LESSONS LEARNED: A CRISIS RESPONDER‟S JOURNEY SUPPORTING FRIENDS IN CRISIS A Dissertation by TINA SWANSON BROOKES Submitted to the Graduate School Appalachian State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION August 2011 Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership LESSONS LEARNED: A CRISIS RESPONDER‟S JOURNEY SUPPORTING FRIENDS IN CRISIS A Dissertation by TINA SWANSON BROOKES August 2011 APPROVED BY: ______________________________________________ Roma B. Angel, Ed.D. Co-Chair, Dissertation Committee ______________________________________________ Vachel W. Miller, Ed.D. Co-Chair, Dissertation Committee ______________________________________________ Leslie S. Cook, Ph.D. Member, Dissertation Committee ______________________________________________ Jim Killacky, Ed.D. Director, Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership ______________________________________________ Edelma D. Huntley, Ph.D. Dean, Research and Graduate Studies Copyright by Tina Swanson Brookes 2011 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT LESSONS LEARNED: A CRISIS RESPONDER‟S JOURNEY SUPPORTING FRIENDS IN CRISIS (August 2011) Tina Swanson Brookes, B.A., Anderson College M.S.W., Indiana University, Indianapolis Ed.S., Appalachian State University Co-Chairpersons: Roma Angel and Vachel Miller Crisis is an educational leadership concern as evidenced by crises that have impacted schools like 9-11, the rampage shootings at Columbine High School, and Hurricane Katrina. Educational leaders experience crisis on both personal and professional levels. This dissertation is my Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) about my journey as an educational leader in crisis response who supported friends in crisis. This dissertation is framed by literature related to chaos theory and crisis response. Crisis responders have friends and some of those friends will at some time experience a crisis. Yet, there is limited scholarly literature about crisis responders supporting friends in crisis. This project addresses that gap in the literature by introducing the topic of crisis responders supporting friends in crisis and presenting the narrative of my journey as a crisis responder supporting three intimate friends in crisis. This research project uses the qualitative, postmodern methodology of Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) as described in Liberating scholarly writing: The power of personal narrative (Nash, 2004) and Me-search and re-search: A guide for writing scholarly personal narrative manuscripts (Nash & Bradley, 2011). SPN connects my personal narrative with the scholarly literature by flowing back and forth between the particulars of iv my journey to the universalizable lessons learned for my audience of educational leaders, crisis responders, counselors, and crisis response educators. My narrative was written from embodied memories of supporting my friends through specific crises. I then tied the narrative to the scholarly literature and gathered both personal and professional lessons learned. The lessons learned are unpacked in Chapter 5. I first discuss my personal insights that demonstrate the importance of stress management, self care, and the role of faith. The term “identity triage” is introduced as a description of the skill I used to prioritize my multiple identities. The concept of “crisis responder operations mode” is also introduced to describe a crisis responder‟s mentality when on-duty. I then discuss the professional lessons learned. I developed two crisis response quick reference guides: T.U.R.R.E.T for educational leaders to use as a guide for developing crisis response plans, and T.R.U.S.T., a guide for educational leaders that list desirable characteristics for crisis response team members. Limitations of the study are also discussed followed by suggestions for future research. Key Words: Educational Leadership, Crisis Response, Crisis Responders, Scholarly Personal Narrative, SPN, Friends, Chaos Theory. v DEDICATION Jim, Joseph, Jon-Isaac, Jama Jane, Wanda, Leesa, Laurie You are the very breath I take. I love you dearly. Norma Jeanne Swanson, Ossie Setzer, Claudia Kincaid Thank you for teaching me the value of education. Gordon “Fatt” Swanson Thank you for always telling me “I can’t never done nothing!” vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My sisters-in-crisis, thank you for the privilege of sharing your journey. Geoffrey Leggett, thank you for the gift of the cabin. It was a blessing! My friends near and far, thank you for all your support. You are amazing! Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, thank you for being such an inspiration, for giving me invaluable tools to use in my crisis response work, and especially for challenging me to not grow weary. My Dissertation Committee, thank you for your willingness to traipse into unknown territory: Dr. Roma Angel, Dr. Vachel Miller, Dr. Leslie Cook Dr. Robert Nash, thank you for your Scholarly Personal Narrative work and for your encouragement as I grew through this research project. My Dissertation Advisory Board, thank you for seeing me through! Jane Allen, Geoffrey Leggett, David Burleson Dr. Betsy Jones, Dr. Anita Brendle-Corum, Dr. Jeffrey Frymire vii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Mrs. Smith ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 My Project ..................................................................................................................................................... 2 Crisis is an Educational Leadership Issue ......................................................................................... 6 Project Goals and Research Questions ............................................................................................... 7 Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) and Chaos Theory ............................................................... 8 Crisis Response with Friends is Different ....................................................................................... 11 Crisis Response with a Stranger is Challenging ............................................................................ 12 Principal Wayne Warner ................................................................................................................. 13 Crisis Response with People I Care about is More Challenging ............................................... 15 Kirby ........................................................................................................................................................ 16 Crisis Response with People I Love is Most Challenging ............................................................ 17 Suze .......................................................................................................................................................... 18 Crisis Response with Friends is Rewarding and Significant ..................................................... 22 Overview of Chapters 2-5 ...................................................................................................................... 25 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................. 28 The Beach House ...................................................................................................................................... 29 Setting the Stage ....................................................................................................................................... 31 Chaos Theory ............................................................................................................................................. 31 Crisis Response History ......................................................................................................................... 34 Definition of Crisis Response ............................................................................................................... 36 Crisis Response Goals ............................................................................................................................. 38 Context of Crisis Response is Important .......................................................................................... 40 Crisis Response is not Psychotherapy .............................................................................................. 43 Reluctance to Turn to Mental Health Providers for Crisis Support ....................................... 46 Friendship and Crisis Response .......................................................................................................... 47 Friendship Described ............................................................................................................................. 48 Friendship is a Verb ................................................................................................................................ 49 Friendship Quality ................................................................................................................................... 50 Friendships are Unique for Women .................................................................................................. 51 Shared History Matters .........................................................................................................................