Preparing for future security challenges with practitioner research

Journal Title: Security and Defence Quarterly - Year 2019, Vol 24, Issue 2

Abstract

Mid-sized countries face a changing security environment, and cannot be certain that the knowledge and practices of the past will serve the future. The officers, professors, and researchers in defence universities are the custodians of military sciences that must adapt to these changing situations. Practitioner research should be modelled and encouraged in defence universities as a vehicle for advancing military sciences to meet new challenges. Previous practitioner research in higher and adult education has highlighted the need for experiential learning in other professions. The authors report on practitioner research by professors at pre-commission military academies to improve cadets’ understanding of peace and conflict. Military and police education is often experience-based, but there are few reports of practitioner research on its effectiveness, nor of combining peace and conflict education with out-of-classroom experiences. Legitimation Code Theory provides tools for understanding different teaching approaches. Comparing four cases of practitioner research on experiential learning the authors present models for practitioner research on teaching peace and conflict through out-of-classroom experiences, and conclude with means of evaluating learning experiences by pre-commission cadets, drawing on legitimation code theory. This is increasingly important for military academies striving to meet academic standards, but also to preserve professional values and young officer motivation to confront new challenges.

Authors and Affiliations

David Last, Travis Morris, Bernadette Dececchi

Keywords

Related Articles

Securitisation and macro-securitisation of energy security.

The scholars who are engaged in the social sciences create different theories to explain events in international relations. The basics underlying the securitisation theory will be shown in the first part of the paper, fo...

On some contemporary global security risks and challenges.

As the new millennium starts to unfold, we see before us an area of security that has been radically reshaped since the end of the cold war and the end of the bipolar division of the world. Still more and more deepening...

Possibilities of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland using unmanned aircraft systems

The use of unmanned aircraft systems by the armed forces is currently an area of interest to many foreign and domestic experts, mainly due to the characteristics and properties of these systems. Amorphous battlefields, a...

Willingness to defend one's own country and to resist in the Baltic states

This article addresses the question of willingness to defend one’s own country and a similar notion of resistance, should Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia be attacked. The study principally relies on quantitative data from...

The Luftwaffe's campaigns in Poland and the west 1939-1940: A case study of handling innovation in wartime

Although the Luftwaffe won a signal victory in the Polish campaign in September 1939, the campaign also exposed many serious flaws in the doctrine, tactics, equipment and organization of the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe used...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP705892
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.35467/sdq/103345
  • Views 84
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

David Last, Travis Morris, Bernadette Dececchi (2019). Preparing for future security challenges with practitioner research. Security and Defence Quarterly, 24(2), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-705892