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A study of the Navy College Program for Afloat College Education: Implications for teaching and learning among nontraditional college students
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A study of the Navy College Program for Afloat College Education: Implications for teaching and learning among nontraditional college students
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A STUDY OF THE NAVY COLLEGE PROGRAM FOR AFLOAT
COLLEGE EDUCATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR
TEACHING AND LEARNING
AMONG NONTRADITIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS
by
Terence E. Lynberg
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2003
Copyright 2003 Terence Ellsworth Lynberg
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UMI Number: 3103942
Copyright 2003 by
Lynberg, Terence Ellsworth
All rights reserved.
®
UMI
UMI Microform 3103942
Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest Information and Learning Company
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P.O. Box 1346
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University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
Los Angeles, California 90089-0031
This dissertation written by
___________Terence Ellsworth Lvnberg _____
under the discretion of h D issertation Com m ittee,
and approved by all mem bers of the C om m ittee, has
been presented to and accepted by the Faculty of the
Rossier School of Education in partial fulfillm ent of the
requirem ents for the degree of
D octor of E ducation
Date
U JJX ^U tlU )
— " 7 ■
' Dean
i \
Chairpers'
Dissertation C om m ittee
JhilhAs
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Prologue and Dedication
Necessary among warships’ ocean-borne activities, the transfer of fuel from
one vessel to another is a dramatic event. Between two ships sailing alongside,
separated by some 75 feet of turbulent and fast current waters, the massive hoses
of the USS Bridge held steady by young sailors of diverse gender, ethnicities, and
races-pulsate with the energy o f precious oil as they transfer a promise of power.
Above, helicopters launched from the supply ship hover over the flight decks of
the two huge ships soon to send down nets filled with mail, food, and packages.
The scene captivates observers in many ways: One sees the close teamwork,
notes the sustenance provided to fill key needs, and fears lurking dangers from
damaged hoses, collision, water surprises, copter crashes, mistakes. In the
background, as part of longtime Navy tradition, loud music plays from top deck
speakers while a simple, thin rope carries a symbolic gift from one captain to the
other. The crews at every level are at work-disciplined, determined, dedicated to
complete a successful mission short-term, all part of a larger enterprise.
Soon enough the transfer completed, hoses replaced, a loud cheer is sounded.
The two larger ships pull away from the one in the middle now to proceed on
separate courses. Sailors shuck off their protective gear, put it away for next time,
and return to their regular duties. Among them, maybe 10%, make their way to
the college classroom, textbooks in hand, to continue the pursuit of an academic
degree. The United States N avy’s Program for Afloat College Education awaits
them. To these men and women, this study is dedicated.
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Acknowledgements
Among the many faculty, administrators, friends and associates who have
encouraged and supported my adventure in higher education in the pursuit of a
doctoral degree, 1 am pleased to acknowledge my dissertation committee first: Dr.
William G. Tierney, exceptional scholar, teacher and chair; Dr. Linda Hagedom
and Dr. Melora Sundt, outstanding advisors and scholars. In addition, I wish to
acknowledge my undergraduate academic advisor, friend and mentor for over
forty years, USC University Professor-emeritus J. Wesley Robb and USC Dean-
emerita Joan M. Schaefer who continued their unflagging encouragement and
support as I sought to complete this academic program at our beloved University.
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Table of Contents
Prologue and Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of Tables V
Abstract vi
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature 10
Chapter 3 : Methodology 69
Chapter 4: Findings of the Research 106
Chapter 5: Discussion, Recommendations and Conclusions 182
Bibliography 221
Appendices 236
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List o f Tables
Table 2.1 Overview: Dept, of Defense Education Division 23
Table 2.2 VOLED fact sheet for fiscal year 2001 24
Table 2.3 Survey results: the Navy’s education improvements 40
Table 3.1 List of research site locations 84
Table 4.1 1997-2000 Comparisons: Navy educational activity 108
Table 4.2 Two ships’ responses: a faculty quality question 141
Table 5.1 1975-1999 Navy minorities: graduate numbers 214
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ABSTRACT
This qualitative study of the United States Navy’s Program for Afloat College
Education investigated enlisted sailors’ higher education activities on ships. The
study identifies characteristics, strengths and weaknesses ofNCPACE from the
perceptions, observations, views and related experiences of a group of selected
participants aboard eight Navy vessels. The study presents data to support
recommendations for improvements to the program both to enhance its
accomplishments and to address a national issue of minority access, retention and
success in post-secondary education.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
From the days of the American Revolution, the United States Armed Services
have provided education and training to enlisted personnel. Between 1915 and
1946, the military services increased education and training programs to improve
service members’ literacy, mathematics, and communication skills.
During the final months of World War II, the Congress and President authorized
the Montgomery GI Bill. The benefits o f this law prompted millions o f veterans,
largely comprised of the majority population, to pursue higher education. When the
post-Vietnam war Congress and President ended the draft, the American military
became an all-voluntary force. To encourage voluntary enlistment all branches of
the armed services offered enlistment incentives, including extensive postsecondary
educational benefits, for those on active duty.
Since the voluntary enlistment program began, the twenty-first century finds the
military now comprised of over 50% minorities (African Americans, Latino
Americans and those of Asian derivation). Because this population group is largely
underrepresented in land-based postsecondary education, the significance of the
military’s ability to offer access to higher education and increase student retention
should not be underestimated as an avenue for increased minority education,
comparable in its potential impact upon the nation as that wrought by the
Montgomery GI Bill in the mid-twentieth century.
During the subsequent 50 years since 1945, according to the Department of
Defense Almanac (DoD Almanac, 1998) military higher education, now offered
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through a variety of programs, enrolled nearly 50% of all active duty personnel.
Whether postsecondary degree-oriented or certificate-based, service members from
all branches took advantage of tuition-free programs. In effect, with nearly 680,000
active duty service members enrolled in higher education courses, the American
military can claim to be a predominant part of the nation’s college-going culture
(DoD Almanac, 1998). O f the 36.5% minority population in the military, 52.9% of
the officers and enlisted military members come from African American (30.6%),
Latino American (11.5%) or Unknown (10.8%) minority backgrounds (DoD
Almanac, 1998). From the same Department of Defense Almanac (1998), the
gender division of the active duty force was 85.90% male and 14.10% female.
Among the enlisted active duty military in 1998, 67.94% held high school or
General Education Diplomas (GED), 24.70% had completed from one to four years
of college (including the associate’s degree), 3.16% held a baccalaureate degree,
0.33% held an advanced degree and 3.87% unknown (1998).
For the nearly 40% of the enlisted military population that comes from a
minority background (including an equivalent percentage in the U.S. Navy),
traditionally underserved by higher education, the context and associations within a
large military college-going culture have the potential to influence and improve
minority and non-traditional student access, enrollment, retention and academic
success.
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Significance o f the study
The 2000-2001 Almanac issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (Almanac,
2001, p. 22), based upon the 2000 National Census indicates that of 19.4 million
African Americans, 11.5% held a baccalaureate degree, 6.9% held an associate’s
degree, and 20.1% had completed some college credits. For Latino Americans, of
17.2 million, 7.3% held a baccalaureate degree, 5.0% held an associate’s degree,
and 13.4% had completed some college credits. For Asians, of 6.7 million, 28.7%
held a baccalaureate degree, 7.0% held an associate’s degree, and 12.6% had
completed some college credits. This statistical evidence, coupled with the United
States Census Bureau’s 2000 report on income variations that increased from high
school diploma to the various degree levels, suggested the nation’s need to increase
minority access in higher education as a critical one to overcome an increased
economic divide (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2002). With the nation’s military
now providing significant support and access to higher education for all voluntarily
enlisted members, this postsecondary sector has become a major resource for
America’s higher education policy and planners to increase minority enrollment.
As an entry level goal for higher education, the community college’s associate’s
degree is the military’s initial academic objective among its new enlistments,
particularly in the U.S. Navy.
Long noted as an important access route for higher education among lower
economic status groups, the nation’s community colleges reported to the American
Association of Community Colleges in 1997 that they had enrolled 30% of all
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minority students, and 64.8% of all white students. Among these percentages there
numbered 11.1% African American students, 11.8% Latino American students,
5.8% Asian/Pacific Islander students, and 1.8% Native American students in higher
education (AACC, 2000).
In this study of the Navy College Program for Afloat College Education, a
community college level activity of the U.S. Navy, the focus is placed largely upon
its capacity as an effective postsecondary agent to enroll nontraditional, minority
students and to support their retention and eventual academic success. Because
military education opportunities for minorities are of enormous significance in this
nation, now comprised of rapidly growing minority population increases without a
concomitant rise in the civilian academy, the military sector affords advantages that
are described as part of this study’s focus.
Two current oft-studied questions in higher education policy and planning are
related to minorities: why is the percentage o f minority students (including lower
socioeconomic Whites) who enroll and succeed in higher education low by
comparison to other groups? What can be done to facilitate and improve these
groups’ access, retention, and academic success? Given the evidence of the success
of military-sponsored higher education in previous eras, this study of the activities
of one exemplary U.S. Navy college program may provide answers and resolution
to these leading questions and social challenges.
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Nontraditional students ’ access to military higher education
I assume that this era of increased technology and social complexity prompts a
need to accelerate advanced education among all American demographic groups.
Given the velocity of rising college costs, uneven educational preparation in
secondary schools, and resultant socioeconomic divides, subsidized military higher
education programs now provide a significant opportunity for nontraditional
student access.
Relatively current research indicates that for many American minorities,
including lower socioeconomic groups, pursuit of a higher education degree is not a
normal cultural expectation or, at least, is a goal beyond reach (Vemez &
Abrahamse, 1996; Gray, Rolph & Melamid, 1996; Rendon, 1995). Although
unknown is the percentage of minority service members who have been exposed to
a cultural context in which college attendance is a normal pursuit, military training
encourages them to pursue higher education as well as offers substantial incentives
to engage in it.
This qualitative study investigates enlisted sailors’ higher education activity in
one central facet of the higher education activities of one branch of the military, the
Navy’s Program for Afloat College Education (NCPACE). The study’s inductive
approach is intended to identify characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of
NCPACE from the perspectives, views, and related experiences of participants.
The purpose of the study is to obtain data upon which to develop recommendations
for improvements to NCPACE both to enhance its success in the Nav'y and to
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address, in a modest way, the national problem of minority access and success in
higher education.
As of December 31, 1998, the Navy identified its total population of minority
enlisted service members at 37.2%. This percentage included 20% African
American, 9.1% Latino American, and 8.1% Other (DoD Almanac, 1998). As of
the same date, the Department of Defense Fact sheet for 1998 indicated a total
145,088 Navy active duty service members, both officers and enlisted, who
enrolled in undergraduate courses including NCPACE. This study investigated the
largely nontraditional student constituency and the academic experience on eight
U.S. Navy ships. I sought to learn the dynamics of NCPACE student access,
retention, quality education, and reasons for academic success.
One major issue addressed in military higher education programs is not only the
enrollment of minority members but also that o f retention and ultimate degree
achievement. In the aftermath of the decline or removal of affirmative action
policies for American college admissions, NCPACE now appears to be an
increasingly important avenue for nontraditional student access and success.
Therefore, this study focused upon not only the access issue but also effective
educational procedures that I assumed to be a key factor for retention, good
learning, and academic success.
Academic quality in military higher education
Although there exists considerable research into issues of the social integration
and student support programs for minority students and their related academic
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success rates, this investigation considered the academic quality o f the classroom
experience (Tinto, 1987). Among questions asked of all students in this study I
included: How do you evaluate your actual learning experience in NCPACE
courses? In what ways did the instruction link the course taken with your higher
education aspirations? In what ways did fellow students enhance your learning
experience? What access to research materials did you have for your course work?
What might improve command support for your college pursuits while afloat? As a
result o f your NCPACE course work, how do you plan to continue your
educational objectives, if you do? How would you improve the NCPACE program?
What do you consider to be good teaching and learning? How did your high school
or past learning activities work for you in your NCPACE courses?
Although the military education programs serve only a small proportion o f the
entire higher education program of some 14,500,000 students in the United States
(Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac, 2000), if it can be found to be an
effective educator of nontraditional students, then evaluation of its characteristics,
qualities, and strengths are of benefit to all. Only limited data has been collected
to evaluate the quality of military higher education. However, for this study I
assumed that substantial amounts of civilian research that evaluated academic
quality, access, retention, good teaching, and accreditation could be translated to
the military context. Therefore, to locate recommendations for the improvement of
NCPACE and to identify its strengths and weaknesses, this investigation drew upon
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civilian research about academic quality, characteristics of effective or ‘good
teaching and learning,’ and academic evaluation and accreditation procedures.
Policy directives from the Defense Department established a high priority for
higher education programs for broad access and quality operations comparable to
the best in civilian academic resources (Department of Defense, 1996). Military
advancement policies now state higher education credits will affect merit review
and career advancement.
I interviewed or surveyed 149 Naval personnel (students, faculty, officers,
chiefs) aboard eight ships to learn their impressions and perceptions of their
classroom experience afloat. Twenty-eight intensive individual interviews were
conducted to test some of the general opinions from the initial brief interviews.
Officers and Navy chiefs, who are the effective “bosses” of the enlisted students, I
interviewed to ascertain their views on NCPACE, their impressions of their staffs
enrolled, and their impression of the level of command support for the program.
Summary
Higher education is important for everyone, but minorities are underenrolled
constituents. There are over 50% minorities in the United States Armed Services
today, as in the U.S. Navy. Most of these personnel are at the traditional college
enrollment age of 18 to 25. With over 50% of the United States Navy’s sailors
enrolled in some higher education program, clearly the Navy College programs,
including NCPACE, are important avenues for everyone to increase their
postsecondary credentials, but for underrepresented, nontraditional students in
particular.
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Although there are many topics to be addressed in postsecondary education with
regard to quality and program evaluation, one that is highly important is a student’s
satisfaction with courses that he or she takes. The assumption of this study is that,
if a student thinks that what he or she is doing academically is worthwhile, then
completion is likely, and more students will want to participate in comparable
studies as they note their peers’ success and interest. Therefore, this study is
largely aimed at what selected students thought about NCPACE. Based upon this
research, the study will identify NCPACE strengths and weaknesses. Policy
recommendations to improve NCPACE will complete the study’s objectives.
It was in the late 1970s that, at the request of the Defense Department, Harvard
Education Professor Stephen K. Bailey produced his pioneering critique of college
programs on military bases titled Academic Quality Control: The Case o f College
Programs on Military Bases (Bailey, 1979). Questions of academic quality,
accreditation and review, and caliber of teaching and learning, as well as other
primary issues in higher education policy today, have received minimal followup
attention, apart from periodic evaluation reviews from the American Council on
Education’s Military Installation Voluntary Education Review (MIVER) reports.
