(2016). Best Practices in Student Veteran Education: Making a "Veteran-Friendly" Institution. Journal of Continuing Higher Education, v64 n3 p181-186. With the conclusion of major military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. institutions of higher learning are experiencing an inflow of student veterans on a scale not seen since the conclusion of World War II. In response, a large number of American colleges and universities quickly sought to exploit this glut of new students by arbitrarily labeling themselves "military-friendly" or "veteran-friendly" institutions without taking any tangible steps toward better serving the educational needs of their student veterans. Consequently, student veteran retention rates have been poor, resulting in lost federal and state aid money, a potentially wasted generation of student veterans, and a broken promise from the American people to our service members. However, transforming an underperforming campus from ostensibly veteran-friendly to veteran-friendly-in-practice can be accomplished with minimal expenditure of resources. In August 2013, recognizing the coming… [Direct]
(2011). Ninth Grade Students' Negotiation of Aesthetic, Efferent, and Critical Stances in Response to a Novel Set in Afghanistan. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Texas. This qualitative, action research study was guided by two primary research questions. First, how do students negotiate aesthetic, efferent, and critical stances when reading a novel set in Afghanistan? Second, how do aesthetic and efferent stances contribute to or hinder the adoption of a critical stance? A large body of research exists that examines student responses to literature, and much of that research is based on the transactional theory of reading. However, it remains unclear how critical literacy fits into this theory. This study describes how one group of high school students' aesthetic and efferent responses to a novel set in Afghanistan supported their development of critical stances. Six students enrolled in a ninth-grade English course participated in this study. Data were collected for 13 weeks. Data included two individual interviews with each student, student writing assignments in the form of 6 assigned journal entries and 7 assigned essays, transcriptions of… [Direct]
(2015). Extending the History Curriculum: Exploring World War II Victors, Vanquished, and Occupied Using European Film. History Teacher, v48 n2 p321-338 Feb. War is one place where the complexity of victory and defeat should be explored more deeply. Unfortunately, war–whether experienced directly as a soldier in Afghanistan or a Syrian in an Aleppo suburb, or indirectly through a news item on the Internet or American television–is a near inescapable aspect of most people's daily life. Yet unless you've "been in a war," it is difficult to know what it is actually like and what meanings are created from the experience. Thankfully, few students in contemporary American history classes have experienced war directly, but a perusal of social studies and history curricula across America indicates an expectation that students will learn about many wars during their school years. Students learn about war to explore cultural perspectives on duty, courage, loyalty, honor, rebellion, betrayal, cruelty, compassion, survival, and resilience. But much of the powerful learning beyond these rudimentary understandings may be found in… [PDF]
(2010). Intimate Partner Aggression Perpetrated and Sustained by Male Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam Veterans with and without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, v25 n9 p1612-1630 Sep. Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) consistently evidence higher rates of intimate partner aggression perpetration than veterans without PTSD, but most studies have examined rates of aggression among Vietnam veterans several years after their deployment. The primary aim of this study was to examine partner aggression among male Afghanistan or Iraq veterans who served during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and compare this aggression to that reported by Vietnam veterans with PTSD. Three groups were recruited, OEF/OIF veterans with PTSD (n = 27), OEF/OIF veterans without PTSD (n = 31), and Vietnam veterans with PTSD (n = 28). Though only a few comparisons reached significance, odds ratios suggested that male OEF/OIF veterans with PTSD were approximately 1.9 to 3.1 times more likely to perpetrate aggression toward their female partners and 1.6 to 6 times more likely to report experiencing female perpetrated aggression than the other two… [Direct]
(2010). Neurological Vision Rehabilitation: Description and Case Study. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, v104 n10 p603-612 Oct. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been notable for the high rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that have been incurred by the troops. Visual impairments often occur following TBI and present new challenges for rehabilitation. We describe a neurological vision rehabilitation therapy that addresses the unique needs of patients with vision loss that is due to TBI. (Contains 1 figure.)… [Direct]
