Military Education Reconsidered: A Postmodern Update

It is commonly accepted that the nature of military operations is one of such character that no matter how well you prepare there will still be an expectation of having to deal with the unknown and unforeseen. Accordingly, there seem to be reasons for arguing that preparations for the unpredictable should play a critical role in military education. Yet, military education as we know it seems to be characterized by a rather classic modernist view on education, which promotes an environment of learning that embraces uniformity and enhances scenario based pre-planned drills as ways of conducting military operations. In this paper I will argue an alternative perspective, one that embraces difference rather than uniformity as a means of developing military units and their soldiers. In doing so I will ground my argument in the academic discourse on postmodern education. It is my understanding that educational practices prone to postmodern thinking are embedded in narratives sensitive to constructivism, complexity and contextualism, and thus use emancipation, deconstruction, vocabulary, dialogue, diversity and aesthetics as pedagogical strategies in their creation of ‘new’ meaning. A discussion of these strategies in relation to the topic of ‘the unpredictable’ constitutes the main body of this paper

Risk-taking attitudes in the Norwegian population: Implications for the recruitment to the Armed Forces

The presence of risks is a crucial and unavoidable feature of many military contexts and should be recognized by the military in recruitment and skill acquisition. Moreover, the military system is part of the society at large and thus influenced by the general values and norms that exists. This is particularly the case in Norway, one of the few countries left with compulsory military service and the only NATO country with female conscription. The article examines risk-taking attitudes in eight dimensions (ethical, existential, financial, intellectual, performance-related, physical, political, and social) in a representative sample (n=1,000) of the Norwegian population. While significant main effects were found for both gender and age, no differences were revealed among the youngest women and men (age 15-24). The results are discussed in relation to potential implications for recruitment into the Armed Forces.Risk-taking attitudes in the Norwegian population: Implications for the recruitment to the Armed ForcespublishedVersio

Risk-taking attitudes and behaviors in the Norwegian population: the influence of personality and background factors

The article presents the results of an investigation where the main purpose was to see how willingness to take risks is distributed in the general adult population relative to socio-demographic background and personality. A representative sample (n = 1000) of the population 15 years and older was interviewed about socio-demographic background, personality type (Big Five, EPQ, Sensation Seeking) and willingness to take risks. We used a new scale containing eight dimensions, covering social, intellectual, achievement, political, economic, physical, ethical and existential types of risk. The results showed that people in general were risk averse in relation to physical, ethical, economic and existential risks but had a balanced bell-shaped distribution of scores on the other risk dimensions. There was a moderate to low positive correlation between all eight risk-taking dimensions except achievement risk versus ethical risk. Males were more willing to take risks than females on six of eight dimensions. Younger were more willing than older to take risks on all eight risk dimensions. Higher educational level influenced risk-taking positively in more than half of the dimensions, not only one’s own educational level but also father’s and even more mother’s educational level. There was a positive correlation with household income on three dimensions. All sensation seeking subscales and total sensation seeking correlated positively with all risk-taking dimensions. There were positive correlations with most risk-taking scales on EPQ’s Extraversion and Psychoticism and Big Five’s Extraversion, Stableness and Openness. Agreeableness and Conscientiousness had negative correlation with several risk-taking dimensions. A logistic regression model, identifying the 25 percent highest scorers on total risk-taking, found that being male and scoring high on sensation seeking were the most important predictors. Furthermore, high scores on the Big Five sub-scales Extraversion and Openness, as well as the Eysenck EPQ sub-scales Extraversion and Psychoticism predicted high willingness to take risks.publishedVersio

Risk-Taking and Sensation Seeking in Military Contexts: A Literature Review

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On developing (post)modern soldiers: An inquiry into the ontological and epistemological foundation of skill-acquistion in an age of military transformation

