Facilitating the Transition from Military Instructor to Academic Educator: Cognitive Apprenticeship in Teacher Induction at the United States Air Force Academy

This article examines teacher induction in the military undergraduate education context. The U.S. Air Force Academy relies on approximately 520 military and civilian instructors to educate nearly 4000 future military officers each year. These educators must be highly skilled and unquestionably capable in their abilities to teach these future leaders. Many of these instructors derive from highly technical active duty operational career fields (such as pilot, missile operator, etc.). This article reveals how Collins', Brown's, and Newman's (1989) theory of cognitive apprenticeship is manifested within teacher induction experiences at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, this research integrated data from observations, interviews, and participant journals to reveal how the six methods of cognitive apprenticeship (modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulating, reflecting, and exploring) are facilitated in the individual operator-to-educator transition experience. The findings from this study inform faculty orientation and faculty development policies and processes within the U.S. Air Force Academy and bear implications for civilian post-secondary educator induction processes as well. Keywords: Cognitive Apprenticeship, Military, Educator, Academy, Qualitative Case Study The United States is defended by approximately 1.5 million active duty military members serving in four armed service branches (Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2011). U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have answered their country's call for action in 13 major wars and dozens of smaller armed conflicts since the nation's founding in 1776 (Evans, 1987). For generations, these men and women have dutifully carried out the tasks assigned them by the United States' civilian political leadership, often in foreign lands and often under circumstances of hardship and personal danger (Bland, 1999). Still today, U.S. military service members risk their lives to secure their nation's interests, conducting a variety of missions throughout all regions of the globe. However, unlike their predecessors who endured limited transportation capabilities, short-range and minimally effective weapons, and obscured visibility of both friendly and enemy actions, modern combatants operate in a markedly advanced, fast-paced, and technologically specialized combat environment that demands persistent rapid assessment and immediate judgment. Today's near real-time communications technology, both audio and visual, has resulted in a vast and complicated networked operations environment. Often, even actors at the lowest tactical levels of the military hierarchy find themselves in high-stress, time-critical situations where their near-term choices and actions can have wide-ranging long-term effects. These "strategic lieutenants" find themselves as principal agents in the determination and execution of national policy through military strategy (MacLean, 2005; McCausland & Martin, 2001; Teachman, 2007). With such immense demands placed on them, it is imperative that those entering this demanding profession receive the highest caliber of training and education available; a foundation of skills and knowledge upon which to base their high-cost and often high-risk decisions. They must be taught by credible, confident, and experienced educators who are well-equipped and fully capable of guiding these future warrior-scholar-leaders into the art and science of warfare. The complex and challenging tasks their nation asks of them demand it. This study emerged from this requirement; the need to have quality educators preparing our nation's next generation of officers to efficiently and ethically lead their troops in a complex, high-risk world environment. The research undertaken here sought to examine how a military service academy, specifically, the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, creates and maintains high-quality military educators responsible for facilitating robust, timely, and pertinent learning for its service's rising Second Lieutenants. …