(2009). Afghanistan and Multiculturalism in Khaled Hosseini's Novels: Study of Place and Diversity. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, v3 n2 p96-111. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to frame Khaled Hosseini's novels, "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns", as literature to expand and enhance the American secondary curriculum with multicultural themes based on Afghanistan as a geographical and cultural place in a dynamic, diverse, and complex world more mediated than ever before by computer technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological approach to the study is a synthesis of geographic education grounded in the concept of place and diversity pedagogy. Findings: Khaled Hosseini's web site has become the cyber place where hundreds of readers from around the world come to express their deep emotional reactions to "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns". At the same time, that so many diverse international readers are responding favorably to Hosseini's novels, his works are being censored in classrooms in the USA. The research outlines geographical and… [Direct]
(2015). Maximalist Islamic Education as a Response to Terror: Some Thoughts on Unconditional Action. Educational Philosophy and Theory, v47 n13-14 p1477-1492. Inasmuch as Muslim governments all over the world dissociate themselves from despicable acts of terror, few can deny the brutality and violence perpetrated especially by those in authoritative positions like political governments against humanity. Poignant examples are the ongoing massacre of Muslim communities in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan by those government or rebel forces intent on eliminating the other whom they happen to find unworthy of living. This article attempts to map Islamic education's response to violence and terror often perpetrated against people considered to be in vehement disagreement with another, for instance, Muslim rebel forces assassinating Christians in Syria and destroying ancient monasteries, Muslim "jihadist" fighters kidnapping and assassinating people in revengeful acts of terror and Muslim government militia quelling resistant forces that oppose the government's so-called reformist agenda. In arguing against any form of violence,… [Direct]
(2015). Exploring the Challenges of Academic Advising for Student Veterans. College and University, v90 n4 p37-52. As troops return to the United States from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, many student veterans are expected to utilize their education benefits and enroll in higher education. A key element in their success in college will be the quality of academic advising they receive. Student veterans are much more likely than traditional students to drop out of higher education. Yet little if any research has explored how academic advisors advise student veterans or how they might improve student veterans' college experience and academic success. The study presented in this article utilized a mixed-methods research design to explore the challenges of advising student veterans. The goal of the study was to determine how academic advisors can help student veterans adjust successfully to higher education. Fifty-one student veterans participated in the quantitative portion of the study; five of the 51 also participated in the qualitative portion of the study. Four themes emerged from the data… [Direct]
(2015). Measuring Learning Growth in a World of Universal Education. International Developments. Volume 5, Article 4. Australian Council for Educational Research In 2013, staff at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Centre for Global Education Monitoring (GEM) identified the need to build measurement tools to monitor learning growth that could be used across different year levels and in different national contexts. One of those projects, under ACER's Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth program, involved the development of an assessment program in Afghanistan at the Grade 6 level, which is now being extended to Grade 3, and later possibly to Grade 9. At the same time, the Learning Metrics Task Force led by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution was progressing rapidly in its work to develop a framework that identifies education's central place in post-2015 global development goals as well as the tools that would be needed to monitor progress against those goals, particularly in developing countries. GEM researchers presented an approach to measuring… [Direct]
(2011). Veterans Coming Home to the Community College: Linking Research to Practice. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, v35 n1-2 p111-120. Community colleges must prepare for change as increasing numbers of students who are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars use their post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to join the colleges' diverse student bodies. Based on the findings of a mixed methods case study, needs of veterans at the community college are framed and discussed within five major themes that emerged from the data: credit streamlining; streamlining of programs and services; faculty, advisor, and counselor training; difficulties encountered by veterans; and factors that constitute a veteran-friendly campus. Related recommendations are offered regarding programs and services to provide essential support for these students…. [Direct]
