(2015). Training Reflective Processes in Military Aircrews through Holistic Debriefing: The Importance of Facilitator Skills and Development of Trust. International Journal of Training and Development, v19 n4 p287-300 Dec. This paper explores how Holistic Debrief, a new concept in the field of debriefing and reflective processes, can contribute to restitution, reflection and learning in professional teams following stressful events and routine tasks. Interviews were conducted with Norwegian military aircrew mission commanders following deployment to Afghanistan in 2010. Phenomenological analysis in the frame of social learning theory revealed that reflective processes were easier to facilitate after stressful events than after routine tasks. Challenges identified included lack of trust during the early stages of team establishment and poor conceptual repertoires among aircrew commanders undertaking facilitation. Relational trust and reflective processes tended to improve after stressful events. Repeated interactions in Holistic Debrief tend to increase familiarity, trust and learning potential over time. This study reports data from the war context, an environment not often available for qualitative… [Direct]
(2019). Use of the Post-9/11 GI Bill by the National Guard and Reserves. Congressional Budget Office The Post-9/11 GI Bill provides educational benefits to service members and veterans who served on active duty on or after September 11, 2001. This GI Bill (officially the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008), which covers tuition, fees, housing, and related educational expenses, is managed by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), part of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Partial benefits are available after 90 days of active-duty service, and many members of the National Guard and reserves have met that threshold because they have been activated for extended periods in support of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those with longer active-duty service receive greater benefits. This report focuses on the reserve component's use of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits in 2016 and the cost of those benefits. (Throughout this report, "reserve component" refers collectively to the non-active-duty part of the U.S. military, which encompasses the National… [PDF]
(2017). The Veteran, Library, Tasks and Tools (VLTT) Framework: An Analysis of Disabled Veterans, Information Tasks, and Assistive Tools in Libraries. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Dominican University. Veterans constitute a significant group in society, and reports have shown that the number of disabled veterans keeps increasing. More than 50,000 United States troops have been injured since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began and the numbers will increase until the troops are withdrawn (Geiling, Rosen, & Edwards, 2012). Consequently, services to disabled veterans remain very crucial to information service providers. The goal of this study is to analyze the barriers and challenges that disabled veterans face when using library services. This study used the Student, Environments, Tasks, and Tools (SETT) framework to explore how disabled veterans interact with library services (Zabala, 1995). Two surveys were conducted to provide data for a critical examination of the four elements (veteran, library, tasks and assistive tools) that provided insights into how librarians can better understand veterans with disabilities within the library setting. This study also captured and… [Direct]
(2019). Ethical Living and Work Self Efficacy Beliefs of Academicians of Higher Education in Asia: A Key Determinant of One's Belief in One's Ability to Achieve the Desired Result in a Precise State of Affairs. International Journal of Higher Education, v8 n6 p203-221. Ethical academicians are perfectly virtuous. They always strive for greater virtue and follow strictly the moral stands of their profession. The ethical living and self-efficacy are important to them because of being fair and honest in their academics. Determinants of ethics include knowledge, values, attitude and intention. The domain-specific framework developed by Verbeke et al. (2004) has been considered as fundamental for identifying the dimensionality of work Self-efficacy and ethical challenges of academicians. A comprehensive literature review is undertaken regarding the concept of work Self-efficacy to assess workers' confidence and their ethical living in the workplace. This article examines theoretically and analytically the antecedent processes and information cues involved in the formation of work self-efficacy. Theoretical and numerical analysis of the key determinants of work self-efficacy increases the understanding of moral values, truthful fair and honest. Factors… [PDF]
(2018). Gulf-War-Era-II Veterans' Cognitive Information Processing and the Civilian Employment Transition. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Walden University. Gulf-War-era-II combat veterans have made professional contributions to the civilian workforce since returning from Iraq and Afghanistan combat operations. Service members in California encounter transition issues related to employment and adjusting their self-identity in the civilian employment culture. These complexities have led to career problems. Using Peterson, Sampson, Reardon, and Lenz's theory of cognitive information processing and Mincer & Becker's theory of human capital, the purpose of this phenomenological study was designed to provide a holistic account of the lived experiences of 11 Gulf War era II veterans who have successfully integrated into civilian employment with a focus on mitigating factors and decision making processes. Purposeful sampling and semistructured interviews were completed with Los Angeles Gulf-War-era-II veterans employed as civilians for more than 1 year. Data collected were analyzed using the Stevick-Colazzi-Keen method. Five themes emerged… [Direct]