This qualitative study is presented in five chapters. The following chapter,
“Review o f the Related Literature, ” comprises selected research on the historical
background of military higher education, effective teaching and learning in higher
education, effective programs for academic support and retention of nontraditional
college students, and a discussion of principal issues in student course work
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evaluation theory. The 3rd chapter explains the research design and methodology,
including its limitations. Chapter 4 is the data analysis section of the study.
Chapter 5 presents a discussion o f the research findings and, finally, sets forth
recommendations for improvements and identifies areas for future research.
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Chapter 2: Review of the Related Literature
Introduction
In this chapter, I intend to establish a foundation for this study about the Navy
College’s Program for Afloat College Education (NCPACE). To do so, I will
refer initially to three principal research studies on NCPACE completed over the
last quarter century. I will assess and critique this literature focused by my search
for its limitations and its relevant contributions to evaluate and improve
NCPACE. I will begin formulation and refinement of principal research questions
about the quality of NCPACE’s educational processes that are provided to a
nontraditional group of enlistees largely underrepresented in land based
postsecondary civilian institutions. I will survey and review some theoretical
literature related to issues of institutional accreditation and evaluation as these
affect quality control. I will discuss literature that considers elements of effective
teaching and learning among nontraditional students. Lastly, I will identify my
research objectives, which presume that the perceptions, impressions, and values
of nontraditional sailor students deserve to be presented and evaluated, thereby to
benefit a holistic and comprehensive reading of the literature.
At the outset, I intend to demonstrate why the Navy’s sponsorship of the
NCPACE instructor based program is important for its ability to provide a quality
higher education to service members who seek it, and to the nation’s
postsecondary policy and practice. I seek to do this to suggest areas for
improvement to both. Through placement of NCPACE evaluation within the
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larger context of key issues in American higher education, I will relate this
study to previous literature both on the broad subject of nontraditional student
education at large and to the Navy in particular. In doing so, I intend to
demonstrate the distinction of this study through my focus upon student
perceptions and experiences of their instructor based course work. I will include
reports of selected NCPACE instructors and administrators to test the truthfulness
of the students’ views. My theoretical assumption is that by giving voice to the
students’ views, in some cases interpreted professionally by experienced
NCPACE instructors, I will provide data that complements current published
literature. Therefore this study's potential value rests in its focus upon
identification of perceptions, impressions, experiences, and views from its key
participants. The underlying purpose of this study is its aim to develop policy and
planning recommendations that will benefit an effective NCPACE education for
enlisted students, particularly the substantial numbers who are nontraditional or
underrepresented in general American higher education institutions.
The Military and higher education
I initiate this review of the literature with a section of description and
definition about the military’s role in higher education, specifically its Navy
branch. This will include reference to evaluative and accreditation procedures
that now function to review the programs. I will identify its administrative
structure, and specific enrollment numbers in the several higher education
programs, and present some theoretical assumptions both about NCPACE and this
research investigation of it.
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To the question of why the Navy includes and actively encourages college
education, the response is severalfold:
• It is a benefit offered in recruitment.
• It supports the training and preparation of skilled crew members to
serve an increasingly complex and technologically based defense
organization.
• It enhances career development both for the military and civilian
sectors.
The Navy’s recruitment and orientation literature affirms the central
importance of advanced and continuing education for all its members. Reports by
Navy officials to the Congress indicate that college course work and continuing
education for new enlistees and others addresses the Navy’s need for its crews’
ongoing skill improvement, critical thinking abilities, and the expansion of
learning capacity. This includes the nearly 37% minorities who comprise
proportionately a much larger presence in the Navy than the general population.
Although the theme of education for minorities or nontraditional students in
the military is not highlighted per se by the Navy, the organization provides an
opportunity for this constituency to pursue a college education that many of them
claim would not easily be possible otherwise. The Navy, as is true of all the
military branches, prefers to diminish discussions of differences as part of its
effort to create a united and team oriented defense force. This philosophy orients
the Naval experience to build camaraderie and a collegial, interdependent defense
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organization according to the Bluejacket’ s Manual, the official handbook for all
sailors (Cutler, 2000).
Even though the Navy maintains statistical categories to identify minority
groups based upon their members’ stated identifications, the NCPACE program
operated by the Navy’s subcontractor, Central Texas College dictates that it is no
longer permitted to do so under its license by the State of Texas. Therefore, there
are no official, accurate records of minority, ethnic or nontraditional student
constituencies in NCPACE.
Factors in N avy’ s higher education
In summary, there are many factors at play in the context of the Navy’s
sponsorship and advocacy of higher education:
• Issues of diversity in higher education; its impact and value
• Affirmation of the principles and purposes of higher education
• Minority access to postsecondary degrees
• Assurance of quality teaching and learning
• Improved Naval service to the nation in an increasingly technological
era
• Extension and enhancement of the American democracy through
educational empowerment o f a broad range of citizenry
What the military offers as postsecondary education is an important avenue to
increase academic credentials for everyone, but for nontraditional students,
including minorities, in particular.
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NCPACE’ s place in VOLED
NCPACE. offered to sailors on defense missions at sea, is one part o f the
United States Navy’s Voluntary Education Program (VOLED). In 2001, both
ashore and afloat, 167,067 of the enlisted service members and officers
participated in a variety of postsecondary academic work at colleges and
universities and institutes for higher learning around the world, including
NCPACE. NCPACE enrolled approximately 20,000 students who engaged in
44,000 instructor based and distance learning courses (DANTES, 2001). The
Department of Defense’s Annual Report of December 31, 2001, reported that the
United States Navy’s total active duty population comprised 378,917 with
238,896 ashore and 140,021 afloat (DANTES, 2001).
Although NCPACE contains a modest proportion o f the Navy’s total number
of service members enrolled in higher education, the program presents a
significant link for enlisted sailors in their early twenties to consider and start a
college education. During the course of a Navy enlistment, all sailors are assigned
to sea duty where NCPACE courses are provided aboard ship. The ship afloat is
well placed for voluntary higher education access and college recruitment among
its enlisted personnel.
NCPACE, a higher education opportunity fo r nontraditional students
Because nearly 40% of voluntary enlistment in the United States Navy is
identified by the Department of Defense to be derived from minority
backgrounds, NCPACE is able especially to provide a means for minority access
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to higher education (DANTES, 2001). Over the past 10 years, my research has
found that the Navy has accelerated its advocacy of higher education among its
population, both enlisted and officers; steadily increased funding for it; and
promoted college opportunity as a primary benefit in recruitment activities.
Although the military may or may not be considered by leading theorists and
planners in American higher education to be an important avenue for access
among lower socioeconomic groups in the nation, this is the case, largely due to
the priority military recruiters place upon it among this constituency, as well as
enlistees’ response to it. For example, in the September, 2002 issue of Harper’s
magazine, the editor noted that one largely Latino high school in the greater Los
Angeles area, East Los Angeles, hosted five military recruiters to every one
college recruiter in the 2001-2002 academic year (Harper’s, 2002, p. 13).
Few, I expect, would disagree with the importance American higher education
places upon universal education to the extent of one’s capability. This value has
been voiced many times by the nation’s presidents. Congressional and state
budget support for less affluent college students is major evidence for this
nation’s commitment to higher education for all capable students and, particularly
for those of lower socioeconomic brackets. However, research data presented in
the late 1990s indicated that for many American minorities, including those from
lower socioeconomic backgrounds (who I refer to as nontraditional students)
normally do not consider the pursuit o f a college degree as highly as do middle
and upper-middle class students. Whether this attitude is a cultural expression or
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somehow reflects economic considerations is not subject to accurate verifiability
(Vemez & Abrahamse, 1996: Gray, Rolph & Melamid, 1996; Rendon, 1995). In
my research among sailors from these backgrounds I have learned that the
possible reasons are complex, not only related to cultural attitudes but also to
appropriate and effective ways of learning, strengthening individual self-
confidence, and determination to advance in life.
For the United States Navy the provision of higher education
• benefits enlistment incentives,
• affects in-service career advancement and
• accelerates sailors’ application of their academic skills and abilities
to accomplish increasingly technologically complex military
operations.
Theoretical assumptions o f the study
• NCPACE is an important opportunity for nontraditional students’
college education;
• NCPACE has significant weaknesses and strengths that can be
identified, resolved, or enhanced.
• NCPACE contains some effective methods for nontraditional student
access, retention, and academic success that are beneficial to general
American higher education policy and planning.
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• NCPACE is a significant avenue for higher education that advances the
development and benefits of a democratic society particularly among
non traditional college students and their families.
The first theoretical assumption is that NCPACE represents an important
opportunity for nontraditional students to begin the pursuit of a free college
education whereas otherwise they might not do so; that the educational context,
although problematic (to be discussed further in chapter 5), is conducive to their
retention and academic success; and that, morally speaking, this is a good
program for them, for the Navy, and for the nation.
This research project is focused upon NCPACE primarily from an
organizational policy perspective; namely how to overcome the program’s
demonstrated weaknesses, how to build upon its strengths, and how to expand its
impact within a population significantly underserved elsewhere. As a study
oriented toward program evaluation, it fits well within the genre of qualitative
research where “theory, method, praxis, action and policy all come together. [It]
can isolate target populations, show the immediate effects of certain programs on
such groups, and isolate the constraints that operate against policy changes in
such settings. Action-oriented and clinically oriented qualitative researchers can
also create space for those who are studied [the other] to speak (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2000, p. 23).”
The second theoretical assumption o f this study is that the program does have
significant weaknesses as well as strengths; that there are land based college
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constraints that operate against substantial policy and praxis change, and that
these dynamics perceived by varied levels of participants in the program can be
identified as a basis for reform. The assumption includes the notion that this
process of identification and subsequent recommendations for educational reform
are central objectives of this study.
The third theoretical assumption of this study emerged from research into
NCPACE student perceptions of the program’s educational quality, context, and
availability. For nontraditional students, in particular, the structured environment,
the ready access to instructors, and the evident link with Navy career
advancement and peer supports provided a significant educational context not
only for access but also for retention and academic success. Therefore, this study
assumed theoretically that, were it possible, translation of the meritorious aspects
of the military educational context for college education among nontraditional
students elsewhere could meet with significant success.
The fourth and final theoretical assumption is that the military’s role in higher
education, well rooted in its historical past since the Civil War, is, in effect, a
powerful advocate of democratic development, social mobility, and an enhanced
quality of life, especially for persons from lower socioeconomic circumstances,
regardless of racial or ethnic derivation. Based upon successful higher
education’s potential to enhance economic benefits and to develop enlightened
minds, NCPACE is a key part of a socially important activity worthy of
discussion, critique, reform and application.
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According to a 2002 report from the U.S. Census Bureau reported in The
Chronicle of Higher Education (Chronicle, 2002) over an average lifetime there is
nearly a million- dollar annual earnings differential between high school
graduates and the bachelor’s degree, some $400,000 difference between the
bachelor’s and the masters earnings, and nearly another million between the
master’s and the doctorate. It is my assumption and belief that although the
economic rationale for pursuit of a higher education seems to predominate in an
entrepreneurial society, equally there are benefits to be obtained by education to
expand minds, develop critical reasoning skills, and enhance leadership
possibilities that serve to fulfill a democratic society.
Areas o f knowledge needful o f expansion
In this review of the related literature, I intend to present a perspective that
represents primarily a sampled voice ofNCPACE participants about the program
as it affects them in their experience and objectives, in their perceptions and
observations of the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and in their views on
ways to improve it. Doing so, I intend to complement the limited amount of
literature published that has investigated NCPACE from an organizational or
quantitative, statistical approach (Bailey, 1979; Garcia, Joy & Reese, 1998). The
key word is complement for neither of the two extensive studies incorporated a
sampling of individual or focus groups’ perceptions about the program. Although
framed in more sophisticated language, NCPACE participants who were asked
such simple evaluative questions as “what do I like about NCPACE? What
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works? What might work better?” revealed many perceptions and observations
otherwise uncontained in the existing literature. The organized presentation of
these perceptions and observations is a primary purpose of this study. As a
preliminary to this presentation I now provide a general examination and
overview ofNCPACE, its place in the United States Navy’s overall educational
activities, and its statistical records to place it in a larger context.
The U.S. Navy's higher education
To assist the reader, in the following section I present a general description of
NCPACE, and where it is located in the educational organization chart o f the
United States Navy. 1 identify the primary higher education programs alongside
NCPACE to present the statistic that over 167,000 service members out o f the
Navy’s 371,000 active duty force are engaged in some form of higher education.
In addition, I include the current population o f Navy personnel enrolled in the
overall Navy educational program and, as well, a statistical review of the
academic levels achieved by the entire service. Statistics for the numbers of
enlisted sailors enrolled in NCPACE and identified by racial, ethnic, minority,
and gender categories is not available.
The chart and brief descriptions summarized in Table 2.1 and Table 2.2
indicate the varied statistics and types of higher education programs sponsored by
the Navy. Degrees are achieved based upon a combination of the student’s course
planning, the contract length of his or her military service, and the satisfactory
observance of the sponsoring college’s academic and residency requirements. In
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addition, the American Council on Education has devised an evaluation of
military service work activities in order to grant an appropriate number of
academic credits toward each student’s transcript. Following discharge, provided
that the sailor accepted educational benefit plans upon enlistment or
commissioning, he or she is eligible to draw upon the Montgomery GI Bill
benefits for ongoing tuition and financial support (Department of Veteran’s
Affairs, 1997).
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Table 2.1: Overview of the Department o f Defense Education Division
The Department o f Defense Education Division (DoDEd)
+
The United States Navy Voluntary Education Program (VOLED)
C.O. Chief of Naval Education and Training (CNET)
College Programs
NCP Distance Learning Partnership Schools (Online courses)
Tuition Assistance: Provides maximum $3500. annual tuition for courses taken
in accredited higher education institutions.
NCP ACE/College at Sea: Provides both instructor based courses afloat and
online distance learning taped courses. A community college level program
aimed at the associate's degree.
On-base Programs: U.S. Navy approved local colleges and universities are
invited to provide courses on base within Navy schedules at the undergraduate
and graduate level, and vocational-technical schools.
Servicemembers Opportunity College (SOCNAY): Consists of 85 accredited
colleges offering specific associate and bachelor’s degrees to Navy members
world wide through resident courses of distance learning. Colleges taking part in
each curriculum area guarantee to accept each other’s credits for transfer. The
“home” college issues an official evaluation of all prior learning on a SOCNAV
agreement. This agreement serves as the student’s long range degree plan.
