Bikar, S.S.; Rathakrishnan, B.; Kamaluddin, M.R.; Che Mohd Nasir, N.; Mohd Nasir, M.A. Social Sustainability of Post-Disaster: How Teachers Enable Primary School Students to Be Resilient in Times of Ranau Earthquake. Sustainability2021, 13, 7308.
Bikar, S.S.; Rathakrishnan, B.; Kamaluddin, M.R.; Che Mohd Nasir, N.; Mohd Nasir, M.A. Social Sustainability of Post-Disaster: How Teachers Enable Primary School Students to Be Resilient in Times of Ranau Earthquake. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7308.
Bikar, S.S.; Rathakrishnan, B.; Kamaluddin, M.R.; Che Mohd Nasir, N.; Mohd Nasir, M.A. Social Sustainability of Post-Disaster: How Teachers Enable Primary School Students to Be Resilient in Times of Ranau Earthquake. Sustainability2021, 13, 7308.
Bikar, S.S.; Rathakrishnan, B.; Kamaluddin, M.R.; Che Mohd Nasir, N.; Mohd Nasir, M.A. Social Sustainability of Post-Disaster: How Teachers Enable Primary School Students to Be Resilient in Times of Ranau Earthquake. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7308.
Abstract
The Ranau Earthquake that struck on 5, June 2015 and follow by February 2018 and April 2021, were a new disaster in Sabah and caused many Sabahan to panic. The unpredicted disaster also caused a serious impact on all aspects of life in Sabah. The earthquake has caused severe damage to eight primary schools in the vicinity of the epicenter; although no casualties were reported. However, the disaster has passing deep psychological effects among students. In this study, we examine how the primary school teachers enabled the student to be resilient during and after the disaster. Based on the interviews of 16 primary school students it was revealed that most of the teachers used WhatsApp to support resilience during and after the earthquake. Interviews with 16 primary school teachers revealed there were two main reasons for them to communicate with students namely, delivering emotional aid and monitoring their stress. Based on student interviews, five content categories of emotional support were identified: caring, reassuring, emotion sharing, belonging, and distracting. The main contribution of this study is social media can be used as a spontaneously and proactive tool to support student's resilience during and after the earthquake trauma.
Keywords
earthquake; resilience; WhatsApp; emotional support
Subject
Social Sciences, Psychology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.