(2016). Reflections after Working at the Center for Refugees of Conetta, Italy: Practice and Competencies Needed. Commission for International Adult Education, Paper presented at the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) Commission for International Adult Education (CIAE) Annual Pre-Conference (65th, Albuquerque, NM, Nov 6-8, 2016). During the 2014 and the 2015 the Mediterranean Sea continued to be the theater of a huge migratory flow. Only in these two years, more than 320,000 persons, especially from Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal, Mali and Bangladesh, left their countries for a long travel with the hope of finding a place where they could live with dignity. Once they arrive on the Italian coasts of Sicily, Calabria, and Sardinia, immigrants are distributed throughout the different regions of Italy where they are hosted in centers for refugees' reception. In these centers they can stay until their request as political refugee is accepted. From November 2015 until April 2016, the first author worked in the refugee center of Conetta, a small village in the area of Venice in the north east of Italy. Established at the end of July 2016, the center is one of the biggest of the country and hosts more than 500 men hailing from the sub-Saharan countries of Africa, and the Asian countries of Afghanistan and Bangladesh…. [PDF]
(2020). Acknowledge Us: An Exploration of the Lived Experiences of Female Army Veterans in Undergraduate Programs. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Lesley University. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the lived experiences of female United States Army veterans who have enrolled in an academic undergraduate program post-discharge. As higher education continues to be an important transition point for female veterans, understanding the lived experiences of this population provides higher education administrators and faculty the opportunity to create and implement services and programs that will appropriately assist this population in their educational journey. Using a phenomenological methodology (Moustakas, 1994; Patton, 2015; van Manen,1990) thirteen female veterans across five different eras (Vietnam, 1980's peacetime, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan) took part in two-semi-structured interviews. Each participant was asked to retrospectively discuss their time in the military; the transition to civilian life; and their transition to and experience in higher education. The interviews were coded, and themes were developed (Braun &… [Direct]
(2012). Beyond [image omitted] (the ABCs): Education, Community, and Feminism in Afghanistan. Journal of Community Psychology, v40 n1 p159-181 Jan. This article examines the meaning, operation, and outcomes of education and related formation of feminist identity development within an Afghan women's humanitarian and political organization. Qualitative data, including 110 interviews, archival review, and participant observations, were collected using a feminist, community, strengths-based approach and were re-analyzed here with a focus on educational processes. Findings revealed multiple educational mechanisms, both similar to and different from many Western assumptions. Within these educational mechanisms, themes of critical consciousness and feminist identity also arose. Outcomes were mapped against Downing and Roush's (1985) feminist identity development model. Similarities, differences, limitations, and lessons in the application of a Western model to an Afghan context are discussed. Findings have implications for understanding indigenous educational methods, the development of critical consciousness and "feminist"… [Direct]
(2013). Introduction–Understanding Education, Fragility and Conflict. Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, v43 n1 p5-15 Mar. This Introduction discusses approaches to and perspectives on analyzing the complex relationship between education, fragility, and conflict and its underlying causes and dynamics. It argues for the need for contextual and time-bound multi-level analyses of interlinked societal dimensions in order to address the ultimate purposes of education policies and programmes, whether they aim to ameliorate or transform existing conditions. Examples are presented of the ways these dimensions apply to the country cases on Afghanistan, Bolivia, Nepal, and Sudan and to the discussion of why quality data is important for analysis, and for policy and programme design…. [Direct]
(2014). Student Support during Parental Deployment. Australian Association for Research in Education, Paper presented at the Joint Australian Association for Research in Education and New Zealand Association for Research in Education Conference (AARE-NZARE 2014) (Brisbane, Australia, Nov 30-Dec 4, 2014). Over 1000 Townsville based members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) were deployed on an eight month military operation to Afghanistan from August 2011 until May 2012. A similar scenario occurred many times in the Townsville community between 1999 and 2013 as members of the ADF have been deployed repeatedly to East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. A military deployment presents major life changes for ADF members and their families. Families of ADF members learn to cope not only with having their loved one away on a dangerous operation but also with the additional pressures associated with having one less adult living in the family home Children in the family are required to adjust to changes in family structure and routines, and often take on additional individual responsibilities. It is not uncommon for students to express their reactions to these changes through behavioural changes at school. Academic progress, classroom and playground behaviour may be adversely affected by… [PDF]