This thesis (on the development of (post)modern soldiers) is a theoretical inquiry into the ontological and epistemological basis of skill-acquisition in an age of military transformation. As such, it deals with the comprehensive restructuring of the armed forces that has taken place in developed Western countries in the aftermath of the Cold War era, and its implications on the development of soldiering skills. Quite briefly, one can describe the transformative shift as a change from a large static invasion defense-based concept built on “civilian” conscripted volume-concerned mobilization forces with little more than basic skills, towards a smaller and more flexible expeditionary force-based defense concept dependent on ability-motivated professional military groups and units with well-developed “expert” skills. Within the academic literature, this shift is interpreted as being one of paradigmatic character which resembles the societal change of worldview from modernity (with its association to universalism, structure and objectivity) towards postmodernity (and its responsiveness to contextuality, complexity and constructivity). Therefore, from a pedagogical philosophical standpoint, this dissertation is, in essence, concerned with the development of soldiers in a transformational era from modernity towards postmodernity. Consequently, the main research question is formulated as being ‘How do we develop (post)modern soldiers?’ In driving the process three intriguingly simple yet essentially meaningful sub-questions have been put forward: 1) ‘How do we understand [military] skill?’ 2) ‘What is it to be [militarily] skilled?’ and 3) ‘How do we acquire [military] skills?’ In addressing the ontological and epistemological level of military skill-acquisition in this context, three aspects are investigated more closely; namely identity (as change in the being of a soldier), skill (as change in military conduct/soldiering) and learning (as change in how to become a soldier). The inquiry into the conception of identity implies a shift from a classic dualistic view of the human body where the mental and the physical are separated, towards a holistic view of human nature in which being a human [soldier] is expressed through an embodied presence in the world. Likewise, the investigation into the understanding of skill suggests a move from a universalist epistemology where (modern) skills are seen as being constituted of rules and maxims, towards a contextualistic understanding in which (postmodern) skill is expressed through action, judgment, valuation and assessment. And finally, the exploration of learning signals a change from scholastic instructional principles fostered in educational institutions, towards a non-scholastic learning style (observation, copying, participation etc.) situated in the everyday practice of the workplace/community of practice. When summarizing the main findings in this thesis it is implied that the implications of the military transformation, in regards to military skill-acquisition, propose a shift from a detached ontology, context-free epistemology and theoretical learning paradigm, towards an embodied ontology, situated epistemology and experiential learning paradigm

Risk-taking attitudes and behaviors among military personnel in dangerous contexts. A categorized research bibliography

The purpose of this edition of Moving Soldiers is to present a categorized overview of research related to risk-taking attitudes and behaviors in military ontexts. The bibliography is grounded in a larger project – “Learning under Risk” – which has been launched to increase the knowledge about risk and its meaning for militaryperformance. In order to gain an overview of previous research in this field, it is necessary to uncover the current knowledge status. Thus, what is required is a collection of references to journal articles, books and chapters in books, and Ph.D dissertations that deal with soldiers’ experiences and attitudes towards risk and risk-taking contexts. The gathering of references has been carried out by searching academic databases by keywords in different combinations (270 search terms altogether), followed by a review of reference lists and searches in Google Scholar. The procedure uncovered 226 references found to be relevant for this bibliography,and which have been categorized into the following 12 categories: Combat motivation; Combat zone experience; Fear and courage; On killing; Leadership; Life threat;Performance under pressure; Post traumatic growth; Risk-taking; Sensation seeking; Warrior ethos; Well-being. The findings are discussed with a view to relevance for the project “Learning under Risk”

Risk-taking attitudes in the Norwegian population: Implications for the recruitment to the Armed Forces

The presence of risks is a crucial and unavoidable feature of many military contexts and should be recognized by the military in recruitment and skill acquisition. Moreover, the military system is part of the society at large and thus influenced by the general values and norms that exists. This is particularly the case in Norway, one of the few countries left with compulsory military service and the only NATO country with female conscription. The article examines risk-taking attitudes in eight dimensions (ethical, existential, financial, intellectual, performance-related, physical, political, and social) in a representative sample (n=1,000) of the Norwegian population. While significant main effects were found for both gender and age, no differences were revealed among the youngest women and men (age 15-24). The results are discussed in relation to potential implications for recruitment into the Armed Forces

Sensation seeking and risk-taking in the Norwegian population

The article is based on a comprehensive study of the relation between sensation seeking and various forms of risk-taking in a representative sample of the adult Norwegian population, aged 15 years and above (N = 1000). The study included social, intellectual, financial, achievement-related, political, physical, ethical and existential risktaking dimensions. There was an expected main effect for age as well as gender on total sensation seeking, but no main effect for social class. All sensation seeking scales correlated positively with all the risk dimensions, although moderately for most scales. Physical risk had the highest correlation scores. The study found that altogether 21, 2% of the general population had been involved in risky activities during their life and had elevated scores on sensation seeking. A relatively high percentage of the population would be willing to be involved in risky sports (35,7%), risky jobs (54,8%) or risky military operations (25,9%), provided they were in good shape and of the right age. Those who were willing had higher sensation seeking scores. Only 16,9% of the population thought basejumping or other risk sports should be prohibited. The prohibitionists had lower sensation seeking scores than the non-prohibitionists