(2015). First Person Singular: Building the Road as We Travel. Language Teaching, v48 n4 p561-574 Oct. After completing a law degree at the University of Birmingham when I was 20 and not really knowing what I wanted to do, except that it was not law, I became an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher accidentally through signing up as a volunteer with the British United Nations Association (BUNA), roughly equivalent to the US Peace Corps. Instead of being dispatched to assist starving people through a remote third-world community development project, as I had naively expected, I was sent on a fast-paced, two-week English as a second language (ESL) teacher-training course at a well-known private language school, International House, on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the heart of London's West End. Then came a one-week BUNA "orientation" course in the suburbs. A hundred-plus neophyte volunteers were lectured on how to deliver a baby, how to deal with snake bites, how to remove leeches using gasoline or matches (but not both), the importance of taking anti-malaria pills daily… [Direct]
(2011). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Health Risk Behaviors among Afghanistan and Iraq War Veterans Attending College. American Journal of Health Behavior, v35 n4 p387-392 Jul. Objective: To determine if post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with health risk behaviors among Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans attending college. Method: Using 2008 Boynton College Student Health Survey data, we tested associations between self-reported PTSD diagnosis and self-reported risk behaviors (n=406). Results: We found PTSD diagnosis to be significantly associated with reporting involvement in a physical fight in the past year (ARR = 3.1; 95% CI: 2.2, 4.4) and marginally associated with high risk drinking (ARR = 1.3; 95% CI: 1.1, 1.6). However, no association was seen between PTSD and the tobacco use and other safety behaviors that we examined. Conclusion: PTSD is likely a factor that contributes to the relationship between military service and certain health risk behaviors…. [Direct]
(2012). 'Whenever I Put a Black Jacket on, I Get Dandruff:' On Metonymy as a Device for Constructive Argumentation Analysis. Education Inquiry, v3 n4 p535-550. Mother-tongue teachers teach argumentation analysis. To this end, among other things, they use a stylistic meta-language, i.e. the tropes and figures of style, to analyse arguments as well as more aesthetic communication. The best-known trope is the metaphor. In this article it is argued that a more pragmatic view on the related figure metonymy could sharpen our tools for argumentation analysis. Metaphor is about resemblance or similarity; metonymy is about some kind of contextual togetherness or contiguity, "The White House has decided to decrease the military presence in Afghanistan". Since the information focus in the metonymy is somewhere other than on the name shift, it makes it a potential carrier of possibly insidious assumptions and attempts to persuade. Such possible instances could be "Prices go up" or "Pensions go down". The metonymy concept can help us see that pensions do not go down; someone has decided to lower them…. [Direct]
(2012). Childhood Trauma Exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan War Era Veterans: Implications for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Adult Functional Social Support. Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal, v36 n5 p423-432 May. Objective: This study examined the relationship among childhood trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and adult social support in a large sample of veterans who served in the military after 09/11/2001, with a specific focus on the potential role of the PTSD avoidance and numbing cluster as intervening in the association between childhood abuse and adult functional social support. Method: Participants were 1,301 veterans and active duty soldiers who have served in the military since 09/11/2001; a subsample of these participants (n = 482) completed an inventory of current functional social support. Analyses included linear regression and nonparametric bootstrapping procedures. Results: After controlling for combat exposure, exposure to childhood trauma was associated with PTSD symptoms in adulthood. Further, PTSD symptoms, and particularly PTSD avoidance/numbing cluster symptoms, intervened in the relationship between childhood trauma and adult functional social… [Direct]
(2012). Exploring Collaboration System Effectiveness at the United States Army Brigade Echelon. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Northcentral University. Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, a major transformation of the United States Army began to create a modular, scalable, and modernized military force. This effort was the most significant restructuring of military forces in the last 80 years. However, after 6 years of sustained combat operations in the Middle East many of the collaboration systems employed are estimated to be only 75% effective and fall short of the required 99% level. In addition, no research exists that addresses this phenomenon at the brigade echelon. Therefore, a qualitative phenomenological study was conducted to examine the lack of collaboration system effectiveness at the brigade echelon. Specifically, this study was focused on developing a better understanding of the factors that contribute to and prohibit effective communications at the brigade echelon. Purposeful sampling was used to select 15 brigade staff personnel from a population of 6,500 who have completed at least one 12 month deployment to… [Direct]