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Table 2.2 VOLED Fact Sheet for Fiscal Year 2001
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The U.S. Navy’s Voluntary Education Fact Sheet FY01
Individual enrollments: High school: 213, Military specialty: 6,086. Academic
basic skills: 9,765, Undergraduate (including NCPACE) 167,067 [note: in FY01
est. 20,000 students enrolled in NCPACE], Graduate: 10,645
Degrees completed: High school: 97, Associate’s: 2821, Bachelor’s: 2273
Graduates: 331, Doctorate: incomplete/non available (INA)
Expenditures (in millions) Personnel: $9.0, Contract (non instruction): $5.4,
Contract (instructional): $18.9, Tuition assistance: $38.0, Total expenditures:
$71.3
DANTES Testing 12 major test programs (funded): 51,462 students
Enlisted
Unknown: 2,697, Non-high school: 7.142, High School: 290,228
1-4 years. A A/AS college (no diploma): 10,882
B.S. and/or B.A.: 6,904, M.S. and/or M.A.: 250, Doctorate: 17, First
Professional: 15. Total Navy population: 318,135
Officer
Unknown: 6,574, Non-high school: 3, High School: 359, 1-4 years college (no
diploma): 6,712, B.S. and/or B.A.: 20,636, M.S. and/or M.A.: 12,214, Doctorate:
6,159, First Professional: 1.057.
Total Officers: 53,714.
Grand total enlisted and officers: 371,849. *
* numbers provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center West DANTES
2001
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In the NCPACE instructor-based program, for each course all students must
satisfactorily complete the minimum 48 semester hours to pass it. Under the
MIVER procedures governed by the American College on Education under
contract with the Department of Defense, military course work objectives,
classroom hours, degree plans, instructor certification, transfer guidance, work-to-
college credit transcripts, and assurance of regional college accreditation, among
other characteristics, are reviewed on a regular basis.
The American Council on Education and MIVER
In February 1991 the Department of Defense awarded a contract to the
American Council on Education (ACE) to administer the Military Installation
Voluntary Education Review (MIVER) project. ACE manages the MIVER
reports for all the services. According to the Defense Activity for Nontraditional
Educational Support (DANTES) the MIVER project has two purposes: 1) to
assess the quality of selected on-base voluntary education programs, and 2) to
assist in the improvement of such education through appropriate
recommendations to institutions, installations, and the military services. The
MIVER report is designed to provide an independent third party assessment of the
quality of the postsecondary education program provided to service members
(DANTES, 2002).
The ACE Military Evaluations Committee is comprised of evaluators who are
land based faculty selected from an applicants' list. Several Navy educational
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personnel also serve on the evaluation team. An intensive evaluation is conducted
each 3 years prior to the initiation of contract negotiations with provider colleges.
In addition, as part of the overall review o f military higher education
programs, the Navy Chief of Education and Training places a summary of
NCPACE evaluations in annual Department of Defense reports to the United
States Congress as part of its normal review of the Montgomery GI Bill
operations. Lastly, each 3 year period when a postsecondary education contract
application is presented for consideration by the Navy, its Navy Campus internal
review committee evaluates it. The internal review committee bases its
evaluation upon recommendations about NCPACE operations received from
Commanding Officers on ships, and Educational Services Officers, and from
summaries of course evaluations completed by students.
VOLED
VOLED provides both off duty and on duty educational opportunities to
supplement military education and training programs. It allows sailors of all ranks
to pursue advanced degrees or certificates of their choice. VOLED comprises the
Tuition Assistance Program, NCPACE (afloat: both CD distance learning and
instructor based courses), Academic Skills/Navy College Learning Centers,
Servicemembers Opportunity College (SOCNAV), and The Distance Learning
Program. The Navy College offices are located on all major Navy bases around
the world to provide academic counseling, course planning, and on-base course
administration.
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The NCPACE (including instructor based, CD distance learning courses and
the Academic Skills program for remedial education) is the second largest
program in VOLED with Tuition Assistance as the largest (Garcia, Joy & Reese,
1998). Due to academic regulations of the subcontracting college, Central Texas
College, all identifications of students by racial, ethnic, or minority designations
are no longer maintained except on a voluntary listing basis upon the registration
forms. Few students now indicate their racial, ethnic or minority derivation. As
noted on the statistics summary table, there are an estimated 20,000 enlisted
students who enroll in approximately 44,000 NCPACE courses on an annual basis
(DANTES, 1998).
The N avy’ s rationale fo r education benefits
In all its education promotional literature, the Navy affirms that the offer of
educational opportunities to enlistees benefits the service in several ways:
• Provides recruitment incentive
• Increases the skills and intellectual ability of personnel for technology and
teamwork
• Improves the overall functioning of the Navy's operations and defense
missions.
The Navy identifies these varied, multilevel educational opportunities as
primarily beneficial to its operational interests and the career development o f its
employees. In recruitment literature, Navy education officers indicate that the
nation benefits as well when enlistees complete academic work. With emphasis
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placed upon transfer course work, and the career benefits both in the Navy and
following discharge, sailors are encouraged to pursue higher education as a
normal part of enlistment activity. In a 1998 Report to the United States Congress
on Navy recruitment activities, Admiral Larry Marsh stated that recruits rated the
provision of college education opportunities as the number one reason for joining
the service (Marsh, 1995, p. 1).
Background o f the U.S. N avy’ s higher education program
The Navy’s support for higher education has its foundation in the early days of
American history, although the primary emphasis developed in the aftermath of
World War II when the Congress and president created the Montgomery GI Bill
of Rights (Ford, Miller, 1995). In Ford and Miller’s 1995 Position Paper, the
Montgomery Bill influenced a social change in America and its higher education
system that could be compared to that caused by the Industrial Revolution. “The
Bill turned the hodge-podge melting pot that was America, whose ethnic
components has converted an overwhelmingly poor working-class of people into
a country of people more accurately described as co 1 lege-educated, middle class
homeowners (Ford, Miller, 1995, p. 1).”
Although education and training programs have been associated with the U.S.
Armed Services since the Civil War, the U.S. Navy’s PACE program itself was
inaugurated in 1957 under the administration of President Lyndon Johnson and
funded through the Montgomery Bill. Since its inception, NCPACE has operated
under a contractual agreement with Central Texas College, a large academic
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institution in Texas authorized by its State Legislature. Normally, a contract
renewal is conducted every three years. In 1999, Central Texas College was the
sole applicant for the instructor-based program.
Central Texas College and NCPACE
For enlistees at sea who have few or no college credits, NCPACE offers
courses that lead to the Associate of Arts or Sciences degree. The curriculum is
approved by the American Council on Education and accredited by the
Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The accreditation regulations govern the academic and professional credential
requirements used by the College to employ its adjunct instructors who teach in
the NCPACE program. All NCPACE instructors are adjuncts of Central Texas
College on a part time basis. The instructors’ contracts are limited to specific
ship’s assignments and conclude at the term’s end.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools increased its accreditation
criteria in 1998 specifically to improve faculty standards and the availability of
academic resources. In my investigation of NCPACE, I found these two areas to
be considered significantly deficient in the Central Texas College oversight of
NCPACE, particularly research resources. As the criteria standard reads, “the
institution must have sufficient learning resources or, through formal agreements
or appropriate technology ensure the provision of and ready access to adequate
learning resources and services to support the courses, programs and degrees
offered (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 1998, p. 2).” In a
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subsequent section, I report my findings on the inadequacy of research resources
aboard ships for the NCPACE courses.
Each of the NCPACE instructors is provided a course syllabus and text
approved by the land based Central Texas College department chair under the
auspices of the Texas State Legislature. Each adjunct faculty member is required
to sign a loyalty oath authorized by the State of Texas under its education code.
Once assigned to a ship’s NCPACE program by the CTC Site Coordinator in
charge of a regional area o f the Navy’s fleets, the part time adjunct instructor goes
aboard. Classified by the Navy as a civilian G-12 contractor, the adjunct instructor
thereby holds a rank equivalent to a Lieutenant Commander. This rank permits
appropriate access on the ship and accommodations for the duration of the
academic term. Students are notified by the ship’s Educational Service Officer of
the availability of the NCPACE courses, their location and hours for enrollment
and study. The instructor meets with the students, conducts registration, provides
the textbooks for sale to the students, and presents the course syllabus. All
NCPACE courses observe the minimum of 48 academic instruction hours to be
completed either in a six- or eight-week calendar. Upon completion o f the course,
the instructor conducts a course and instructor evaluation, prepares the grades,
and submits these to both the Navy College office and Central Texas College.
The N avy’ s general approach to military higher education
In this chapter, I initiated this literature review with brief descriptions and
definitions of the Navy’s higher education programs and NCPACE’s place in it.
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The Navy’s education program is organized by its planning, evaluation, and
application, all part of a dynamic process in which all its missions are conducted.
This background description ofNCPACE provided the organizational context in
which the entirely volunteer service member seeks to obtain his or her college
degree.
Presentation and critique o f related literature
Among the chief challenges to the Navy’s claim to provide quality higher
education afloat there is the context of shipboard work schedules often set for 12
hours daily, recurrent unplanned defense or safety activities, irregular classroom
hours, and the lack of adequate research resources. This context presents
extraordinary scheduling and logistical planning responsibilities both for the
student and the instructor to assure completion of the American Council on
Education’s required 48 instruction hours, comprehension of the academic
content, and effective learning activities.
For sailor students from nontraditional academic backgrounds, diverse ethnic
or minority cultures, or uncertain levels of confidence about their academic
abilities, the contextual complications are increased by their personal educational
history. This educational history might be of inadequate quality to prepare them
for college level work.
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Each year since 1997, 20,000 enlisted crewmembers afloat enrolled in
approximately 44,000 college courses. How many of this number are from
minority backgrounds or are inadequately prepared for higher education is
unknown. Because the primary provider, Central Texas College, no longer
requires demographic information on its registration forms, no accurate statistics
on the ethnic or minority enrollment in NCPACE are available. However, the total
Navy active duty enlistment of approximately 380,000 includes nearly 37% from
ethnic or minority backgrounds. Most of these enlistees, by public testimony of
the Chief of Naval Education and Training, identified the benefit of provided
college education to be a top reason they joined the Navy. Among all ships’
NCPACE courses in which I taught or conducted research, my anecdotal evidence
gathering-observations suggested the actual enrollment substantiated the
impression that nearly 40% of the students were of apparently minority or ethnic
background with others from lower socio-economic groups.
There are many things to say about teaching on a Navy ship afloat but chief
among them is a requirement for the instructor to be flexible, adapting to a
uniquely located nontraditional student constituency. Apart from scheduling and
planning matters, perhaps more important is the quality of teaching and learning
applied by temporary civilian instructors on the ship. Finding an open admissions
classroom of sailor students, largely nontraditional in background, the new
adjunct instructor finds himself or herself in an unfamiliar setting compared with
a high quality, selective, structured, normal academic-term land based campus.
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Experienced afloat instructors ready themselves and their lesson plans for an
unusual educational context. Application o f teaching and learning methodologies
that are effective and valuable and that draw the interest o f the students stand out
as a primary challenge for instructors.
Research on different ways of learning, as well as given cultural and
generational differences, should be key resources for NCPACE instructors faced
with mostly nontraditional students. How do diverse students, especially
nontraditional ones located in the Navy afloat, learn most effectively? How is
teaching best done in this situation? Literature that considers different ways of
learning and teaching, notably the writings of Paulo Freire, Howard Gardner, and
Laura Rendon among others (Freire, 1970; Gardner, 1999; Rendon, 1996) is
instructive for shipboard faculty and students. This literature conems differences
in ways of learning, the impact of conditioned self-perceptions about academic
ability or self-confidence about eventual academic success at a postsecondary
level.
From another perspective, the term culture might be applicable here as a
descriptor of NCP ACE’s unique academic context. The culture is military, highly
organized, and regimented. The defense mission requires a state of constant
readiness. Relationships, work assignments and expectations, and ready response
to obligations and duties permeate the shipboard culture. A unique vocabulary,
and ways of thinking and acting are elements of a specific culture and its
practices. Submission of individuality to the well-being of the crew is a
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significant factor, as is the sense of mutual responsibility to other members of the
crew in the ship’s operations. This culture governs and colors the educational
context differently from the culture normally experienced on a land based college
campus. As a result instructors need to be prepared for adaptation to and
understanding of its unique characteristics. Teaching schedules may have to be
adjusted to fit the changeable work schedule of students on military activities.
Questions of power relationships within this military culture are clearly specified
and structured. Deviation from the cultural norm can result in severe punishment.
Within the ship’s college classroom, the learning experience must cope with the
unequal relationships and find ways to accommodate learning and teaching to it,
if good learning, known by its interactivity and collaboration, is to take place.
Notable among the literature written about NCPACE is the lack of student
input, the results of student evaluations of their courses, instructors, or the entire
program. Very limited expression of the students’ voice is reflected in any of the
naval literature or MIVER reports, and this is a case in point about unequal power
relationships. O f course, the military is, by operative structure, a hierarchically
arranged organization with highly regimented and limited opportunity for lower
level opinions to be registered. The overriding values of the Navy culture orient
the sailor students to pursue college education degrees in effect to serve the
purposes of the defense mission, not to interfere with it by any means. How this
value affects the students’ engagement, academic objectives, and naval career
options is a significant question. Clark and Neave point out that “teaching and
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learning are intertwined, and efforts to promote deep understanding and
knowledge of a subject or profession must consider this web of relationships
(Clark and Neave, 1992, p. 1522).”
The relationship of students and instructor within collaborative, interactive
learning that diminishes power differences from those known in a hierarchically
structured context is particularly difficult to promote within the Navy’s cultural
establishment, necessary as it is to an effective, “always-ready” defense context.
Much of the literature that considers pedagogies most effective among
nontraditional students requires interaction and collaboration. Navy teaching, on
the other hand, is largely oriented towards more didactic procedures in which
information is transferred from the texts and manuals to the student.
What concerns me, on an underlying level, about the NCPACE program is the
degree to which it facilitates a classical objective of higher education; namely
how to evoke a student’s desire to pursue knowledge, or, in a philosophical
framework, truth. I suppose another way to put this would be to quote Professor
Richard Feynman from an edited book of his writings, The Pleasure o f Finding
Things Out. “You see? That’s why scientists persist in their investigations, why
we struggle so desperately for every bit of knowledge, stay up nights seeking the
answer to a problem, climb the steepest obstacles to the next fragment of
understanding, to finally reach that joyous moment o f the kick in the discovery,
which is part of the pleasure of finding things out” (Robbins, 2000, p. 24).
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Critiques o f the N avy’ s higher education programs
During the past quarter century, research literature specifically focused on
NCPACE is limited to three primary sources:
• Harvard Professor Stephen K. Bailey’s book (1979), Academic Quality
Control: The Case o f College Programs on Military Bases. Washington
D.C.: A.A.H.E.
