Veterans in Higher Education E-Book

David DiRamio

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: J-B ASHE-ERIC Report Series (AEHE)
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 227

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

It's estimated that, in the coming decade, as many as 2 millionstudents with military experience will take advantage of theireducation benefits and attend institutions in all sectors of highereducation. This monograph provides useful information aboutstudents with military experience who attending college by blendingthe theoretical, practical and empirical. The authors assemble some of the best-known theories andresearch in the literature of the field to provide starting pointsfrom which to investigate the phenomenon of today's veteranattending college. Other frameworks and theories, particularly fromthe literature on college student development, from recognizablenames such as Baxter Magolda, Braxton, Chickering, Schlossberg, andTinto, are used--sometimes directly in their own words. New issuesto our generation, such as the unique subpopulation of womenveterans and the challenges they face, are explored. This volume equips higher education professional with afundamental understanding of the issues faced by the studentveteran population and aims to enable them in their roles ofproviding sorely needed assistance in the transition to college,persistence at the institution, and degree attainment. This is the third issue in the 37th volume of the Jossey-Bassseries ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monographin the series is the definitive analysis of a tough highereducation problem, based on thorough research of pertinentliterature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified bya national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are thencommissioned to write the reports, with experts providing criticalreviews of each manuscript before publication.

Leseprobe

Contents

Executive Summary

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Old Friends and New Faces

Home Alone? Applying Theories of Transition to Support Student Veterans’ Success

A Model for Supporting Student Veterans’ Transition

Conclusion

Commentary from Nancy K. Schlossberg

What Matters to Veterans? Peer Influences and the Campus Environment

The Military Bond

Inputs, Environment, and Outcomes

Inputs, Environment, and Outcomes for Veterans

Peer Group Supports and Influences

Summary and Recommendations

Commentary from Alexander W. Astin

Transition 2.0: Using Tinto’s Model to Understand Student Veterans’ Persistence

Transition and Preentry Attributes

Goals and Commitments

Initial Institutional Experiences

Transition 2.0: Academic and Social Integration

Transition 2.0: Academic and Social Integration with the Campus Community

Career Services and the Student Veteran

New Goals and Intent to Persist

Critics of Academic and Social Integration

Conclusion

Commentary from John M. Braxton

Crisis of Identity? Veteran, Civilian, Student

Identity Development and Knowledge of Self

Self and Others

Multiple Roles and Intersecting Identities

Crisis, Exploration, and Commitment

Multiple Dimensions of Identity

Typologies

Conclusion

Commentary from Linda Reisser

Women Warriors: Supporting Female Student Veterans

Enduring Effects of Male Turf: Gender and Assumptions

Mothers and Warriors: Care and Justice

Into a College Environment: Developing a Voice

Help Seeking: Learning to Cope

Marching Together: Summary

Commentary from Margaret Baechtold

Ideas for a Self-Authorship Curriculum for Students with Military Experience

Classes for Veterans

Meaning Making and Self-Authorship

Concept Mapping for Curriculum Planning

Conclusion

Commentary from Marcia B. Baxter Magolda

Institutional Response to an Emerging Population of Veterans

EFA Factor One—Financial Matters

EFA Factor Two—Administrative and Strategic Planning

EFA Factor Three—Advising and Career Services

EFA Factor Four—Psychological Counseling Services

EFA Factor Five—Veterans Office on Campus

Conclusion

Concluding Thoughts

Appendix A: A Veteran’s essay

Appendix B: Example Syllabus

References

Name Index

Subject Index

About the Authors

About the ASHE Higher Education Report Series

Recent Titles

Veterans in Higher Education: When Johnny and Jane Come Marching to Campus

David DiRamio and Kathryn Jarvis

ASHE Higher Education Report: Volume 37, Number 3

Kelly Ward, Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, Series Editors

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ISSN 1551-6970 electronic ISSN 1554-6306 ISBN 978-1-1181-5079-5

The ASHE Higher Education Report is part of the Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series and is published six times a year by Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company, at Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94103-1741.

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The ASHE Higher Education Report is indexed in CIJE: Current Index to Journals in Education (ERIC), Current Abstracts (EBSCO), Education Index/Abstracts (H.W. Wilson), ERIC Database (Education Resources Information Center), Higher Education Abstracts (Claremont Graduate University), IBR & IBZ: International Bibliographies of Periodical Literature (K.G. Saur), and Resources in Education (ERIC).

Advisory Board

The ASHE Higher Education Report Series is sponsored by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), which provides an editorial advisory board of ASHE members.

