Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009 - 26

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT By Dr. Robert McCreight Educational Issues in Homeland Security and Emergency Management Background I N REVIEWING THE MANY ACADEMIC programs in homeland security and emergency management, it is unclear what deﬁnes a credible, comprehensive and challenging program of study. Neither the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (DHS and FEMA), or the corresponding professional associations, have agreed upon and outlined a common standard for undergraduate or graduate-level education in these related ﬁelds. Degree programs proliferate at over 100 different colleges and universities in homeland security and emergency management, raising questions among both students and seasoned practitioners alike about what fundamentals should constitute the core curriculum. Since the matter is essentially one of how to best teach Public Administration, the study of this ﬁeld holds ambiguous educational value for the professional in either of these careers. For many, FEMA’s basic emergency management courses are a useful introduction, but hardly satisfy the need for nationally recognized professional standards. So we are left with some interesting dilemmas. If homeland security and emergency management are operational ‘cousins’ in educational terms, how do we adequately prepare future generations for this profession? What is the touchstone for ensuring competency in both emergency management and homeland security education? Moreover, how do we account for the variations among the wide variety of programs offering degrees in the ﬁeld, while ensuring core competencies? What constitutes a bona ﬁde professional education and where is it found? in these complex subjects is either enhanced or degraded by distance learning, which occurs outside of the traditional classroom environment and with very limited opportunities for interaction with experts, practical exercises or the shared perspectives of other students and faculty. Without guidelines issued by DHS or FEMA, it is difﬁcult to compare the quality and depth of educational experiences between in-class and online programs. They are far from equal in terms of content, focus and overall quality for both the student and the profession, and the educational marketplace needs a metric for comparison. A third signiﬁcant issue is the extent to which any of these various educational programs actually prepare students for rapid assimilation into, and success within, the professional emergency management or homeland security environment. Here, the ultimate question is whether the ﬁt between the educational experience and the job requirements is solid and self-evident. If graduates require even a moderately extensive period of adjustment to the issues, tasks and requirements of a career in emergency management or homeland security, then in what respect does college improve professional competencies? Anyone can beneﬁt from on the job training, but we must ask what the purpose of a vocational education is if it doesn’t prepare one in a way that the ordinary career trajectory doesn’t? Assessing the Fundamentals of a Sensible Curriculum Many will likely disagree over the actual arrangement of educational experiences, curriculum design and course content. There ought to be consensus among practitioners, scholars and related professionals alike that certain fundamentals become part of a 33-credit hour graduate program, or a 24 credit hour undergraduate requirement. Despite controversy, these courses could include the following: • Crisis and Emergency Management Issues and Fundamentals • Risk, Vulnerability and Capability Assessment Methods • Planning and Operations in Crisis and Emergency Management • All-Hazards Readiness and Emergency Management Functions • Strategies for Infrastructure Protection and Preparedness • Homeland Security Policies, Principles, Procedures and Plans • Planning for WMD and Mass Casualty Crises: Key Issues Visit www.homelanddefensejournal.com Major Issues Probably the most intriguing aspects of the educational challenge to be addressed entails the reconciliation of homeland security and emergency management. One topic focuses heavily on terrorism preparedness and prevention while the other aims to build skills in addressing the ‘allhazards’ spectrum of emergencies. In an educational context, ﬁnding ways to bridge these differences is not easy. The initial task, therefore, is to build a curriculum which does its best to accomplish this without sacriﬁcing the integrity of either discipline. A second question is the degree to which standardized instruction 24 | Homeland Defense Journal

Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009