Lessons learned the hard way: Incident Command System learning and training
Date
2013
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
As of April 5th, 2013, there were 5,095,275 people who had taken the ICS-100
class as an independent study online from the FEMA Emergency Management
Institute. Despite the widespread use of ICS, debates continue about whether it is an
appropriate tool for emergency management. While much disagreement exists, critics
and proponents generally agree that implementation of ICS is a cause for concern and
may be reducing the system’s effectiveness. Though many factors could influence the
implementation of the system, this thesis focuses on ICS training and learning. The
theory of Situated Cognition suggests that ICS learners would learn ICS best by
practicing the system in the cultural context where they would apply the system.
Using the theory’s three learning pillars of Concepts, Authentic Activity and Culture, a
conceptual framework is developed and an ethnographic study of three ICS related
cultural contexts is conducted. Multimode methods are used for data collection
(participant observations, interviews, and document analysis) and data analysis
(deductive, directed coding, and inductive, open coding, and constant comparison).
Findings maintained the core of the original conceptual framework, but other elements
emerged as the data was analyzed. Based on these findings, it is suggested that a lack
of cultural context may be a significant factor in the ICS learning process and
consequently implementation of the system as a whole. Recommendations include
training ICS in-house and tailoring ICS training programs to the organizations that
will be applying the tool.
Description
Keywords
Incident command system, Situated cognition, Emergency management, ICS training