Higher Education as a Tool for Veterans in Transition: Battling the Challenges

“I Just Don’t Like to Have My Car Marked”: Nuancing Identity Attachments and Belonging in Student Veterans

“…This suggests these participants may already be inculcating future-leaning identity values as they move to the next phases of their lives. Seeing their educations as tools toward the next goal rather than as an experience that required a steep interpersonal investment has also been supported by previous research (Hunter-Johnson et al, 2020). These student veterans were also less likely to disclose their veteran status or military history, a finding consistent with other research with student veterans (Livingston et al, 2011).…”

“…For example, Lostutter et al's (2020) adaptation of Tropp and Wright's (2011) Inclusion of the Other in Self Scale, Holland et al's (2010) Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (Sullivan et al, 2019), and Young's (2017) Veteran Adjustment to College Scale have all been used with student veterans to gather valuable information about the population's identity attachments, meaning-making, and college adjustment experiences. Adjustment is a process, and one's sense of belonging can change; therefore, institutions should also gather information from their student veterans at more than one point in time (Hunter-Johnson et al, 2020).…”

Promoting a Veteran‐Friendly Learning Environment

“…The transitioning of veterans from the military to the civilian world and by extension the civilian learning environment is a daunting task. The transition is even greater and can impose a barrier to the learning process when veterans have to renegotiate their identities, relearn how to learn and intermingle with civilians whose values, beliefs differ from them and are often equipped with negative stereotypes of veterans (Hunter‐Johnson et al., 2020). In an effort to assist veterans with this transition in higher education, it is incumbent upon adult educators to provide a learning environment that not only provides support but also assist veterans with holistic development and properly prepare them for the ultimate transition to the civilian workforce.…”

“…Specifically as it relates to instructional techniques, emphasis is placed on facilitated discussion, presentation style, flipping of the class, student presentation and incorporation of real world experiences (Hunter‐Johnson & Closson, 2012). This is paramount considering more veterans encounter a vast culture shock specific to the learning environment in higher education, which can present a barrier to the learning process (Hunter‐Johnson, 2018; Hunter‐Johnson et al., 2020). During such discussion, it is essential that the adult educator does not disclose a preference regarding either learning environment, military compared to higher education, nor a preference regarding the utilization of andragogy or pedagogy in either learning environments, but express value in both.…”

“…While enrolled in higher education, veterans must adapt to a combined learning environment (veterans and civilians), relearning how to learn, renegotiating their identities, understanding, and developing the concept of being self‐directed. Such transitional adaptations must be accomplished while adjusting to their new learning environment in higher education, which is guided by theories such as andragogy and humanism, a contradiction of their military learning environment which is often grounded in learning theories such as Behaviorism and pedagogy (Hunter‐Johnson et al., 2020).…”