This study explores how student veterans draw on principles of self-determination theory, focusing on the learning processes shaping their abilities to adapt to new environments, namely college. By developing intrinsic motivation, student veterans successfully embrace their college student identities. Using a case study method along with self-determination theory, this study demonstrates how characteristics of intrinsic motivation assisted student veterans to shape their development as college students. As such, student veterans were enabled to become self-determined, which fostered their transition to the college environment. Implications for higher education practitioners and counselors are discussed.

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As qualitative researchers reach out to expand the reception of their research, they must consider both the kinds of audiences they wish to reach and the discourse—or “voice”—that will have the maximum impact for that audience. A careful consideration of this interaction can often be found by using deep reflexivity, or the reflection on the self-in-interaction with an audience and its preferred discourse(s) and media. Researchers will need to “shift registers,” or transfer from one kind of discourse to another, which is not always easily accomplished. This chapter considers the potential audiences, the types of languages and discourses familiar to those audiences, and the forms of communication most likely to reach a given group or audience.