• Garcia, F., Joy, E. & Reese, D.L. (1998). Effectiveness o f the Voluntary
Education Program. Alexandria: Center for Naval Analysis
• Joy, E. (1998) Program fo r Afloat College Education in the Navy:
Measuring Instructional Effectiveness in an Era o f Declining Resources.
Blacksburg: Dissertation for the Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University.
Apart from governmental and academic accreditation or other educational
institution evaluation reports, a search of dissertation abstracts revealed only one
other unpublished doctoral dissertation by David Olson of United States
International University in 1982.
Professor Bailey, who was invited by the Navy to evaluate NCPACE in its
earliest years, as well as similar military college programs, visited 13 military
installations to investigate the academic quality of college courses. As a former
Navy officer during World War II, he was familiar with defense operations
aboard ship and, as well, overall naval procedures. With regard to NCPACE, his
general estimation was that “the Navy would be far better advised to phase out
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90% of PACE operations and put the money saved into better educational
facilities located in ports where ships linger between sea assignments.” (Bailey,
1979, p.25).
Some o f Bailey’s criticisms indicated he found “a potpourri o f exciting
fulfillments and shoddiness; rigorous standards and credit give-aways; careful
supervision and no supervision; dedicated academic counseling and dreadful (or
no) academic counseling; adequate academic facilities and miserable academic
facilities; vigorous support... and back o f the hand support.. .fruitful articulation
and barren articulation...(and the Navy) has the lowest commitment to off-duty
post-secondary education” (p. 25).
Bailey made a series of recommendations to the Navy to improve the
education program. These included: the establishment of quality standards for
instructor employment, frequent collaboration and consultation between off- and
on-campus faculty and administrators; the home campus monitoring instructional
quality through utilization of special evaluation techniques, including peer review
and externally normed examinations; well trained Educational Service Officers
(aboard ship); the home campus measuring qualitatively to ensure that learning in
nontraditional modes per credit hour is similar to that in traditional arrangements;
and requiring the availability of adequate learning resources (libraries, etc.).
Olson, in his 1992 unpublished dissertation Academic “Quality” on a Military
Base (a Case Study) completed three years after the publication of Bailey’s book,
tested the application of Bailey’s criteria to achieve quality at a specific military
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base college-level educational program. He concluded that a military higher
education program that utilized Bailey's criteria would have a quality program
(Olson, 1982). I found that Olson’s theoretical assessment inadequately
considered a ship’s complicated educational context, including the nontraditional
students’ learning characteristics. Therefore his theoretical assumption that a
quality program would occur if Bailey’s criteria governed NCPACE operations is
probably limited to an on base program. O f course, Bailey’s criteria would be
useful applied to a NCPACE program to strengthen the chances of its success and
quality, however the complex context and flexible schedule of the ship afloat
would affect the continuity of the academic course on a normal term basis.
Bailey, although highly critical of the NCPACE quality aboard ships,
nevertheless stated that a postsecondary program of worth was possible, given
changes in procedures and resources. However, he alerted NCPACE policy
makers that simply imposing “counter-productive bureaucratic accountability
systems on academic programs” would not be beneficial (Bailey, p. 39).
Between 1979 and the mid 1990s, the American Council on Education's
MIVER process and reports described earlier in this chapter became the primary
evaluative mechanism utilized to assure and enhance NCPACE quality. During
the same period, the military’s need for improved recruitment incentives coupled
with a Congressional concern to improve the quality of life for service members
resulted in steady improvement in the postsecondary programs for all military
branches.
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In the mid 1990’s the Navy’s Center for Naval Analyses engaged three
researchers to study the question of the effectiveness of the Voluntary Education
Program although the MIVER process, under the auspices of the A.C.E.,
continues to the present. The Center’s final report, published in 1998, was
primarily oriented towards cost benefit analyses of the Navy Voluntary Education
(VOLED) components. Analyzed by three researchers from the Center for Naval
Analyses, some 63,000 instructor-generated NCPACE data and 20,200 data
questionnaire files from sailors who participated in NCPACE orientation briefs
were statistically rated (Garcia, Joy & Reese, 1998).
The overall report concluded that NCPACE is beneficial to the Navy for
• retention or reenlistment procedures
• the acceleration of rating advancements and the lowering of demotion
rates
• cost effectiveness; for example, “for each dollar invested in Tuition
Assistance and instructor NCPACE, the Navy gets $2 from improved
retention” (Garcia, Joy, & Reese, 1998, p.35).
Additionally, the report concluded that many students who persisted received
an associate’s degree then, normally switched to a higher-skill rating, engaged in
more sea-intensive jobs and enhanced their contribution to the Navy measured in
the receipt of medals, skills insignia and promotion points tied to pay grades.
One section of the Garcia, Joy, and Reese report presented results from a
September, 1996 Navy-wide Personnel Survey in which all sailors were asked
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how the Navy should enhance its Voluntary Education services (see Table 2.3
below). O f the respondents, 51% percent said that they would like more command
support for education; 42% said the Navy should publicize the VOLED programs
more.
Table 2.3: Results of a Survey Question on the Navy’s Education Improvements.
“How can the Navy make education services even better?
sailors selecting option
More command support 51%
Publicize programs 42%
Expand education office hours 39%
More access to computers 39%
Navy issues counselor 34%
% of sailors
Better infonned counselor 21%
Shorten waiting time 18%
Improve library access 13%
Open education office at base 11%
1996 Navy-wide Personnel Survey (Kantor, Ford & Olmstead, 1996)
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The study indicated that sailors’ desire for greater accommodation would
allow them to pursue further education in their off duty time. Even so, the study
concluded that the sailors completed community college courses aboard ship at a
higher rate than civilians at community colleges (84 % versus 74%). The
researchers justified this statistic by estimating community college completion
rates using 360 student grades downloaded from 10 different community college
web pages for the 1997 spring and fall semesters, including a cross section of
subject areas (Garcia, Joy, & Reese, 1998).
In this study by the Center for Naval Analyses, commissioned by the Navy to
evaluate its postsecondary education programs, 51% o f the sailors questioned
stated that the greatest need was for a more supportive Command environment
while at sea. Additional recommendations for NCPACE from the Center for
Naval Analyses, based upon its findings and data interpretations, included
structural changes to increase command support aboard ship, expand publicity,
limit courses to more advanced rankings, and change the fee structure for the
subcontracting college. The Center did not evaluate the quality of teaching and
learning, the educational experience separated from its context or review in detail
the availability of academic counseling, support, and attention to nontraditional
students enrolled in college courses for the first time.
Jo y’ s dissertation on NCPACE instructional effectiveness
In January 1998 a member of the Center for Naval Analyses research team,
Ernest Joy, presented his Virginia Polytechnic Institute dissertation on NCPACE
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to measure its instructional effectiveness in an era of declining resources (Joy,
1998). His descriptive study “was designed to determine those elements or
factors which contribute most to successful outcomes for Sailors enrolled in
college level PACE courses” (1998, p. ii). Although Joy primarily evaluated the
distance learning programs, he provided data that measured the difference in
academic grades between NCPACE instructor-delivered courses and distance
learning courses. He concluded that on average “Sailors in instructor-delivered
courses exceeded those in technology-delivered courses by one half a grade
point” (p. ii). Joy’s findings and recommendations did not take into consideration
any factors of the quality of the instruction or unique learning characteristics
presented by a nontraditional student constituency. Although his conclusions
supported the value and importance of the NCPACE program and presented
valuable recommendations for improvements to the organization, administration,
and structural developments of the program through the Navy’s auspices, he
presented no comment or evaluation of the subcontracting college, its academic
quality, its faculty standards, or pedagogical practices. His theoretical assumption
that Navy administrative changes could substantially improve the NCPACE
program has merit. However, his results, in my view, are diminished by his
neglect of any focus on students’ learning, quality of teaching, or consideration of
the nontraditional factors in the complex educational context of a ship afloat.
Based upon my review of the Center for Naval Analyses’ U.S. Navy
commissioned NCPACE evaluation and Joy’s dissertation data, I concluded that
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an evaluation of Central Texas College’s part in NCPACE, is assumed by the
authors cared for by the American Council on Education’s MIVER review and the
C.T.C. accreditor, the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges.
Central Texas College and MIVER
Upon my 1999 request for a copy of the CTC MIVER report made to the
Associate Dean of the NCPACE Central Texas College, Kenneth Woodward, I
was provided with only the College’s application portion rather than the review
results from the MIVER investigative committee. For whatever reason, the
College declined to provide me with the evaluation report. Nevertheless, the
C.T.C. application contained the philosophy, objectives, administrative
descriptions, faculty policies, comment on academic resources, and evaluation
practices (MIVER Report of Central Texas College, 1995).
This MIVER report confirmed the Center for Naval Analyses’ finding that
command support for NCPACE students’ participation needed improvement.
Regarding the matter of the students’ difficulty in balancing seagoing duties
(normally 12 hours per day) with course work, CTC stated its main concern to be
the ‘‘fact that students must deal with many conflicting demands placed upon
them. Sometimes this causes some potential students to be excluded from the
NCPACE experience (MIVER, 1995, p. 5).”
None of these four studies contained any substantial reference to the
characteristics of the sailor students other than their military identity. The factors
of learning styles, academic background, students’ nontraditional derivation,
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quality of faculty, curriculum design that is student oriented, and academic and
personal support systems are absent from each study. To fill this gap in the
literature specifically concerned with NCPACE, this research study places its
primary focus through its central research questions.
NCPACE accreditation and evaluation
NCPACE is a program of Central Texas College, a land based community
college institution. Evaluation of NCPACE effectiveness and educational quality
must be viewed from a literature review about that branch of postsecondary
education. Traditionally, community colleges are noted for their emphasis upon
faculty teaching rather than upon research identified with universities and many
4-year colleges. Given this primary emphasis upon teaching, research literature on
community colleges produced by its own faculty, until recently, has been limited.
The majority of research into community college has been produced by
universities, state agencies, or specialized educational study groups that are
concerned with public policy issues (Cohen, Brower, 1996).
Citing Peter Ewell’s work on implementation of assessment, Cohen and
Brower identified unfamiliarity with assessment to be a central issue for
community colleges. Community college researcher Carolyn Prager concluded
from her investigations that two-year colleges’ accreditation results documented a
need to improve assessment within this branch of higher education (Prager, 1993).
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Community colleges, as highlighted in California’s Master Plan, normally
serve three constituencies:
• education for transfer students
• enhanced educational interest courses for community persons
• license or credential work for specific occupations
Research on academic assessment programs usually focuses on the transfer
category rather than the other two activities. As a community college program,
NCPACE is oriented primarily toward the achievement of the associate degree
and transfer objectives, rather than the other two categories. NCPACE course
work is weighted towards foundational studies that lead to a baccalaureate degree.
Research about assessment and accreditation in baccalaureate institutions is,
therefore, applicable to NCPACE particularly as it provides educational data
concerned with nontraditional or underrepresented students. During recent
decades in American higher education circles, accreditation procedures and
organizations guiding them have been in an ongoing process of restatement and
reorganization. More recently, the formation of the Council on Higher Education
Accreditation (CHEA) has started to take the lead in the field.
From a 1995 Columbia University study of accountability in higher education
called The Essay came the assertion that “America’s 3,700 colleges and
universities vary not only in what they view as their mission but also in how
vigorously they pursue those missions” (Columbia University Accountability
Study, 1995).
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The Essay identified three key points:
• The responsibility for the quality of work in a college or university
ultimately lies with the faculty and administrators.
• The maintenance and improvement of that quality rests largely on
internal procedures for discovering weaknesses and failures in the
institution and its constituent parts.
• The efforts of colleges and universities to improve themselves will
be strengthened by a system of external audits of those procedures.
For many leaders of higher education policy and planning, this challenge is
reflected evidently in almost continuous, widespread review of ways that
education conducts its mission. This mission incorporates not only methodology
and teaching and learning but also accreditation procedures conducted by official
organizations. As a result, the educational mission and its organizations'
procedures are revised, updated, or reformed to improve the results of their work.
Today, however, there are new movements in accreditation discussions in
which the traditional process is set aside. To take its place, Jane Wellman, a
senior associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy, stated that “many
accreditors will focus more on assessing the efforts of colleges to improve student
learning, using whatever measures seem most appropriate to each institution’s
goals” (Wellman, 2000, p. 1). In her article “Accreditors Have to See Past
Learning Outcomes,” she stated that learning outcome assessments are, “in many
ways, a long time coming.” Colleges, she stated, should be able to determine
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whether they are effectively teaching students (p. 1). Wellman’s article makes no
reference to the characteristics or composition of student bodies, diversity issues,
or styles of learning and teaching.
Wellman’s article cites several observers of accreditation, Alexander Astin,
William Massy, and Robert Zemsky, who have presented studies and informed
opinions critical of current accreditation systems that rely on criteria “which
measure resources or inputs rather than results” (p. 2). She labeled these scholars’
views as advocacy of accreditation focused on the fundamental goals of teaching
and learning. Interestingly, she pointed to the advent of distance learning
technology as a factor that has caused reconsideration of learning outcomes and
teaching processes.
Perhaps even more important is her statement that the federal government has
initiated new regulations that demand more proof of student achievement in
accreditation reviews.
The California Little Hoover Commission’s Report Open Doors and Open
Minds: Improving Access and Quality in California’ s Community Colleges
expressed a critique of many aspects o f the California community college system,
and most especially its record and measures of quality teaching and learning
(Little Hoover Commission, 2000).
The current discussion and, in some instances, development of institutions to
assess student learning, has created experiments about ways to conduct it.
Wellman stated that her research with professional educators at all levels suggests
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that this focus is rigorous and demands more time than the self-studies and site
visits of conventional reviews. She concluded that, although the outcome o f these
experiments remains unclear, the moves will at least encourage colleges and
universities to focus on student learning (Wellman, 2000, p. 4).
In summary, other policy leaders in higher education have stated that
customary accreditation procedures might no longer provide adequate measures to
evaluate current educational practice. This inadequacy might well be applied to
academic initiatives to respond to new circumstances and new constituencies or to
prompt such courses of action (Bok, 1992, Ewell, 1994, Rendon & Hope, 1996).
For NCPACE, and for community colleges in general, accreditation or
evaluation procedures are largely focused on traditional factors other than student
learning outcomes. In the 1995 Central Texas College NCPACE MIVER report,
only one question on this topic is asked: How does the institution assess student
educational outcomes? The response of Central Texas College was simply,
“future outcomes of student achievement can now be much more easily
quantified, as each student is placed in a specific degree track. The process of the
student can, as a result of this emphasis, be exactly monitored as he or she makes
steady progress toward the associate’s degree” (MIVER, 1995). Clearly, this
response reflects an interest in the accumulation of transfer units without
reference to the quality and characteristics of education in the classroom; an
important factor especially for nontraditional students.