Ben Baez

Florida International University

Edna Chun

Broward College

Diane Dunlap

University of Oregon

Dot Finnegan

The College of William & Mary

Marybeth Gasman

University of Pennsylvania

Shouping Hu

Florida State University

Adrianna Kezar

University of Southern California

Kevin Kinser

SUNY – Albany

William Locke

The Open University

Barbara Tobolowsky

University of Texas at Arlington

Susan B. Twombly

University of Kansas

Marybeth Walpole

Rowan University

Executive Summary

According to an American Council on Education report in 2008, as many as 2 million students with military experience will take advantage of their education benefits and attend postsecondary institutions in all sectors of higher education during this decade. This “nontraditional” population, known as student veterans, includes those who have exited the armed services and those who still have military ties. They bring life experiences that few traditional-age students or, for that matter, faculty members, campus staff, or administrators can relate to or claim for themselves. These men and women are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many of them have faced war-related trauma—fierce combat, roadside bomb explosions, physical or psychological injuries, and the deaths of their comrades. As this unique population of students continues to grow on campuses across the nation, professionals in higher education, including those serving in central administration, academic affairs, and student affairs, are increasingly interested in understanding more about these students and helping them succeed.

Higher education has a rich history of assisting special populations such as first-generation attendees, minorities, and students with disabilities in achieving academic success. Following World War II, record numbers of war veterans enrolled in colleges and universities using educational benefits from the original GI bill. The impact that millions of new college students had on American higher education was unprecedented, and tremendous growth in postsecondary institutions occurred during that era. Today, generous benefits associated with the post-9/11 GI bill make attending college after war service an attractive option. The all-volunteer, modern military looks much different from what it did after World War II. Women account for more than one in seven service members, and because of advances in technology and medical care, the number of veterans who have survived physical trauma has increased dramatically. How can campus personnel best assist these students? One place to start is to familiarize oneself with the issues student veterans face.

This volume is intended to provide useful information about students with military experience who are attending college by blending the theoretical, practical, and empirical. We use some of the best-known theories and research in the literature on higher education as comfortable starting points from which to investigate the phenomenon of the veteran attending college. For example, we call upon Astin’s well known I-E-O research framework as a tool for describing inputs, environmental factors, and outcomes associated with student veterans. This approach is particularly useful when considering Astin’s findings on peer interactions and the strong peer bond that many students with military experience have as well as the types of supports that institutions can provide as positive environmental factors. Astin also provides a brief commentary on the topic.

Throughout this monograph, other frameworks and theories, particularly from the literature on college student development, from recognizable names such as Baxter Magolda, Braxton, Chickering, Schlossberg, and Tinto, are used. In some instances, we contacted the major theorists themselves, and they generously contributed their thoughts about student veterans. In other chapters, experts who have written on the subtopics presented in the chapters offered their ideas in areas such as persistence and departure, student development, and women’s issues. The expert contributions strengthen the information provided for the reader and are to be used to integrate student development theory in planning programs and services for this population.

To inform the reader, we draw from the first “wave” of research on this topic of college students with military experience, much of it conducted over the past five years or so since 2007. Most of the work published in that period is qualitative, including research from the authors of this monograph. One report, From Soldier to Student: Easing the Transition of Service Members on Campus, published by the American Council on Education in 2009 and featured in this volume, is one of a few larger-scale, quantitative research projects to date and provides findings at the institutional level. Ultimately, we hope this book will inform the next wave of research, particularly longitudinal studies of persistence and student success, which are now possible as veterans matriculate year by year on their collegiate journeys.

Information about contemporary issues and best practices is addressed throughout the pages of this publication. For example, ideas about providing transition assistance and courses designed to help student veterans deal with the future (and the past) are presented. We introduce the reader to a unique subpopulation of women veterans and reveal some of the challenges they face, including military sexual trauma and higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder than their male counterparts. Moreover, the latest statistics about how many of our military men and women have physical disabilities, invisible psychological injuries, or both, are alarming, and we raise questions about how prepared campus disabilities offices and counseling centers are for the increased numbers of student veterans who will require accommodations and assistance.

Drawing from information provided in this monograph and other sources, higher education professionals who possess a fundamental understanding of the issues faced by the student veteran population can provide sorely needed assistance in the transition to college, persistence at the institution, and degree attainment.