(2013). Mud, Blood, and Bullet Holes: Teaching History with War Letters. Social Education, v77 n5 p235-238 Oct. From handwritten letters of the American Revolution to typed emails from Iraq and Afghanistan, correspondence from U.S. troops offers students deep insight into the specific conflicts and experiences of soldiers. Over 100,000 correspondences have been donated to the Legacy Project, a national initiative launched in 1998 to preserve war letters by U.S. troops and their loved ones. Beginning with handwritten missives penned during the American Revolution and continuing up to typed emails sent from Iraq and Afghanistan, these letters show the full spectrum of emotions that military personnel and their family members experience in times of armed conflict. Millions of war letters remain tucked away in attics, closets, and basements throughout America, just waiting to be found. (Many of the best submissions sent to the Legacy Project are from students who asked their parents or other relatives if they still had their wartime correspondences, and the search for these letters can be… [Direct]
(2011). Aiding Education in Conflict: The Role of International Education Providers Operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, v41 n2 p205-221 Jun. Amid rising violence against civilian aid operations in insecure environments, attacks on the education sector pose a unique set of challenges for international aid actors. In recent years incidents of violence targeting the education sector in Afghanistan and the conflict-affected areas of Pakistan have increased. This article synthesizes recent research, quantitative analyses, and observations of practitioners in order to explore the key issues facing aid workers in the education sector. The findings suggest that in extremely violent and polarized environments such as Afghanistan and the conflict-affected areas of Pakistan, the international community can provide education assistance more effectively and securely through a low-profile, community-based approach that de-emphasizes the role of government, and avoids, as far as possible, any association with international political/military actors. The authors conclude that education sector coordinators could play a larger role in… [Direct]
(2012). Psychopathology, Iraq and Afghanistan Service, and Suicide among Veterans Health Administration Patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, v80 n3 p323-330 Jun. Objective: Despite concerns regarding elevated psychiatric morbidity and suicide among veterans returning from Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF), little is known about the impact of psychiatric conditions on the risk of suicide in these veterans. To inform tailored suicide prevention efforts, it is important to assess interrelationships between OEF/OIF status, psychiatric morbidity, and suicide mortality. This study sought to examine potential associations between OEF/OIF status and suicide mortality among individuals receiving care in the Department of Veterans Affairs health system, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Analyses assessed potential interactions between OEF/OIF status and psychiatric conditions as predictors of suicide. Method: Analyses included data for all individuals who received VHA services during fiscal year (FY) 2007 or FY08 and were alive at the start of FY08 (N = 5,772,282). Results: For this cohort, there were 1,920 suicide deaths… [Direct]
(2013). The Process of Organizational Capacity Development in Action in Post-Conflict Setting of the Literacy Department of Afghanistan. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst. This paper presents a model of capacity development for public organizations in post-conflict settings. The paper reveals the challenges faced by the author as a "change agent" who tried to understand and develop the basic capacity of the Literacy Department of the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan. The author used an action-research approach and has actively followed events and actions to explore the "how can" of capacity development efforts. The review of organizational change literature provided background knowledge for the author's day-to-day work in a public organization and helped him to develop a Foundational Capacity Development Framework (FCDF). The FCDF offers four complementing components of "infrastructure, technical competence, social and organizational participation", and "strategic alignment." The framework also recognizes the importance of underlying components of capacity development which are based on the "beliefs,… [Direct]
(2012). Criminal Justice Involvement, Trauma, and Negative Affect in Iraq and Afghanistan War Era Veterans. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, v80 n6 p1097-1102 Dec. Objective: Although criminal behavior in veterans has been cited as a growing problem, little is known about why some veterans are at increased risk for arrest. Theories of criminal behavior postulate that people who have been exposed to stressful environments or traumatic events and who report negative affect such as anger and irritability are at increased risk of antisocial conduct. Method: We hypothesized veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI) who report anger/irritability would show higher rates of criminal arrests. To test this, we examined data in a national survey of N = 1,388 Iraq and Afghanistan war era veterans. Results: We found that 9% of respondents reported arrests since returning home from military service. Most arrests were associated with nonviolent criminal behavior resulting in incarceration for less than 2 weeks. Unadjusted bivariate analyses revealed that veterans with probable PTSD or TBI who reported… [Direct]