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For most students, the Navy’s NCPACE program is their first exposure to
higher education. As an initial college experience for large numbers o f students
who have had very little exposure to higher education, the quality of the
curriculum is clearly important. Through taking foundational college courses,
young military students probably establish interest patterns for learning, attitudes,
and values towards higher education; and its research, reading, and critical
thinking. In a learning environment conducive to good learning led by good
teaching, there is some evidence that the problem of retention and persistence
problems among nontraditional students is minimized, although the unique
stresses of military life may also be a causative factor for dropouts. In addition,
nontraditional students will have improved chances at academic success where
there are conditions created for optimal learning. These conditions include
“infusing the curriculum with multicultural perspectives; diversity faculty and
staff; and designating transfer as a high institutional priority” (Rendon, 1995;
Bleich, 1995).
The literature indicates that enhanced forms of evaluative review that focus on
learning outcomes should be done. In addition, as Wellman points out, even in a
review that emphasizes learning outcomes, the traditional factors are equally
important to review: faculty, curriculum, finances, governance, and student
sendees. Her summary point is that accreditors and institutions must begin to
accept that assessment and accountability are of equal importance, not one and the
same thing (Wellman, 2000, p. 3).
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At the level of regular evaluation and accreditation reviews, the important
question of whether NCPACE provides students with higher education resources
comparable in quality to accredited land based institutions needs to be considered.
Other studies of note also raise the importance of academic resource quality and
availability (Columbia University Essay, 1995; Carnegie Foundation, 1998,
CHEA Report, 1998). At present general MIVER review questions request
responses from the contracting college about its academic resources and quality
control procedures. Part of my research included questioning several NCPACE
adjunct instructors to determine whether the contracting college’s written
assurances about academic resources and quality control included
• consideration of possibly unique learning factors presented by
nontraditional Navy students from diverse backgrounds
• provision of appropriate research resources
• orientation of new instructors to a ship’s complex educational
context
• consideration of the cultural composition of classes, since the
college fixed standard syllabi and selected textbooks from the
perspective of the Texas sited, land based community college system
Although the main focus of this investigation is not about issues of
accreditation and institutional evaluation, these organizational topics significantly
and potentially affect the development of quality in NCPACE. If this investigation
finds significant weaknesses in the quality of NCPACE that, after more than a
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quarter century’s experience, have not been rectified, then improvement in the
oversight procedures should be a key recommendation of the study. As a principal
factor in the Navy’s operations now, NCPACE in its totality should be evaluated
by rigorous and comprehensive standards of accountability and effectiveness
central otherwise to its overall military operations. From this review of the
literature about NCPACE and from the literature that reviews accreditation and
evaluation in higher education, there appears to be a significant imbalance of
attention to the quality of teaching and learning, faculty evaluation and cultural
dynamics that may affect current pedagogy’s effects among non-traditional
students. Evaluation standards that question ways of teaching and learning among
diverse students to support persistence and success rates could have a significant
impact upon pedagogical practice. Although the Navy, for defense reasons,
accentuates the diminishment of cultural differences to enhance the teamwork
morale in a crew, college educational instructors, curricula, and learning resources
must consider diversity in the learning context.
A significant research question of this study is presented by the apparent
neglect or diminishment of attention to diverse cultural learning patterns among
nontraditional students who enlist in the military in larger numbers than enroll in
land based postsecondary institutions.
Quality learning and diversity
Professor Bailey’s critique of military postsecondary programs listed
instruction (classroom teaching and learning) standards 3rd among his 16
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guidelines to establish academic quality control (Bailey, 1979, p. 4). His critique,
as noted previously in this chapter, was based upon first hand research into
existing programs in all three military branches. He cited the Navy as the worst,
especially the NCPACE programs (p. 3, p. 25). As the concluding point in his
book, Bailey stated that the most important matter was that, without
improvements, personnel will come to “recognize that they are being cheated of
the quality education they have been promised by military recruiting salesmen (p.
26).”
Bailey’s criticism of some 20 years ago is echoed now from many academic
quarters towards college teaching in many places. The issue of what is good
teaching and learning, especially for nontraditional students; how to enhance it,
how to recognize it, how to prepare for it are but a few of the tangential questions
presented to postsecondary academics at all institutional levels. Apart from
Bailey’s study very little of the limited research conducted on NCPACE or other
military community college programs contains mention of teaching quality
values, how to recognize it and how to develop it. This research study presumes
that when quality learning is provided and recognized by the students, they will
affirm the program in general as worthwhile, pursue it, and advocate it to others
as they persist towards academic success.
Harvard University’s President Emeritus Derek Bok, in a 1992 address to the
American Association on Higher Education, stated “we are now being criticized
as we were not ten, twenty or even thirty years ago.. ..the public has come to
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believe that our institutions... are not making the education of students a top
priority” (Bok, 1992, p. 12). Similar criticisms were broadly expressed in the first
President George Bush’s educational summit called Conference on Goals 2000:
To Improve Educational Standards (The National Education Goals Report, 1995).
Both Bok’s comments and Bush’s initiatives were stimulated by challenges posed
to higher education from demographic changes in student composition in the face
of national social needs.
From the educational research professionals, much literature has been
presented on the nature and practice of good teaching (Fairweather & Rhoads,
1995; Clark & Naeve, 1992; Guskin, 1994; Bruffee, 1994; Conti, Amabile, &
Poliak, 1995). Gardner’s several volumes on multiple intelligences, Freire’s
manifold writings on the improvement of teaching, and Rendon and Hope’s
research on cultural factors in pedagogy are a few resources presenting
conclusions about this many faceted issue (Gardner, 1993, 1999; Rendon & Hope,
1996; Freire 1970, 1998; O’Banion, 1994).
Ernest Boyer’s 1990 Carnegie Report, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities o f
the Professoriate is often quoted in the literature on good teaching and learning as
an important statement of the related issues in higher education today (Berube &
Nelson, 1995). Boyer’s acknowledgement of great teachers’ ability to stimulate
active learning thus to cause interest in ongoing learning after college is central to
his perspective on what teaching and learning should become at all levels.
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Although Boyer did not explicitly emphasize quality teaching and learning in
terms of the educational relationship between teacher and student as a matter of
power exchange, other educational theorists have so identified it from the
perspectives of multiculturalism. In this way, such topics as are related to
nontraditional academic backgrounds can be inserted into pedagogical challenges
to the NCPACE program’s improvement.
For educators who seek to develop effective pedagogies for nontraditional
students, an assessment of the students’ educational backgrounds and attitudes
toward higher learning is an important preliminary step. Part of this assessment
includes the discovery of how to build new knowledge upon the students’ existent
or experienced knowledge is a critical factor for effective education. Other issues
for educators might include; how can any academic topic be translated into
practical value and interest for such students, how can a particular course of study
(academic discipline) be linked with other disciplines to affirm the importance
and benefits of a broadly educated person. A key objective of this research study
is to highlight the issue of the NCPACE transfer program’s potential to develop
effectively possibilities among nontraditional students for higher learning. The
aim is to discover how this can be done, what students think about the matter, and
how policies and planning can be devised to assure and provide for it.
Another issue about what comprises the practice of good or effective teaching
is presented by the literature on collaborative education. In an article on teaching
and learning for undergraduates, researchers Robert Barr and John Tagg advocate
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a new learning paradigm that expands on collaborative education objectives to
provide its basic theoretical construction. Barr and Tagg emphasize moving the
activity from lecturing and talking to student learning in order to effect quality
instruction (Barr & Tagg, 1995). One main point of this literature theme is its
student centered attention, wherein a sort of partnership is created, and students’
existent (a priori) knowledge is respected and invited, so that learning new
information, or its practical use, is connected with their experience.
To develop the ability to integrate knowledge, to synthesize, and to draw upon
a wide range of resources, nontraditional students have the potential to discover a
self-interest, if not joy, in learning. Ladson-Billings and Tate discuss this
possibility in their article on critical race theory suggesting that nontraditional
students have the opportunity to recognize the value or worth of their experi ential
knowledge and learn to affirm it as an equivalent of traditional knowledge
resources (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).
Nontraditional students, including some racial and minority students who have
had secondary (and earlier) school experience, may have perceived they were
treated differently from nonminority students. As a result they may have a
negative self- perception: of less learning capability, o f lower intellectual
expectations. These perceptions affect the retention and persistence rate according
to Bennett, writing on teacher preparation (Bennett, 1995).
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Bennett’s research identified priorities for teachers who would work
effectively with nontraditional students, especially minorities. These priorities
include:
• understanding students’ predisposition to the acquisition of
knowledge,
• development of inquiry skills that help teachers to create equitable
learning environments for diverse students,
• increase intercultural communication competence,
• develop skills at self-reflection so to interpret classroom responses
and reactions to the educational process (Bennett, 1995).
Cochran and Smith, in a comparable discussion, placed the teaching responsibility
on nonminority faculty to set the stage for effective teaching and learning. Central
to this responsibility they posited that such faculty must acknowledge their own
cultural limitations as they work with nontraditional students (Cochran & Smith,
1995).
In that most of the NCPACE adjunct professors are white males, one might
assume their lack of ready reference to differences and cultural diversity in
curriculum design and delivery. On one level this employment circumstance
might possibly indicate a weakness of the program. At another, the circumstance
would provide a policy challenge to the NCPACE program so that orientation of
faculty members includes diversity and difference training, application of
effective pedagogical models, and appreciation of cultural distinctions in learning
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and interests. Additionally, the development of training in collaborative and
cooperative pedagogies for NCPACE programs, largely populated by groups
underrepresented in land based campuses, might assure inclusion o f cultural
difference considerations in the course work.
Gordon, Bloland, and Smelser each developed these themes in their research to
emphasize many complicated factors at stake in the education of nontraditional
students: ways of knowing, learning and thinking; and the students’ intuitive
response to traditional modes and categories of the knowledge disciplines and the
impact of how this knowledge is intended to be used (Gordon, 1995; Bloland,
1995; Smelser, 1993).
In journal articles from several academic disciplines, there is clear evidence
that experimentation to improve pedagogical design is underway in some
academic institutions. In science education, teachers who utilized collaborative
learning methods are discovering greater student interest and creativity (Guskin,
1994; Caprio, 1993). A cross-disciplinary study of 39 college lecturers came to a
comparable conclusion (Kember & Gow, 1994). A nursing education program in
Sydney, Australia, instituted a curriculum entirely based upon active learning,
collaborative education methods with successful outcomes in student
understanding, and skilled performance (Cust, 1995).
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A substantial body of research evidence supports the demonstrated
effectiveness of teaching and learning methods that incorporate and expect the
collaboration of students, particularly nontraditional ones (Conti, Amabile, and
Pollack, 1995; Pankratius and Young, 1995; Pineau, 1994; Cranton, 1994;
Dittmar, Fischetti, & Wells-Kyle, 1994; Cushman, 1995; Golub, 1988).
The foregoing review of selected literature on teaching and learning,
particularly related to nontraditional students’ characteristics and potential, is
produced primarily from the perspectives of professional educators and
researchers toward students. In the following section, selected literature that
gives emphasis to the student perspective is reviewed. This section will provide a
context for this study’s particular focus upon Navy students’ perceptions and
evaluations of their NCPACE course work, what is useful about it, how their
perceptions of its quality affects their academic objectives, and ways in which
their learning experience might be improved.
Students' perspectives on learning
The issues related to a student’s role and responsibility in education are many
faceted. These range from the ways and degrees in which students engage in the
learning experience to the value, content, and style of student evaluation of
teachers. Research studies on varieties of educational methodologies reflective of
educational change with regard to the role of students cover peer instruction, and
collaborative and cooperative learning (Bruffee, 1995; Slavin, 1983): self-directed
and transformative instructional development (Cranton, 1994): and active learning
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as well as other emphases. Throughout the description of each of these variations
on the theme of changing educational methodologies, the engagement o f students
in their own learning activities is central. Each assumes that the student
interactive with the teacher in the transfer or creation of knowledge, in specific
disciplines, is a vital element of it. Whether this interactivity is focused on what
the student already knows (a priori) or whether he builds on this to participate
with faculty in laboratory experimentation, the commended pedagogical format of
the curriculum is conditioned by it.
Among nontraditional students, especially minority students from diverse
cultural backgrounds other than Western European linearly ordered mindsets, a
disproportionate number evidently populate the NCPACE courses, based upon the
enrollment of the eight ships observed in this research study. Although their
mindset cannot be assumed based upon their background, one assumption of this
research study is that interactive learning styles are preferred and give evidence of
student outcome improvements. In the Navy organization, although
hierarchically structured and ordered, there is a widespread effort by the
command structure to engage sailor workers in training, learning, and executing
job requirements. In every department or division, each sailor is required to know
how she or he fits into the entire operation, how he or she can take up another’s
responsibility in time of need or emergency. This collaborative dynamic is easily
translatable to the academic classroom in terms of learning objectives and
discovering new knowledge and skills.
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Not unrelated to these teaching and learning developments, the issue o f student
evaluations of faculty and the classroom learning experience emerges as an
important one for research on effective educational change. There are many
subsets to the research on this issue including such matters as the value of
quantitative versus qualitative reviews of faculty performance: the evaluation of
the entire course learning experience, precourse expectations established by the
students so to focus its design, content and pedagogical methodologies: the use of
student evaluations by faculty, administrators, and academic departments for
purposes of peer review: course development, academic tenure, and related
accountability procedures such as institutional accreditation.
McKeachie, in his research on current issues and future directions for
instructional evaluation, pointed out the inadequacies of student achievement tests
as measures of educational effectiveness (McKeachie, 1985, p.l). As a result of
his research, he recommended that future student evaluations should examine
teaching methodologies, how teachers assist the development of students’
problem solving abilities, and their motivation to do so. McKeachie also
highlighted that the impact evaluation processes of this sort will affect entire
institutions based upon the frequency of evaluations and the effects of “evaluating
teachers as opposed to curricula” (McKeachie, 1985, p. 1).
Current research literature into NCPACE provides minimal discussion of the
influence, if any, of student evaluation on its academic offerings, faculty
qualification, or course improvement. Now that the general research literature
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supports the validity and reliability of student evaluations, one of the objectives of
this research study is to identify the present strengths and weaknesses of the
current NCPACE evaluation system and how it might be improved.