Foreword

Just this morning I awoke to NPR coverage of “soldiers coming home” to Pendelton, Oregon, after 400 days in Afghanistan. The story highlighted the transition to home and the many paths people take after serving in the military. One of these paths is to higher education. In many ways these students are just like any other—eager to learn, looking for next steps, and wanting to prepare for the future—and in other ways they are quite different. They tend to be older and based on their military background these students have a significant amount of worldly experience—some of which can have been quite traumatic. Many student veterans face challenges with the transition back to their families, U.S. culture, and into higher education. Often challenges colleges and universities and their staff are ill-equipped to address. While many campuses have some type of veterans programs and military support services, faculty and administrators are often at a loss when it comes to meeting the needs of student veterans. Students with military experience often have a background that is distinct from other student groups. Campus personnel want to do the right thing to help facilitate the transition and success of students with a military background, but it’s not always clear what the right thing is.

David DiRamio and Kathryn Jarvis in this monograph, Veterans in Higher Education: When Johnny and Jane Come Marching to Campus, provide some of the necessary background and information colleges and universities can use in their work with student veterans. The monograph draws upon practical, theoretical, and empirical literature about students with military experience to provide readers with comprehensive and thought-provoking information. The authors take an interesting standpoint by merging theory and practice in their presentation of information. The manuscript goes beyond mere description of students or best practices, by drawing upon different areas of student development theory to provide a foundation for working with veteran students.

The monograph offers a very unique approach by not only using the literature and research generated by student development scholars such as Nancy Schlossberg, Alexander Astin, Vince Tinto, Linda Reisser, Margaret Baechtold, John Braxton, and Marcia Baxter-Magolda, the authors also talked with these scholars as a way to gain insight for how to use particular theories with veteran student populations. The personal approach to link theory and practice provides the readers with the opportunity to hear personally from scholars and how they see their theories applied to particular students. This approach is not only helpful to think in new and different ways about veteran students it is also a unique vantage point to see links between theory and practice. Often researchers and practitioners make links between different theoretical perspectives and particular areas of practice or to particular group of students, but the conversation takes place metaphorically between texts. The presentation in this monograph is unique in that readers hear personally from the theorist and how their particular strand of theoretical work can be applied to better meet the needs of veteran students even though much of the student development research has not been applied to veteran student populations. Hearing from the theorists directly helps the readers think critically about how theory can be used to inform practice. It’s easy for student affairs practitioners to overlook theory in their every day work because they don’t see the relevance or they are not sure of how to make connections. DiRamio and Jarvis help readers see how to make the connections by using different areas of literature and by having those who generate the research provide commentary.

The authors have been very comprehensive in their approach to the topic of veteran students They provide sufficient historical information to guide readers in addition to looking at the transition of veteran students to higher education, peer interactions and the campus environment, veteran student persistence, identity development for veteran students, and self authorship and curriculum. In addition the authors address issues associated with gender, an increasing area of interest, and provide an overview of institutional responses to student veterans. The book is comprehensive in its synthesis and analysis of current literature and practice.

As colleges and universities strive to address the needs of students with military experience, DiRamio and Jarvis’s work provides important and useful information about student veterans. They provide readers not just with a list of best practices; they more importantly prompt their audience to think creatively about how to use what we know about students in general and how our best understanding of students can be used to aid the transition, learning, development, and success of student veterans.

Kelly Ward

Series Editor

Acknowledgments

We are so fortunate to have input from a number of colleagues and particularly want to thank the expert scholars or old friends, Alexander Astin, Margaret Baechtold, Marcia Baxter Magolda, John Braxton, Linda Reisser, and Nancy Schlossberg, who graciously offered insights and commentary about theory and practice as they relate to the population of student veterans.

We are especially grateful for the helpful comments and support offered by Kelly Ward and our reviewers. Their careful reading and suggestions have helped make the manuscript stronger.

Our work has been fueled by the tenacity and passionate struggles of many of the student veterans who will persevere and find their way as they strive to achieve the goal of a college degree. We hope this volume will aid administrators, student affairs personnel, faculty, advisors, and others as they welcome these men and women to the academy.

David DiRamio thanks Penny Barnes for proofreading and editorial advice but, more important, for her dedication and support. He also praises Roberta DiRamio, his mother, for a lifetime of love.

Kathryn Jarvis wishes to thank her colleagues for their endless support, candor, and willingness to listen to what she thinks, just one more time. She also wants to give kudos to her father’s still fine-tuned editorial skill at ninety-two years and his unerring ability to let her know when she might want to phrase it differently. And, of course, to Lucy, Jake, and John, who still make her laugh.