & WA) Land Transport – Bus NSW – Snowy Mountains Flood (Cyclone ‘Wanda’ – rainfall) Qld – Brisbane Flood (Cyclone ‘Wanda’ – rainfall) Southern Qld & Northern NSW Flood NSW – Sydney Severe Storm NSW – Sydney Cyclone – ‘Tracy’(incl. storm surge) NT – Darwin Mining Qld – central – Kianga near Moura Structural Collapse – Tasman Bridge Tas – Hobart Flood NSW – Sydney Cyclone – ‘Joan’ WA – Nthn (Port & South Hedland) Structure Fire – Savoy Hotel, Kings Cross NSW – Sydney Severe Storm NSW Cyclone – ‘Te d ’ Qld Land Transport – Train crash/ bridge collapse NSW – Granville Bushfire Vic – Western Districts Flood NSW Flood NSW – Sydney and Penrith Cyclone – ‘Hazel’ WA (at sea) Mining NSW – Appin Severe Storm SA Cyclone – ‘Dean’ WA – Pilbara region Aviation NSW – Sydney
0 25 16 16 29 26 0 24 50 8 105 98 13 29 15 14
0 – – 38 – – – – 300 50 3,000 1,000 – – – 200
2,500 – – – – – 350 – 500 – 25 15 – – – 92
82 30 24 62 0 14 26 23 14 17 1
– – – 900 0 70 – 100 100 45 5
_ _ _ 300 4,200 106 – 210 390 – 240
35 3 17 26 0 18 16
18 25 – 750 10 21 300
– 730 – 24 750 – 980
– 0 0 65 13 13 0 0 15 0 0
– 12 10 650 – – 7 5 – 10 2
1,220 415 290 4,180 – 120 295 300
83 8 0 5 15 14 0 0 13
213 60 5 50 5 25 120 7 –
– – 220 132 150 – 55 220 –
Jan 1965 Sep 1966 Feb 1967 Sep 1968 Nov 1968 Dec 1968 Jan 1969 Jan 1970 Apr 1970 Aug 1970 Oct 1970 Dec 1971 Jul 1972 Jan 1973 Mar 1973 Sep 1973 Feb 1974 Feb 1974 April 1974 May 1974 Dec 1974 1975 Jan 1975 Mar 1975 Dec 1975 Dec 1975 Nov 1976 Dec 1976 Jan 1977 Feb 1977 Mar 1977 Mar 1978 Mar 1979 Jul 1979 Nov 1979 Feb 1980 Feb 1980
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DATE
DISASTER CATEGORY & LOCATION
Feb 1981 Apr 1981 Aug 1981 Feb 1983 Apr 1983 May 1983 Nov 1984 Jan 1985 Jan 1986 Jul 1986 Aug 1986 Oct 1986 Apr 1988 Apr 1989
Samuel William Nielsen
DEAD
INJURED EST. COST
Heatwave South- eastern Australia 15 220 10 Structure Fire – Nursing home NSW – Sydney – Sylvania 16 – – Structure Fire – Rembrandt Hotel NSW – Sydney – Kings Cross 19 – – Bushfire – ‘Ash Wednesday’ Vic & SA 76 1,100 960 Drought – (1979– 83) Australia- wide except WA 0 0 7,000 Flood SE Qld & NE NSW 1 10 610 Flood NSW – including Sydney 0 20 550 Severe Storm (incl. tornado) Qld – Brisbane 0 20 390 Cyclone – ‘Winifred’ Qld – North (Cairns to Ingham) 3 12 325 Mining Qld – Moura 12 – – Flood NSW – Sydney & Hawkesbury Valley 6 30 265 Severe Storm NSW – Sydney & Western Suburbs 0 10 253 Flood NSW – Sydney 0 5 220 Cyclone – ‘Aivu’ (including storm surge) Qld – Ayr, Home Hill, Wunjunga 2 13 200 Aug 1989 Aviation – Hot- air balloon collision/ crash NT – near Alice Springs 13 0 – Oct 1989 Land Transport – Bus/ truck collision NSW – near Grafton 21 22 – Dec 1989 Earthquake NSW – Newcastle 13 150 4,480 Dec 1989 Land Transport – Two- bus collision NSW – Cowper, near Kempsey 35 41 – Jan 1990 Heatwave SA – Southern / Vic – Northern 5+ 100 22 Feb 1990 Flood (Cyclone) – ‘Nancy’ Qld – Southern/ NSW – Northern 6 25 240 Mar 1990 Severe Storm NSW – Auburn (southwest Sydney) 0 25 550 Apr 1990 Flood – ‘Great Floods’ Qld/ NSW/ Vic 7 60 415 May 1990 Land Transport – Two- train collision NSW – Brooklyn 6 99 – Dec 1990 Heatwave Vic – Melbourne 4+ 60 _ Jan 1991 Severe Storm (incl. tornado) NSW – northern Sydney 1 100 670 Jan 1991 Flood (Cyclone ‘Joy’) Qld – Central Coast 6 35 385 Apr 1991 Cyclone – ‘Fifi’ WA (27 died as ore ship sank) 29 10 38 Aug 1991 Structure Fire NSW 12 – – Dec 1992 Flood SA – Adelaide 1 4 275 Feb 1992 Severe Storm NSW – Sydney 0 10 335 Oct 1993 Flood Vic – Northeast 1 30 440 Feb 1993 Heatwave South- eastern Australia 17+ 500+ 10 Jan 1994 Bushfire NSW – Eastern seaboard 4 120 165 Jan 1994 Heatwave Qld – Northern incl Townsville 5 150 8 Oct 1994 Land Transport – Bus Qld – Brisbane 12 39 – Nov 1994 Severe Storm Vic – Melbourne/ Geelong region 1 54 88 Oct 1995 Drought (1991– 1995) Eastern Australia 0 0 5,000 Nov 1995 Heatwave NSW – Western Sydney and region 1 100+ – Feb 1996 Land Transport – Bus Vic – Murray Valley Highway 0 57 – Feb 1996 HAZMAT – Chemical truck fire NSW – Sydney (Epping) 0 60 – Apr 1996 Shooting Massacre Tas – Port Arthur 35 22 30 May 1996 Flood Qld – Southern and NSW – Northern 4 20 220+ Jun 1996 Aviation – 2 Army Blackhawk helicopters collided Qld – near Townsville 18 10 – Sep 1996 Severe Storm (including 3 tornadoes) NSW – Armidale 0 10 340 Feb 1997 Heatwave Vic/ SA/ NSW 10+ 220+ 8+ Mar 1997 Cyclone ‘Justin’ Qld, Cairns- Innisfail region 7 50 190 July 1997 Landslide NSW – Thredbo 18 1 40 Jan 1998 Flash floods Qld – Townsville- Cairns region 2 40 210 Jan 1998 Flood NT – Katherine- Daly River 3 30 200 July 1998 Flood NSW – Central /Northern region 2 5 265 Sept 1998 Gas explosion Vic – Longford 2 8 1300 April 1999 Severe storm NSW – Sydney 1 50 2300 Jan 2000 Heatwave Qld – South eastern region 22 350 2 June 2000 Structure fire Qld – Childers ‘Palace’ hostel fire 15 5 0.5 Nov 2000 Flood NSW – Northern region 0 0 825 Mar 2001 Flood NSW – Grafton & Kempsey 1 10 300 Nov 2001 Severe storm NSW – Sydney & Central West 3 50 120 Dec 2001 Bushfire NSW – most regions 0 50 210 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________DAT
E Source: EMA (2003b, pp. 65-68)
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