Children of Mt Pleasant School add flowers to a memorial of the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
An aerial photograph of the damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Marian College and Catholic Cathedral College in the central city.
This study sought to investigate employee burnout within a post-disaster context by exploring teachers’ burnout perceptions and workplace attitudes in the aftermath of the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes. The study hypothesised that burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion and cynicism) would be related with the extent to which individuals and schools were impacted by the earthquakes, and with the quality of school support for staff and students (i.e., personal disaster impact, school disaster impact and school responsiveness to the disaster), with perceptions of role conflict and role overload, and with turnover intentions. Additionally, a Teacher Burnout Model was proposed whereby emotional exhaustion and cynicism were hypothesised to mediate the relationships between the independent variables (i.e., the disaster-related and role-related variables) and turnover intentions. 125 primary, intermediate and secondary school teachers from the city of Christchurch completed an online survey. Results revealed that high role overload, high role conflict, high school disaster impact, and schools’ ineffective disaster coping responses, were associated with increased levels of emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Although greater impact of earthquakes on teachers’ personal lives was related to higher levels of emotional exhaustion, results revealed a non-significant relationship between personal disaster impact and cynicism. In the Teacher Burnout Model, the relationships between both role stress variables and turnover intentions were mediated by perceptions of emotional exhaustion. This study contributes novel findings to the burnout literature, and provides implications for schools and organisations operating within a disaster context.
Our education correspondent, John Gerritsen, has been covering the reorganisation of schools in Christchurch since the earthquakes.
A PDF copy of pages 338-339 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Inside Out Project With Central New Brighton School'. Photos: Denise Mill
Flowers laid on the ground at Mt Pleasant School for the memorial of the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Flowers laid on the ground at Mt Pleasant School for the memorial of the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
A bus tours a city street with destroyed schools either side. The guide points out destruction on the right from earthquakes and on the left from Hekia Parata. Wider context is the ongoing impact of the Christchurch February 2011 earthquake. The implication is that the earthquake caused physical damage to some schools and that the Minister for Education is responsible for destroying others with her announcement of school closures in Christchurch on 18 February 2013. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
An aerial photograph looking north over Avonside. In the bottom centre of the photograph, Avonside Girls High School can be seen.
Road cones outside South New Brighton School have been decorated with flowers for the anniversary of the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Road cones outside South New Brighton School have been decorated with flowers for the anniversary of the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Christchurch has experienced a series of over 13,500 earthquakes between September 2010 and January 2012. Some children who have been exposed to earthquakes may experience post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD) including difficulty concentrating, feeling anxious, restlessness and confusion. Other children may be resilient to the effects of disaster. Western models of resilience relate to a child’s social support and their capacity to cope. The Māori model of wellbeing relates to whanau (family), wairua (spiritual connections), tinana (the physical body) and hinengaro (the mind and emotions). Children’s concepts of helping, caring and learning may provide insight into resilience without introducing the topic of earthquakes into the conversation, which in itself may provoke an episode of stress. Many researchers have studied the effects of earthquakes on children. However, few studies have examined positive outcomes and resilience or listened to the children’s voices. The objective of this study was to listen to the voices of children who experienced the Canterbury earthquake period in order to gain a deeper understanding of the ideas associated resilience. Individual interviews were conducted with 17 five-year-old participants during their first term of primary school. After the interviews, the teacher shared demographic information and reports on the children’s stress and coping. Six children were identified as New Zealand European and eleven children identified as New Zealand Māori. Children had different views of helping, caring and learning. Themes of resilience from Western and Kaupapa Māori models were identified in transcripts of the children's voices and drawings. Māori children voiced more themes of resilience associated with the Western model, and in the Tapa Whā model, Māori children's transcripts were more likely to be inclusive of all four components of well-being. How five-year-old children, having experienced an earthquake disaster during their preschool years, talk or draw pictures about helping, caring and learning can provide insight into resilience, especially in situations where it is not advisable to re-traumatise children by discussing the disaster event. Future research should interview parents/caregivers and whānau to gain further insights. Considering information from both a Western and a Tapa Whā perspective can also provide new insights into resilience in young children. A limitation of this study is that qualitative studies are not always free from a researcher’s interpretation and are, therefore, subjective.
Richard is a retired High School Art/Design teacher who is now making architectural models of houses and public buildings - some destroyed in the Christchurch earthquakes.
Site of Anglican Diocese of Christchurch. Includes news and information on the diocese, its schools and churches, diocesan events, social and social justice issues, and the cathedral rebuild process.
About 70 percent of Canterbury's residential earthquake claims have not been dealt with and submissions on the closure of Christchurch schools show some are willing to sacrifice their neighbours.
A string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School plays on the riverbank before the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake.
A string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School play on the riverbank before the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake.
This study followed two similarly affected, but socio-economically disparate suburbs as residents responded to and attempted to recover from the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22, 2011. More specifically, it focuses on the role of local churches, community-based organisations (CBOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), here referred to broadly as civil society, in meeting the immediate needs of local residents and assisting with the longer-term recovery of each neighbourhood. Despite considerable socioeconomic differences between the two neighbourhoods, civil society in both suburbs has been vital in addressing the needs of locals in the short and long term following the earthquake. Institutions were able to utilise local knowledge of both residents and the extent of damage in the area to a) provide a swifter local response than government or civil defence and then help direct the relief these agencies provided locally; b) set up central points for distribution of supplies and information where locals would naturally gather; c) take action on what were perceived to be unmet needs; and d) act as a way of bridging locals to a variety of material, informational, and emotional resources. However the findings also support literature which indicates that other factors are also important in understanding neighbourhood recovery and the role of civil society, including: local leadership; a shared, place-based identity; the type and form of civil society organizations; social capital; and neighbourhood- and household-level indicators of relative vulnerability and inequality. The intertwining of these various factors seems to influence how these neighbourhoods have coped with and taken steps in recovering from this disaster. It is recommended that future research be directed at developing a better understanding of how this occurs. It is suggested that a model similar to Yasui’s (2007) Community Vulnerability and Capacity model be developed as a useful way to approach future research in this area.
A Waikato primary school refuses to back down and re-enroll a violent eleven year old and the country's largest general insurer defends changes to home insurance policies in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes.
A PDF copy of pages 26-27 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project '100 Days to Rebuild Democracy'. Photos used with permission: Bronwyn Hayward
A PDF copy of pages 184-185 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Re:Entry'. Photos: Gap Filler
An aerial photograph of Avonside and its surrounding suburbs.
A string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School plays on the riverbank before the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the foreground people wait for the event to start.
A string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School plays on the riverbank before the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the foreground people wait for the event to start.
A transcript of Janice Moss's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 19 October 2012. Janice Moss is a congregation member of the Wainoni Methodist Church and a former Sunday School teacher.
A PDF copy of pages 358-359 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Redcliffs Kidsfirst Kindergarten'. Photos: CMA+U
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People cast flowers into the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the background is the string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School which played before the event.
People cast flowers into the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the background is the string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School which played before the event.
People cast flowers into the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the background is the string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School which played before the event.