Although not specifically dealing with the role and impact of student
evaluations, Chelimsky and Shadish’s research in their book Evaluation fo r the
21st Century: A Handbook points out that the evaluation movement has been
developed as a field largely in the United States over the past 40 years. The
primary purpose of the book is to challenge readers on the role that evaluation
might play throughout global matters and varieties of institutions both to audit and
to improve future operations policies (Chelimsky & Shadish, 1997).
The link between democratic reform and evaluation policies can be transferred
to the movements for student and teacher interactivity in the learning process by
broadening the understanding of how people learn, and what learning should
produce and why.
Gurney reported on studies of student faculty evaluations and concluded that
opinions and research findings differ on two aspects of classroom teachers' work:
the amount students learn and the process of instruction. He pointed out that,
most often, students were primarily interested in expressing their perceptions of
the process of instruction, especially the humanistic facets, but most often these
are not included in the criteria for faculty evaluations. Further, he indicated that
administrators based their review of faculty on student evaluation information that
lacked this student perspective factor (Gurney, 1977).
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Seldin (1993), while not diminishing the importance of student ratings of
instructors, established that student ratings research show that these should never
be the sole basis for rating effectiveness. His advocacy of the beneficial use of
teaching portfolios in the evaluation process delineated the specific areas students
are unqualified to judge, such as the timeliness of course materials or how well
the instructor knows the subject. Seldin set forth specific areas students are
qualified to evaluate, as how much they learned in a course, the degree of the
professor’s skill to communicate at the student level, or ability to stimulate
interest.
In an overview of the general topic of standards, evaluation, assessment, and
accreditation policies in higher education, Braskamp and Braskamp (1997)
summarize it by stating that the call to put student learning first is a central
objective. Labeled as a “paradigm shift,” this objective proposes that the college
site be viewed as “not as a place to provide instruction, but as one which exists to
produce learning” (Braskamp & Braskamp, 1997, p. 1). One of eight challenges
the authors present in their essay refers to the question of quality in student
performance reviews and the impact of its relative definition to different levels of
student competency, both at entry and throughout their educational activity. This
discussion points to the question of access, particularly of underrepresented
minorities and other nontraditional groups in academics. The authors state that
research supports the conclusion that since “socioeconomic status is correlated
with academic achievement, a public policy that emphasizes minimal standards
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for college entrance will disproportionately affect the poor and those from
underrepresented minorities (Braskamp & Braskamp, 1997, p. 1).
Based upon their research, Braskamp and Braskamp concluded that the
educational environment will be improved by recording and studying the
connections among resources, student experiences, and student performance and
learning.
Problem Statement
The underlying assumptions of this research study are severalfold.
First, the NCPACE educational program provides an avenue for academic
degrees to nontraditional students underrepresented in land based campuses. Not
only is this program an important benefit of the Navy, but also it has value for the
improvement of land based academic programs for comparable students.
Educational literature, political campaign speeches, popular news and magazine
articles, community debates, and poll surveys give widespread indication to a
deep and abiding concern with education, its effectiveness, and its impact,
especially among the predominant numbers of minorities who inhabit the
metropolitan centers of the nation.
The U.S. Navy, now comprised of some 37% who are minorities -a
disproportionate number compared to the nation's demographics that are
predominantly White is perceived to offer a means for enlistees to achieve a better
life, economically and educationally speaking. The Navy’s reputation for the
development of skills, training, education, and advancement of minorities in the
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voluntary force is a major incentive for their enlistment. In many ways, these
values are transferred as the Navy provides and supports higher education degree
programs for its active duty staff, a relatively recent military objective now
central to its mission as a well prepared, modem defense force.
A subordinate objective of this study is to locate possible models of effective
educational practices among nontraditional students within the U.S. Navy’s
NCPACE context. Although my primary focus is to identify strengths and
weaknesses of the program as it educates sailor students afloat, patterns of
learning, teaching, and program organization that seem effective among this
unique student body might useful for educational practice elsewhere. Through my
interviews I found enrolled students pleased to have the opportunity to earn
college credits, to leam new things, and to participate in career building activities.
Their support for NCPACE, I found to be highly rated, although many
volunteered suggestions for improvement. Some of the major factors attributed to
the support for NCPACE included
• availability of the program in the work environment
• academic achievement is connected to career advancement
• off-work time is filled with a useful activity
• an interest in learning is satisfied
A Rand Corporation study published in 1988 indicated an important difference
between the military and land based educational contexts as a basis for
understanding how standard-setting lessons might be transferred from the military
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sector to the public education one (Hanser, 1988). The standard military practice
of regularly rotating persons from operational to training positions and back again
is a case in point. In this way, the study claimed, a natural feedback loop is
provided in which the information is passed to assist the training establishment in
knowing its successes and failures. In addition, military standards are ultimately
“linked as closely as possible to real world outcomes (Hanser, 1988, p. 81).”
Hanser concluded that national assessment of educational progress standards
currently appears to be lacking on both counts. The military’s overriding identity
is its defense mission. Every program within the military is expected to serve this
mission. Therefore, NCPACE is buttressed by this objective, by its connection to
the improvement of a service member’s productivity, advancement, and her or his
personal benefit. If this military educational context is effective for the academic
retention and success of nontraditional students, could some of the principles at
play be translated to the civilian sector?
At the Virginia Military Institute, educational outcomes assessment is focused
upon several desired leadership characteristics that cadets are expected to acquire:
• competence in an academic major
• communication and critical thinking skills
• awareness of ethics and values
• interpersonal skills
• knowledge about the maintenance of physical and mental health
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In a report on Kuh pointed out that faculty and staff work together to
design assessment plans that incorporate for students both cognitive and affective
measures. His conclusion was that institutions need the best information about
students’ learning, where it occurs, and what changes are needed to encourage it
(Kuh, 1998).
This theoretical orientation to the education of military students can be found
implicitly in the Navy’s structure. There is close attention paid to each sailor’s
work and off duty time under the chain of command. For each enlisted person, a
supervisor completes a thorough annual fitness report. Evaluation of work skills,
attitudes, and achievements on and off duty are all part of the file used for
advancement consideration. Each sailor who enrolls in NCPACE has his or her
grade report placed in the personnel file. Through the links of work, study, and
career advancement aboard ship, the NCPACE sailor’s progress and development
is a comprehensive process.
Chickering and Gamson, in their theoretical essays on good practice for
undergraduate education, concluded that a holistic view of learning is needed if
assessment programs are to capture accurately what students gain from attending
college. They proposed that collaboration on assessment is essential to determine
whether faculty and staff are engaged effectively in the practices associated with
higher levels of learning (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). This holistic view of
learning applies effectively to NCPACE students who consider themselves
benefited by participation in the totality of their Navy enlistment. Given a holistic
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interpretation, NCPACE learning activities become a central dynamic to organize
their enlistment objectives. Learning skills and application of critical thinking
abilities are invited, Naval and civilian career objectives are enhanced, and
students’ minds are expanded by their NCPACE participation.
Student learning as central to NCPACE
Theoretical discussions to put student learning at the center of the academic
degree objective is a key means to improve the NCPACE program and to increase
students’ sense of its worth, value to themselves, and their advocacy of it to peers.
Although there appears to be considerable research and policy developments to
support the centrality of student learning in pedagogy, only limited consideration
of it appears in community college research literature and practically nothing in
the military literature connected with NCPACE and related programs. How to
identify appropriate and useful means to bring this development into the policy
planning, orientation, and training of those who administer NCPACE is an
important question for the research.
Third, the use of effective and appropriate student evaluation methodologies,
that is, the development of faculty quality control systems (such as peer review,
portfolios, and land based collaboration with adjunct faculty) is a primary means
available to improve the operations and influence of NCPACE. Student
evaluations have received only sparse attention by the NCPACE program and its
current agent, Central Texas College. None of the limited military college
education literature made reference to student evaluations. C.T.C. does require a
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one-page course evaluation, which asks brief questions and provides for replies of
10 or fewer words. None of the extensive models for student evaluations
provided by exemplary' colleges and universities, either numerically based or
otherwise, is reflected in the current evaluation system. Neither are faculty
required to submit course evaluations or invited to consult with the host campus
departments of their discipline. Clearly, the matter of accountability, evaluation,
and initiatives for improvement of the program is one of urgent consideration.
In the preceding discussion o f the related literature, I provided an overview of
some of the primary research to improve learning, teaching, access, retention, and
persistence, especially for underrepresented college students. This discussion of
the research literature, I indicated would serve as a foundational context for the
study in that, research directly connected with NCP ACE and similar military
postsecondary programs is limited. In this way, the intellectual support for policy
proposals in subsequent chapters will have been provided a sound foundation.
I described at some length how the NCPACE program of the U.S. Navy
originated, how it operates, and how it serves the general interests both of the
Navy and the nation. Although this section is largely informational, it is intended
to provide a background context for the nonmilitary reader.
As a result of this review of the literature, and through making connection with
the available information on the U.S. Navy’s NCPACE program, I have set forth
several significant gaps in the research literature that this study is aimed to fill to
some degree.
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First and primarily, there is the matter of what students think, especially
nontraditional or underrepresented groups, about the NCPACE program. Second,
as a result of identifying the students’ perceptions and impression I intend to state
the primary strengths and weaknesses of the NCPACE program and how it might
be improved. Third, in response to the evident concern expressed in much of the
literature on how faculty perform, in terms of quality and appropriate use of new
knowledge in pedagogy, I intend to present research on some attitudes and
pedagogical approaches of a selected group of six NCPACE adjunct faculty
members.
This research study is placed in that body of theory identified as learning
theory, intended to expand the knowledge about NCPACE students’ perceptions,
impressions, and evaluations of their academic experience. Because the focus of
this study gives emphasis to nontraditional or underrepresented groups, especially
minorities who comprise a disproportionate number of the student body, it is my
expectation that certain research results might be of benefit to policy development
in land based colleges.
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Chapter Three: Research Design and Methodology
Introduction
This chapter describes the research design and methodology used to organize
and evaluate data gathered from an investigation of the United States Navy’s
Program for Afloat College Education aboard eight ships between 1998 and 2002.
I conducted this research project at intervals throughout this period to study
eight representations of NCPACE through selected students, faculty and courses.
To evaluate the educational quality of the overall program, I sought to identify
and describe key factors of it among nontraditional students within varied
contexts. Also, I sought the views of experienced faculty participants in three
locations.
According to statistics presented in chapter 2, American minority groups
appear to be a population segment underserved by American higher education.
Causes claimed to account for this diminished presence are many, often
speculative and complex. However, in a multicultural, democratic nation, efforts
to resolve the disparity seem important for the common good.
Through this investigation of one activity of the United States Navy’s higher
education programs, NCPACE, I learned that the Navy’s enrollment of minorities
is proportionately higher than the land based postsecondary institutions. Possibly
this is a rippling effect created by the increased numbers of minorities who join
the all-volunteer force to advance their personal prospects. In addition, I sought to
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learn whether NCPACE might contain effective educational models useful
elsewhere for nontraditional students in American higher education.
In addition to my interviews with selected participants, I utilized three data
gathering instruments: the first, an exploratory questionnaire administered in 1998
aboard the USS Essex, a revised questionnaire applied aboard the IJSS Abraham
Lincoln, in October, 2000; and the same questionnaire aboard the USS
Constellation in June, 2001. I used the revised questionnaire to serve as a
triangulation method to test for truthfulness in the summary of interviews.
Although my literature review located three relatively recent major studies of
NCPACE, I found no research study explored student perceptions about their
experience in the program. Given my general interest in quality education among
nontraditional students, I found this lack to indicate a research vacuum among
evaluative studies of NCPACE. For this study, I decided to obtain data from
participants useful to improve policy and planning for the NCPACE program, the
quality of its teaching and learning, and its operations on ships afloat, particularly
among nontraditional students.
My curiosity about this research project emerged during my initial teaching
contract with the Navy as an adjunct instructor for Central Texas College in 1997.
Central Texas College is the subcontractor that supplies faculty for the NCPACE
program, and governs its 2-year associate of arts or sciences degree curriculum
under accreditation agreements approved by the American Council on Education,
periodically evaluated through the MIVER reports.
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During my first assignment, I found classes nearly half comprised of African
American and Latino American sailors. Through informal questioning o f all my
students in these classes, I noted students’ repeated statements of dedication to
self-improvement, and hope for economic opportunity promised by academic
degree achievement. My initial investigation found that these students enlisted
primarily because of the Navy’s promise of college tuition while on active duty
and thereafter the provision of Montgomery education benefits to complete a
bachelor’s degree or higher.
For this study completed some three years and eight ships’ tours later, I found
all the participants believed NCPACE to be a valued and useful, although modest
sized, college program within American higher education. The NCPACE
constituency valued and used the program as a primary means for higher
education both to improve their life prospects through military enlistment and to
enroll in a degree program otherwise mostly unavailable to them for economic or
other reasons.
The Research Design: An Overview
The first section of this chapter presents the rationale for the qualitative
research method utilized in this investigation. The rationale applies the design’s
strengths and weaknesses to this particular study’s objectives and research
questions.
The second section identifies the methodology I used to select the sites and
subjects for the investigation. I provide each site location’s characteristics, the
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time frame for each investigation, and a description of each ship’s educational
administrative stmcture. I describe the way each ship’s NCPACE course work is
organized and managed.
The third section basically describes how I gathered data to probe the study’s
research questions. These three sections state steps necessary to replicate the
study.
However, a replication of this qualitative study will be conditioned by the fact that
I have been both its principal research instrument and participant observer.
Marshall and Rossman (1995) maintained that qualitative studies resist exact
replication because the real world changes. Nevertheless, careful explication of
procedures used to accumulate and analyze the data may serve to reassure readers
of its internal reliability and trustworthiness.
The fourth section provides a summary discussion about how the data was
collected, treated, and prepared for analysis. The closing section completes this
discussion in order to introduce the fourth chapter.
A qualitative design
After consideration of this research study’s general objectives and the
characteristics of probable data resources, I chose a qualitative method to
investigate, organize, interpret, and analyze the gathered information.
As the primary instrument for the data collection and also observer of complex
phenomena both to record and interpret it, I decided to use qualitative
methodology as the most appropriate vehicle to locate and interpret data about
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this study’s questions. This is consistent with Isaac and Michael’s rationale in
support of qualitative method as an effective means to obtain information about
the emergence of grounded theory from data (Isaac & Michael, 1995, p. 220).
Moreover, in an article by Denzin and Lincoln in the Handbook of Qualitative
Research, “qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in
the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the
world visible (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 3).” For this investigation, based
largely upon a collection and interpretation of perceptual data and opinions about
a program oriented to a broad variety of constituents, the qualitative method
provided avenues less constricted by quantitative measurements.
They [qualitative researchers] turn the world into a series
of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations,
photographs, recordings, and memos to the self. At this level,
qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach
to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things
in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret
phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to them
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 3).
