Storytelling-Plots of resilience, learning, and discovery in emergency management.

Almost everyone can relate to the experience of telling a story. This article explores how storytelling is being used to identify risks and create hazard mitigation strategies, as well as how it can promote learning within the field of emergency management. Storytelling is both a pedagogical tool and an invaluable resource for practicing emergency managers. This article illustrates the ways in which the process of telling a story enables participates to talk about stressful concerns, internalize complex concepts, and even have fun. The article explores how storytelling drove the public process leading to the adoption of hazard mitigation plans, and how eight types of stories, as defined by the American humorist Kurt Vonnegut, can strengthen emergency management education. This article also explores how research suggests that storytelling can provide an effective way for both the tellers of story and their listeners to find meaning in events, provide context to what is being taught, transmit emotion along with information, develop a professional identity, build empathy and compassion, and help with remembering events and lessons learned. The authors have a long history of utilizing storytelling and present this article in order to share and explore storytelling as applied to the discipline of emergency management.

The scholarship of teaching and learning in emergency management and homeland security: Trends, gaps, barriers, and opportunities.

Underlying the nature of what is and is not a profession are education standards. Among the characteristics defining a profession's specialized boundaries are the education standards comprising its academic programs. The status of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is explored for both emergency management and homeland security (EM/HS) at this point in time. The aim of this article is to increase the conceptual understanding of SoTL by discussing what SoTL is, explaining why it is important, exploring our current state of knowledge in this area, and by identifying current barriers and opportunities for improvement. Several possible means of better integrating SoTL into the EM/HS discipines are highlighted: Making SoTL a higher priority, increasing exposure to existing research, advancing knowledge within our own disciplines, sharing knowledge through publications and conferences, and applying knowledge in our teaching. Conclusively, the vital nature of SoTL research can more deeply establish the professional boundaries for both disciplines.