LE3 .A278 2011

2011

Day, Deborah

Acadia University

Master of Education

Masters

Counselling

Education

Although there is substantial literature concerning responses of school boards to crises in general, the administrators‘ experiences of sudden deaths of students have not been thoroughly investigated. In particular, there are no studies situated in Atlantic Canada. Following a phenomenological approach, six school administrators from a large school board in Nova Scotia, participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences relating to a variety of student sudden deaths ranging from accidents to suicide. Their experiences were explored in relation to findings in the literature regarding best practices in responding to the crisis of a student death. Not only did the study reflect many of the challenges of responding to the sudden nature of these crises, but also that what is often missing in effective response. The explorations indicated that while administrators knew the significance of planning in advance, no detailed plans existed or were provided by the board. Actions and recommendations are offered based on the experiences of these administrators that may assist in improving how crises are responded to in the event of a sudden death. Where it is impossible to plan for everything, there is still much that can be done.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:181