Patton (1987) identifies grounded theory as inductive, pragmatic, and highly
concrete; that it is the evaluator’s task “to generate program theory from holistic
data gathered through naturalistic inquiry for the purpose of helping program staff
and decision makers understand how the program functions, why it functions as it
does, and the ways in which the impacts/consequences/outcomes of the program
flow from program activities (Patton, 1987, p. 40).” Furthermore, he states that
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grounded theory can help decision makers to understand and improve their
programs.
In order both to suggest NCPACE policy improvements and to identify any
theoretical models applicable to higher education in general, through my research
I sought to state how the program operated and how its primary participants
viewed it.
As a first hand participant in the sites selected for the study, I found my
involvement in the setting permitted me to “hear, see, and begin to experience
reality” as nearly as much as the subjects do, thus to learn about their daily life in
the NCPACE program. The qualitative approach, according to Marshall and
Rossman (Marshall & Rossman, 1995) provides for participation in the setting,
direct observation, in-depth interviewing and document review. The ideal site in
this approach is where entry is possible, and a high probability exists, for the
presence of a “rich mix of processes, people, programs, interactions, and
structures of interest,” according to Marshall & Rossman (1995, p. 51). However,
as Patton pointed out, the participant observer cannot entirely enter the full
experience of the student participants because he is not one of them either as a
student, or as some subjects interviewed and observed, a minority. Patton’s main
point is that the “ideal is to negotiate and adopt that degree of participation which
will yield the most meaningful data given the characteristics of the participants,
the nature of the questions to be studied, and the sociopolitical character of the
setting” (Patton, 1987, p. 76).
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Denzin and Lincoln amplified this view as they clarified the breadth of
approaches qualitative research offers: “The studied uses and collection o f a
variety of empirical material case study; personal experience; introspection; life
story; interview; artifacts; cultural texts and productions; observational, historical,
interactional, and visual texts -that describe routine and problematic moments and
meanings in individuals’ lives” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 3).
Denzin and Lincoln’s metaphor of the bricoleur or maker of quilts seemed
particularly apt to justify' the qualitative method for research into the NCPACE
program aboard a variety of ships’ contexts. “The quilter stitches, edits and puts
slices of reality together. This process creates and brings psychological and
emotional unity to an interpretive experience” (2000, p. 4).
In my interviews of students, faculty, and officers in charge, triangulated by
reference to student questionnaires, I sought to learn how participants
characterized their perceptions of the program’s teaching and learning quality,
and how the program served nontraditional students’ participation, retention, and
academic success. Also, I sought ways in which these characterizations might
project effective models to apply elsewhere in higher education, particularly with
nontraditional students. I found that qualitative methods provided for a holistic
approach necessary to comprehend the interwoven complexity and breadth of the
program and its impact upon students within the context of their daily lives and
work on a Navy ship. The importance of this holistic approach is supported by the
examples and theories of Van Maanen in his ethnographic studies book Tales o f
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the Field: On Writing Ethnography. “Fieldwork,” wrote Van Maanen, “usually
means living with and living like those who are studied. In its broadest, most
conventional sense, fieldwork demands the full time involvement of a researcher
over a lengthy period of time and consists mostly of ongoing interaction with the
human targets of study on their home ground” (Van Maanen, 1988, p. 2).
Although some researchers in the social sciences (e.g., anthropology,
psychology, sociology, education) and humanities (philosophy, history, theology,
fine arts) use the terms holistic, ethnographic, phenomenology, and gestalt
psychology in somewhat distinct ways, each uses the identifications to draw upon
specific methodologies to obtain a comprehensive understanding of a research
subject.
All four terms represent a holistic approach that assumes this theory correct,
namely that a whole cannot be analyzed without residue into the sum of its parts.
According to the Webster’s New World Dictionary ethnography is the branch of
anthropology that deals “with the comparative cultures of various peoples, their
distribution, characteristics, folkways” (Webster's, 1984, p. 481). Phenomenology
is the branch of a science that classifies and describes its phenomena without any
attempt at metaphysical explanations (1984, p. 1068). Gestalt psychology
“affirms that all experience consists of gestalten, and that the response of an
organism to a situation is a complete and unanalyzable whole rather than a sum of
the responses to specific elements in the situation” (1984, p. 587).
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In my investigation, I drew upon some o f these notions in ethnographic field
research to characterize the cultural context of college student sailors aboard a
deployed Navy ship during a six- to eight-week tour. The study aimed to record
representative subjects' perceptions and explanations of their past and present
academic experience, their observations of the program’s strengths and
weaknesses, and their recommendations for improvements. Implicit in this
process I understood that the individuals’ formulation or articulation of their
perceptions to be affected by many factors. These factors could be identified as
objective or subjective from a rationalist’s point of view or as a holistic,
comprehensive and psychological response or reaction within a contextual
environment.
Validation and the "truthfulness and credibility o f the study ”
Lincoln and Guba in an article on “Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions
and Emerging Confluences” dealt with the complex issue of objectivity and
subjectivity based upon their view that “objectivity is a chimera: a mythological
creature that never existed save in the imaginations of those who believe that
knowing can be separated from the knower” (Lincoln & Guba, 2000, p. 181).
To deal with the matter of subjectivity and bias in research and its
interpretation, they presented five “authenticity criteria” to be “hallmarks of
authentic, trustworthy, rigorous, or ‘valid’ constructivist or phenomenological
inquiry.” (2000, p. 180). The five criteria are: fairness, ontological authenticity,
educative authenticity, catalytic authenticity, and tactical authenticity. Fairness
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refers to the inclusion of all views in the study, educative and ontological
authenticity refers to the “raised level of awareness” of the environmental context
of the study, its implications and meaning; and catalytic and tactical authenticity
refers to the potential prompting of the study participants, including the inquirer
to take political or social action motivated by the investigations discoveries and
raised concerns.
As research standards or approaches to an investigation that comprehends the
interactivity of knower and knowees, the five criteria guide the validation process
to determine the truthfulness of an interpretation in support of the conclusions of
this NCPACE study. The factors involved in this NCPACE interpretation
included consideration of the inquirer’s bias and interpretation of inquiry data, the
balanced presentation of all stakeholder views, perspectives, claims, concerns,
and voices apparent in the text, and the application of moral critique and the
stimulus to social action by the research participants including the researcher.
Because this study utilized interviews and questionnaires from eight different
settings of the site choice over a period of 3 years, the opportunity to determining
consistency and integrity and truthfulness was maximized. Together with my
direct observation of NCPACE students upon their ships afloat as an active
participant and observer, this prolonged engagement provided a sufficient period
to obtain an understanding and overview of the cultural context. Factors of its
repetitive complexities emerged consistently over and again. This prolonged
engagement also served to minimize the intrusion of misinformation or distortion
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among the gathered data- a potential weakness of this form of research study.
Coupled with the use of triangulation procedures, I wanted to minimize
tendencies toward accepting internal weaknesses that often become criticisms of
qualitative research methods.
Triangulation, according to Patton (Patton, 1987 which included his reliance
upon the findings of Denzin, 1978), respects the notion that no single method
“ever adequately solves the problem of rival causal factors.. .multiple methods
should be used in every investigation” (Patton, 1987, p. 61). With respect for this
principle, I gathered data to answer research questions through the methodologies
of personal observation, individual interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires. I
found that the use of varied data gathering procedures produced consistent or
congruent information. This strengthened the internal validity and truthfulness
that produced the study’s results.
In addition, 1 applied member checks triangulation, (a term used by Patton and
Denzin to identify participants who review the authenticity of data and
conclusions) throughout the data-gathering period. This included three NCPACE
faculty members, long experienced in the Navy program, who evaluated the
student subjects’ primary perceptions and observations about NCPACE.
In summary, I sought to assure truthfulness and integrity, the principal marks
of internal validity, through application of varied data gathering methods, periodic
data review (triangulation), and my own periodic review of the data developed
during the three year period upon eight site locations.
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As part of the ongoing discussion among research theorists, the proposition of
an alternative form of validation known as crystalline presents an intriguing
option to consider in this study’s approach and results. Noted in Denzin and
Lincoln, the metaphor o f a crystal proposed by Laurel Richardson highlights the
prismatic quality of a multidimensional approach to a qualitative study and the
interpretation of its results, namely, “what we see depends upon our angle of
repose” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 181).
Richardson states that “crystallization provides us with a deepened, complex,
thoroughly partial understanding of the topic” (2000, p. 181). As Denzin and
Lincoln interpret this research metaphor, “the properties of the crystal-as-
metaphor help writers and readers alike see the interweaving of processes in the
research: discovery, seeing, telling, storying, representation” (2000, p. 181).
Reliability
The weakest aspect of the study is its reliability, this conclusion is based upon
the unlikely probability that the study could be replicated readily and exactly by
others following the same steps utilized in this investigation. In this study, the
term reliability refers to its credibility, applicability, dependability, and
confirmability, as it were, when evaluated and, perhaps, utilized, by policy and
procedures staff who might consider change to the program under study. To
propose policy and planning changes to NCPACE, for example, the proponents
would establish criteria, evidence, and demonstration of the need for change. The
evidentiary material, based upon the gathered data and its interpretation, would be
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strengthened were other, independent researchers able to locate the same
conclusions following a comparable investigation using similar research methods
as the original investigator.
Reliability is a weakness of a qualitative study of this type in that objective
factors of internal validity and external validity normally substantiated by
quantitative methodologies are not easily translated to this case. As the primary
research instrument and, as an actively engaged NCPACE instructor at the same
time, I held a privileged position and unique vantage point both to build trust and
to conduct the investigation. Other researchers might not have available
comparable access and, therefore, the question of internal reliability or credibility
standards is open to an internal weakness challenge. The issue in qualitative
research, at this stage, would be described more appropriately as consistent
truthfulness. Given that I obtained the major data from individual subjects, in
focus group interviews situated in eight different sites at different time periods,
the recurrence of common themes promotes the possibility of truthfulness and
reliability should an effort at replication be undertaken.
Research Methodology
This section presents a general description o f the program, its composition and
objectives, the site locations and the participants. It describes and further explains
the sample design and methods used in this investigation. The description
includes a statement about the site selection criteria, how volunteer sampling
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procedures were defined, how measures to minimize bias were taken, how the
time frame was set, and how the organization of the study was determined.
The NCPACE program; its composition and objectives
The US Navy’s Program for Afloat College Education is a community college
level benefit offered to enlisted service members while they are engaged in a
deployment at sea. As part o f the general education benefits provided tuition free
to all sailors by the Navy College division of the service, NCPACE offers general
education college courses prerequisite to earn the Associate of Arts or Sciences
degree. College instructors are placed aboard ships, and provided classrooms for
a six- to eight-week period as part of each ship’s educational offerings. In the
year 2000, NCPACE provided some 44,000 courses in which 20,000 enlisted
sailors enrolled at sea.
Site selection and locations
The sites selected for this investigation were U.S. Navy ships underway on
deployments throughout various geographical locations under different
circumstances. Four sites were located in what the United States Defense
Department identified as imminent danger zones in and around the Arabian Sea.
The four other sites for this study were located in the South Pacific. Among the
eight ships sites, five were composed of several thousand crewmembers, while
three numbered less than five hundred. On each ship the NCPACE registration
numbered about 10% of the crewmembers. I conducted this research project
during different terms between 1998 and 2002.
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Key to the selection of the sites for this investigation, I decided to follow the
research methodology associated with being a participant observer.
As Patton points out, the purpose of participant observation is to describe the
program thoroughly and carefully so that the users of the study can enter the
observed situation (Patton, 1987). Additionally the observer, according to Patton,
can directly experience the program as a participant unto himself, thereby to make
the most of an inductive, discovery oriented approach. In this way, she or he can
have the opportunity to become immersed in the program, to identify its nuances,
and to learn things that participants may be unwilling to discuss in an interview
(1987, p. 73).
As Patton pointed out, participant observation provides an opportunity for the
observer to share as intimately as possible in the life and activities of the people in
the program. In this way, the observer can develop an insider’s view of what is
happening as he both sees and feels it as a group participant (1987, p. 75).
Table 3.1: List of Research Site Locations and NCPACE Participants
Year Ship
Site locations
Crew population (est.) NCPACE participants fest.)
1998 USS Essex 3500 300
1998 USS Oldendorf 350 42
1999 USS Port Royal 400 45
1999 USS Denver 1500 140
2000 USS John Stennis 3500 20 (in port)
2001 USS A.Lincoln 5500 600
2001 USS Constellation 5500 600
2002 USS Bridge 500 60
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To have access to Navy ships for this research into NCPACE, I accepted an
offer to teach speech communication aboard the USS Essex (LHD2) a large,
Marine Corps transport ship underway in the Pacific in 1998. Later in the same
year, I continued the research, while teaching, aboard the USS Oldendorf a
destroyer engaged in a summer intensive war games maneuvers called RIMPAC
in the South Pacific ocean. Naval forces from nine nations participated in this
training activity. During the late summer of 1999,1 continued the research and
teaching project aboard the USS Port Royal, a relatively modem destroyer
normally ported in Honolulu, Hawaii, on its RIMPAC activity. For the fourth
location I conducted research and teaching aboard the USS Denver a large cruiser
and Marine Corps support ship, then in the midst of a 6-month WESTPAC
deployment. I joined the USS Denver for a 2-month period during its sojourn in
the Arabian Sea. In the spring o f 2000,1 interviewed four sailors while teaching
aboard the USS John Stennis then in port at Coronado, California. During the late
fall, 2000,1 conducted my sixth research and teaching location on the USS
Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear aircraft carrier also on a 6-month WESTPAC
deployment. The sixth, seventh (the USS Constellation, an aircraft carrier), and
eighth (the USS Bridge, a supply ship) were afloat site locations where I
conducted research aboard ships underway in battle conditions in the Arabian Sea.
This investigation’s site selection choices were made following my invitation
to teach college level courses aboard U.S. Navy ships afloat. I was assigned to
each of the eight research sites by Kenneth Woodward, Dean of the Navy Pacific
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Campus of Central Texas College. The College’s NCPACE administrative office
is located in San Diego. The assignments were randomly selected after I notified
the dean of my periodic availability to teach NCPACE courses for 6- to 8-week
periods. I requested and received the dean’s permission to conduct this research
project about NCPACE at the same time I offered the CTC courses. Upon each
ship’s site location, 1 notified and received the permission of the Educational
Service Officer to conduct interviews, and focus groups and to distribute three
questionnaires. On several occasions, I interviewed the dean about various
specifics of the NCPACE program; its contracts and operations.
I was officially certified in 1998 by Central Texas College as an adjunct
instructor in Speech Communications for the U.S. Navy’s NCPACE. The U.S.
