From the year 2003, The Finnish National Core Curriculum (Finnish National Agency for Education 2014a: 83-84) has required all schools to have a crisis management plan. The plan should include procedures to prevent, notice and assess crises (Lassila-Merisalo 2015). The Finnish National Agency for Education (2013) instructs the crisis management plan to include the following:
Crisis prevention and preparation
Cooperation and allocation of jobs and responsibilities in crisis preparation and crisis situations
Cohesion of the school’s rescue plan, regulations and other safety instructions
Procedures in sudden crisis situations
Communicational guidelines and principles for administration, internal and external communication and the communication between the schools and the educational provider
Arrangement of psychosocial support and aftercare
Informing about the crisis management plan, familiarization and revision
Updating and evaluating the crisis management plan
The Finnish National Agency for Education has also produced material to support schools and teachers in times of crisis. This material is examined in this section. A part of the material is a general guideline on how to assess a crisis when it happens somewhere else, for example a terrorist attack in another country (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2017a). In the guidelines a crisis psychologist Eija Palosaari gives some tips for teachers on how to discuss a sudden accident, incident or a crisis with the students. According to the article, it is vital that teachers as adults of the school are ready to discuss sudden crisis events. Assessing the situation while it is fresh helps the students to analyze and reflect it further. Palosaari gives seven possible topics to discuss in the classroom (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2017a):
1. What has really happened: confirmed facts about the situation at that moment 2. How did you find out: where were you, what were you doing at the time of the
crisis
3. What went through your mind: what thoughts did it evoke when you found out about the crisis
4. How did you feel: Emotions might arise later, often at first there is only confusion and bewilderment, or lack of emotions
5. How did your body react: You might notice some physical reactions, such as tension, pain or restlessness, but your body will return to normal in time
6. How to help yourself/others to move on: talking, reminiscing, exercising, regular everyday life
7. What happens after school: informing homes that the crisis has been discussed in school and encouraging to continue the conversation at home
Topic number can be seen as one of critical importance, since rumors often circulate around sudden crisis events and false information spreads easily, for example, via social media. The teacher should act as an expert in this situation and make sure the students have actual, confirmed facts. This also helps to prevent possible hate speech and blaming innocent people.
In times of crisis, people often want information as fast as possible and might turn to
questionable sources (Rinta-Tassi 2017, Council of Europe 2015). The role of social media in crisis situations is further discussed in section 1.4..
Topics two to six are to help the students to understand their and others’ emotions and give them justification. For example, it is normal to feel certain “lack of emotions” and it does not mean that one does not care (Hammarlund 2001: 39). Giving the students tools to help them reflect on the event and the discussion later can also be beneficial. Palosaari (Finnish National Agency for Education 2017a) also brings up that even though the teacher is the adult in the situation, they do not have to have answers to all the questions or to know everything. However, according to Beutler et al. (2007), it might actually be harmful to make the students re-live the situation.
The Finnish National Agency for Education (2014c) provides an example model to assess a crisis in the classroom. It includes five phases, which are summarized below:
1. Opening the discussion (“Avaus”)
Here, the ground rules should be set and the purpose of the discussion established. The teacher should bring up that no one is required to speak unless they want to. Crying and being sad is allowed, but no bullying or negative comments about anything anyone has said or done is tolerated.
2. Explaining the situation, clearing things out (“Selvitysvaihe”)
The teacher should provide factual information, tell what has actually happened and what is known so far. Rumors and unverified information should be discussed and corrected. Open conversation should be encouraged.
3. Normalization stage & confirming survival methods (“Normalisointivaihe ja selviytymiskeinojen vahvistaminen”)
The goal here is to help the students understand different reactions to crisis events and that they are all normal and acceptable. In this phase, it should be mentioned that the Finnish National Agency for Education suggests that questions like “how did you feel when you found out about the incident” should be avoided, even though in some
material it is suggested. This can make the information in the document seem contradictory, and therefore somewhat questionable.
4. Looking towards the future (“Tulevaisuuteen katsominen”)
The teacher should emphasize that talking about different emotions and feelings is completely acceptable and encouraged. What happens next in the following days should be discussed so that the students have a sense that life still goes on.
5. Ending the discussion (“Päätösvaihe”)
When concluding the discussion, the teacher can ask for follow-up questions and if something is still unclear. If the teacher has noticed a student is reacting very strongly to the event, they can discuss it with them further in private. The teacher can also guide to students to seek further help, such as a school social worker or a crisis hotline, if they so wish.
Finnish National Agency for Education (2014c) also gives some example activities to help the students process a crisis event, such as “finish the sentence” type exercises, writing down their thoughts, and drawing. It is important to give the students possibilities for different types of expression and processing their emotions (Finnish National Agency for Education 2014b).