Attending to the future: The role of learning in emergency response

Abstract

This study extends on previous examinations of postcrisis and postemergency responses by examining social and mediated learning. The article argues that mediated learning and learning in the classroom may be particularly important after a crisis, both to ameliorate the negative emotional consequences of such events as well as to prompt the learning of information that might be important in future emergencies. Furthermore, an argument is made that the classroom can be used to facilitate postcrisis learning and this can be viewed as part of the university postcrisis response plan. Using data collected after a university shooting, the article bolsters previous research that individuals have the capacity to learn from the media in the midst of a crisis and that the classroom was underutilized as a medium for postcrisis and postemergency learning.