Article
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Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Agon: Are Military Officers Educated for the Modern Society?
Version 1
: Received: 23 February 2023 / Approved: 1 March 2023 / Online: 1 March 2023 (07:59:24 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Magnussen, L.I.; Boe, O.; Torgersen, G.-E. Agon—Are Military Officers Educated for Modern Society? Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 497. Magnussen, L.I.; Boe, O.; Torgersen, G.-E. Agon—Are Military Officers Educated for Modern Society? Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 497.
Abstract
The research question in this article concerns how a competitive environment affects the learner (officer cadet's) personal leadership development and their relationship to their team and with future civilian foundations. More specifically, what are the possible learning effects of the “hidden” curriculum? This article investigates how a more than 250 years of leadership education provides new army officers with new skills and how such an environment may affect the cadets' leadership training. The paper builds on ethnographic data gathered during the three-year education program in most of the relevant practical locations and contexts. Findings regarding trust in their learning environment, cadets have reported scores of (Mean 2.83) on a 1 (low trust) to 5 (high trust) Likert scale, underpinning interviewdata regarding the lack trust in the academy and in their fellow cadets. Cadets also point out that competition has hindered their learning (Mean 2.50). These findings are interpreted in relation to possible negative effects stemming from internal competition and the evaluation system as a whole. The overall output of this system is a zero–sum game, and thus effects evaluative practices and learning processes. This study is of relevance to higher education officers responsible for designing learning environments.
Keywords
competition; trust; team; evaluation; vocational training; leadership education
Subject
Social Sciences, Education
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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