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I am a (science) education researcher and look at most things in the world through the lens of education. On disaster (or anything else), the questions I ask are - e.g., why should we teach about it? What should we teach about it, and how? How can we support teachers to teach about disasters in their classrooms? My training in educational research has equipped me with the theories, tools and methods that can be utilised to approach these questions. I am hoping that these knowledge, experiences and skills can cross-fertilise with EcoGovLab's expertise in anthropology, SPS and environmental governance.

Our Purpose

One of our greatest responsibilities is to prepare the next generation to meet the challenges they will face in the 21st Century, with a deep commitment to the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. We have a unique opportunity for a community dialogue about the civic values, knowledge, and skills that K-12 students should learn and practice in our public school system. We will create strong community support for our schools to provide effective civic education for students to be successful in college, career and citizenship.

OUR MISSION

The mission of the Civic Education Center is to restore civility in America by creating opportunities for youth to learn and practice civic values and democratic skills.

About Us – Civic Ed Center

Civic Education Center | Fresno CA | Facebook

Goals

• Teach the vision of the Founders and the triumphs and tragedies of our history.
• Teach civil dialogue on controversial issues and democratic deliberation.
• Integrate science, technology, literature, media, arts and math with civic projects.
• To promote teacher understanding of connections with the State Seal of Civic Engagement, Social Emotional Learning, and Ethnic Studies.

Summer Institute – Civic Ed Center

The Mission of CV YEA is "Our mission is to fight environmental injustices in the Central Valley through connecting like-minded individuals". 

CV YEA is based in Fresno, CA and led by Executive Director Kamryn Kubose (interview), who we met during our visit to Golden Charter Academy. CV YEA takes part in Clean Vehicle Empowerment Collaborative. The board consists of master's students and environmental activists based in California.

I teach anthropology and environmental studies at Haveford College, just outside of Philly. Currently, I'm holed up in a cabin in the Adirondacks in upstate New York with several family members, including my spouse and 4 year old daughter and 3 dogs. I started working on disasters by accident, when one day in 2001 I was walking to class at NYU and saw the World Trade Center buildings on flames. I have known Kim for a few year and I contacted her to connect with folks around Covid-19 and its imacts.

I'm particularly intersted in issues of communal grief, mourning, and bereavement. Also, I'm interested in the religious response to Covid-19.

The methods, tools and data used to produce the arguments made in the article are using historical epidemics such as AIDS, TB and smallpox (the benefits and risk analysis to provide vaccines. Through discussing and analyzing these historical events, health officials can discover how to properly assess future data in preventing disease

"For example, workshop participants suggested that in some causes armed groups may feel they needed to kidnap a doctor in order to recieve care; or perhaps soliders at a chekcpoint are concerned that an ambulance may contain explosives and obstruct deliever of health services in order to prevent bombing"

"Although violence directly affecting health service delievery in complex security enviornments has recieved a great deal of media attention, theres very little publically avaliable research, particularly peer reviewed, original research"

"Because rporting often focuses on the most serious attacks, such as kidnapping and fatalities, workshop participants stressed that incidents precieved to be less severe such as threats and obstructions are less likely to be underreported"

The argument is supported using multiple historical accounts such as the 1850 Hauge st explosion where the boiler failure investigation consisted of people who were experts on the boiler, on the man who controlled the boiler and his habits. The disaster was blamed on those who were directly involved in the boiler’s sale, upkeep and use. Next the article uses findings of the Iroquois theatre fire and puts the people who designed the building at fault. Freeman, a well educated engineer analyzed the faults of the building and deemed that many factors caused the fire. The 1814 burning of the capitol is used as evidence because the government did not want to spend the time or money to build the building properly to prevent the fire. The investigation was spearheaded by Lathrobe who attempted to rebuild in the proper way, but ultimately failed due to political reasons.

This group works in social ecologies that are mostly controlled by the government; not what may be best for the people. but what is best for the government financially. PHR works to help those who social justice or human rights have been stripped for little to no reason. This shapes the way the organization views disaster because they believe that disaster can begin with one person who is not living up to their standards of life due to someone or something else. Disaster is a comprehensive network of interlocking pieces, when one piece is out of place it is defined as a place to start.

6. Emergency response is addressed in the article because the article begs for those to help when  the event happened. While fixing the structural areas of the disaster (such as the levee) the lives and culture of the people were more important. There was little to no focus on rehousing those who were displaced.Despite that there was money specifically allocated to helping those rebuild, rehouse and/or move out of New Orleans, very little money was actually seen by those who needed it most. People also waited for days to be saved from their flooded homes. While it may be dangerous it is unethical to leave people for long periods of time. Money needs to be spent on preventing the levee from breaking again.