Navy conducted a security clearance review prior to issuance of a United States
Defense Department Identification Card. The card certified that my GS12 civilian
status ranked as equivalent to the military position of Lieutenant Commander.
This rank established status, type of accommodations and Officers’ Wardroom
admittance for each deployment assignment.
When Navy ships determined which NCPACE courses to offer on a cruise, the
ship’s Educational Service Officer contracted directly with Central Texas College
through one of the international branch offices associated with the various
geographical subdivisions o f deployed Navy duty ships. All o f the ships on which
I taught were associated with the Central Texas College’s Western Pacific Office,
either through its San Diego branch or its Bremerton, Washington branch.
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Sample design
Denzin and Lincoln note that the qualitative research design situates the
investigator in the world of experience. They discuss the commitment o f all
qualitative researchers: “the commitment, that is, to study human experience from
the ground up, from the point of interacting individuals who, together and alone,
make and live histories that have been handed down to them from the ghosts of
the past (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 1063). How the researcher prepares the
design of the study, determines questions, and interprets responses is directly
affected by his or her resolve to reflect experience in truthful ways.
I initiated this study with the assumption that NCPACE provided an important
contribution to higher education, particularly among a unique population of
sailors. At the outset, I conducted a series of interviews with students aboard ships
to learn more about the program, why they participated in it, what might be its
strengths and weaknesses, and how might it be improved. Following my first two
series of site interviews I began to clarify, to understand, and to identify primary
themes that seemed to recur or run through the majority of the interviews. By the
time of the third site’s data- gathering process, I had established focused questions
aimed to seek truthfulness and reliability from respondents about theoretical
answers to these questions.
The sample design of the research then began to take shape, a design I applied
to the five subsequent site locations. The design included interviews with
representative participants who ranged from the commanding officer to the
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administrators, faculty, and students. Comparable questions were asked of each
category, and similar replies, theories, and perceptions continued to recur, thus
substantiating a measure of truthfulness and reliability to the issues raised for
praxis and change in NCPACE. Included in the design, I sought to describe the
contexts of each site both in terms of commonalities and differences that affected
the operations, administration, and value judgments or perceptions of the
participants. By exercise of a consistent plan or design of data gathering, I
intended to develop a theoretical basis upon which to recommend policy and
planning changes for NCPACE. In the following paragraphs, I proceed to
describe first the contexts of the sites investigated as part of the description of
circumstances in which the subsequent data gathering of perceptions, opinions,
experiences, and views would be placed in a responsive situation. Description of
the context and contextual circumstances is an effort to identify environmental
causes that affect individual and group interpretations of their experience and
understanding.
B rief contextual descriptions o f the data gathering sites
During seven of the eight site investigations, I composed journals to describe
weekly events, context, unanticipated events, and my general observations of the
ships’ activities.
On the USS Essex I taught two speech courses with a total enrollment of 50
students. The Essex had a total population of approximately 3,500 sailors,
marines, and air support staff. As an example of the contextual conditions for the
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initial stages of this NCPACE research, I present the following description.
During the period I was aboard the Essex, the ship participated in a variety of
intensive maneuvers and training in which Marine Corps landing missions,
activated aircraft support, and the ship’s company operated on an eight-hours-on,
eight-hours-off, round-the-clock schedule. This schedule placed all the sailor
students in a circumstance of considerable stress in their efforts to balance work,
sleep, studies, and eating time throughout the 2-month period. At one point the
chief administrative officer o f the ship’s company and the chief administrative
officer of the Marines engaged in an organizational conference to solve the
problem of infrequent NCPACE classroom availability after continuous
preemption by Marine Corps staff. This meeting issued forth a compromise.
Because the NCPACE students had created the classroom for their use in a space
between the bulkhead of the ship and its outer shell and furnished it with
discarded theater seats and a civilian blackboard, they expressed sovereignty over
it. Eventually this perspective was ignored by the Marine contingent. Halfway
through the term, the NCPACE courses were moved to the fo’c’sle located
between the giant anchors. An undercurrent of minimal anger among the sailors
resulted. Ropes were tied between the two anchors to hang the class blackboard,
moved from the classroom.
During my USS Essex assignment, I taught two courses in three sessions,
Interpersonal Communications and Oral Communications. After an initial period
of acquaintance and trust building, I invited the 41 students to participate in this
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study by means of brief interviews on their educational backgrounds and
objectives. I selected this number from among my own students in three
communications courses. I sought to discover possible parameters for this
research project and to learn commonalities of issues and perceptions. Over a
period of 6 weeks, I interviewed 28 students of the 41 for approximately 15
minutes each. Additionally, I invited all interested USS Essex NCPACE students
to complete an exploratory questionnaire that would be used as a rough draft for a
future questionnaire to be used on other ships. In addition, I utilized this
exploratory instrument to probe issues of truthfulness and congruence about
NCPACE and its operations, purpose, and results. Thirty-one students completed
the exploratory questionnaire. In a subsequent meeting with Professor Linda
Hagedom to discuss the exploratory questionnaire, I asked for her professional
advice on the questionnaire design and question phraseology. In subsequent
months I revised and prepared a questionnaire for use aboard the USS Abraham
Lincoln and the USS Constellation. I did not review it with Professor Hagedom
for additional advice and improvements. My primary purpose for this
questionnaire was its possible use as a triangulation instrument to evaluate the
individual and focus groups interviews for truthfulness and consistency. Limited
data from this questionnaire was placed in the data collection for future use in the
research study.
While aboard the USS Oldendorf I taught two speech courses and one
management course with a total of 42 students. The USS Oldendorf carried a
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combined population of approximately 350 officers and enlisted men. The USS
Oldendorf engaged in the RIMPAC intensive war games maneuvers in which the
ship's company operated under a highly demanding schedule. Daily bombardment
activities, missile deployment, and backup duties for larger ships during simulated
battle conditions created a unique set of conditions for the instruction periods.
Students’ academic activities became subordinated to emergencies and strategic
mission assignments. Extra duty calls affected all students. As a result, there was
little of the continuity that is normally operative in a land based classroom.
Flexible lesson plans, attendance adjustments, and repeated sessions were
required to complete the course objectives. Some students, enduring work stress
and studies withdrew from the courses. The predominant number of withdrawals
came from groups who were less academically experienced and from students
new to college courses.
After my own experience aboard ships increased, and under comparable
conditions in the course of the research and teaching projects, I offered
alternatives to withdrawal to students in these categories. These alternatives
included extra sessions, individual counseling, and a buddy plan which matched
each student with a more experienced student or other mentor.
As seemed to be true on both small destroyers I investigated, the USS
Oldendorf captain and crew maintained an ongoing interest in the productivity of
the students. Officers often inquired about the course project, the behavior of
students and their academic activities. On the USS Oldendorf I interviewed
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sixteen NCPACE participants, the commanding officer, the educational service
officer, and two Navy chiefs who were the direct “bosses” of some of my
interviewees.
On the USS Port Royal, I taught a total of 48 students in three speech courses.
For the research project, I selected 12 students from four categories: those with
previous college experience, those with past NCPACE experience, those who
were first time NCPACE students, and those who were general ethnic or minority
identified students. I sought to learn their perspectives on NCPACE and their
perceptions of their own experiences in the program. I largely followed this
pattern of interview selection on the USS Port Royal, the USS Denver and the
USS Abraham Lincoln. On the USS Constellation, I primarily interviewed
students from nontraditional backgrounds once I had decided that most sailor
students in NCPACE qualified for the designation. Aboard the latter two ships, I
broadened the categories to include senior enlisted chiefs selected on the basis of
their years in the Navy and their experience in NCPACE studies. On all ships, I
selected my interviewees mostly from among my own course students. I did
occasionally hold informal discussions about college courses with two or three
nonstudents on all ships during each deployment of this study.
On board the USS Port Royal I found that the ship’s company consisted of
about 400 officers, and enlisted men and women. It was ported in Honolulu.
Because it was undergoing minor repairs, the ship took brief trips to sea lasting a
week or two at a time. The USS Port Royal cruise was not operated under highly
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stressful circumstances. Students had sufficient time for course work, daily duties,
and normal relaxation periods. My sole difficulty with this site location was the
regular weekend liberty for most o f the ship’s company. This meant that quite
often students would utilize the liberty time for activities other than course work.
On the USS Port Royal, I interviewed 12 NCPACE participants and conducted
two small focus groups. I interviewed the educational service officer, the
executive officer, two other officers and the ship’s chaplain, a Roman Catholic
priest.
On the USS Denver, I taught three speech courses with a total of 58 students. I
joined the USS Denver in Bahrain at the midpoint in its 6-month deployment
from San Diego to Australia to the Persian Gulf and back to San Diego. The six-
month deployment of the USS Denver permitted port calls for the sailors to visit
different countries. At the time of the cruise of the USS Denver, prior to the
bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen and the September 11, 2001, events in New
York City, the ship’s company of about 1,500 officers and enlisted personnel, in
addition to a thousand marines operated under normal deployment conditions
without major security threats. There were several port stops and tours available
for the ship’s company. When liberty calls sounded on the ship, most eligible
students took advantage of them. Course meetings and course work had to be
adjusted as a result. On the USS Denver, I conducted 10 NCPACE participant
interviews, 3 focus groups, an interview with the educational service officer, and
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informal interviews with three officers not directly associated with the NCPACE
program.
I joined the USS Abraham Lincoln in October, 2000, at sea in the Persian Gulf.
I was flown by helicopter to the ship after a flight from the United States to
Bahrain. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear aircraft carrier, carried a ship’s
company of about 5,500 officers, enlisted men and women, and a Marine Corps
contingent. Some Marines were permitted to enroll in the NCPACE courses. A
few days before my arrival, the president had ordered all Middle East-located
Navy ships, including the USS Abraham Lincoln, out to sea due to the Navy’s
highest alert condition as a result o f regional conflicts. This meant that the ship’s
company would not be permitted any port calls. Without this diversionary
interest, the ESO informed me that course enrollment increased. There were five
NCPACE faculty members aboard to teach courses. I taught three speech courses
and two academic skills classes (in Writing and English), with a total o f 78
students. I interviewed four NCPACE faculty members, the educational service
officer, a Navy chief in charge of arranging NCPACE courses, 21 NCPACE
participants, and the ship’s chief administrative officer, under whom NCPACE
was conducted. In addition, I conducted a survey questionnaire among 46
volunteer NCPACE students with a resultant 42 respondents. I conducted one
classroom observation among 16 diverse students.
On the USS Constellation, I interviewed the educational services officer, nine
NCPACE students, two instructors, and the chaplain, and conducted two focus
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groups. I distributed 40 questionnaires aboard the USS Constellation with a
response rate of 35. On the USS Stennis in port, I interviewed the educational
services officer and two NCPACE students. On the USS Bridge, I interviewed the
captain, the executive officer, nine NCPACE students, and conducted one focus
group.
Each ship researched had an educational service officer (ESO) whose job it
was to arrange for the NCPACE courses, contract with Central Texas College for
instructors and conduct the preregistration. On the USS Essex, an ensign who had
come up through the enlisted ranks held this billet. In Navy parlance he was
called a mustang. On the USS Oldendorf the ESO was a second lieutenant, also a
mustang. On the USS Port Royal, the ESO was an enlisted chief petty officer. On
the USS Denver, the ship’s chaplain served as the ESO. On the USS Abraham
Lincoln, the ESO was an ensign who functioned under the direct oversight of the
ship’s chief administrative officer. On the USS Constellation, the ESO was a
limited duty officer, enlisted but ranked higher for this specific assignment. On
the USS Bridge, the ESO was a junior officer from the supply department. The
USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Constellation conducted NCPACE courses
year round. Both ships normally enrolled a student population each term of six
hundred. On the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Constellation I worked in a
collegial association with five other NCPACE instructors. On the USS Denver
one other instructor also taught courses. On the other ships’ site locations I was
the only instructor aboard teaching and conducting research.
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Except for the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Constellation, each of the
other ships’ ESOs had surveyed NCPACE interested crewmembers to learn which
courses would be preferred the subsequent term. Next, the ESOs would arrange a
course contract with Central Texas College. The college then located instructors
for the positions. On the much larger USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS
Constellation, the ESO and the chief administrative officer planned the
curriculum so that most, if not all, of the general studies courses for the A. A.
degree at Central Texas College could be provided on board.
Specific methodology> o f the data gathering and recording process
For the brief, normally fifteen-minute interviews with 149 participants, I
recorded by hand brief notes or summaries of responses both during and
following each conversation. I conducted extensive formal interviews with
persons whom I selected based upon the individual’s diversity, capacity for
reflection, and experience or special position vis-a-vis NCPACE. I tape-recorded
them for subsequent evaluation and transcription. In addition, I wrote brief notes
in the course of the interviews and following each session. The extensive
interviews normally lasted an hour. The focus groups’ interview time ranged from
a half hour to a full hour.
On each ship site location, except on the USS John Stennis (which was then in
port), I remained aboard for periods of six to eight weeks. On these seven ships, I
maintained a journal, usually with a daily entry, to record general events, ongoing
activities of the ship, my research work, and other conversations or encounters
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that happened. This contextual description I utilized as background for the
investigation of the particular work/study conflict problem noted by most students
in the NCPACE program.
Upon the conclusion of each tour, I placed my notes, recordings, and journal in
an individual file for subsequent use. Later, when reviewing all the materials and
data collected, 1 sought to identify any constant themes that emerged from all or
most of the site locations.
For each set of brief interviews, I notified the class members at the start that I
had a research interest in NCPACE and would, if they were willing, interview
them or have conversations from time to time about the program. I always found
an eagerness and willingness to do so among the students. For the formal,
extensive interviews that I tape- recorded, including the focus groups, I presented
my disclosure statement for the participants’ review and agreement. I followed
this same process with each of the educational services officers. My interviews
with other officers, including the commanding officers and executive officers,
were conducted in an informal way, usually for brief background information. To
set up formal interviews and obtain permission to do so, given the project, would
have required official sanction from upper levels of the Department of the Navy
and, possibly, the Department o f Defense. I decided to keep my research focus on
student perception and observations with background and overview data coming
from others tangentially associated with the students.
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To each of the four faculty members formally interviewed, I explained my
research project, and requested and obtained their permission to proceed with an
interview and subsequent recording, transcription and quotation. I oriented all of
the faculty interviews towards triangulation goals to test for truthfulness and
validity based upon constant themes from the student interviews. My primary
interest in the brief interviews was to learn general opinions and perceptions; to
seek possible candidates for the formal, extensive, and recorded interviews; and to
gain a broad understanding of the NCPACE operations aboard each site location.
For the extensive interviews with students, I used a preset list of questions based
upon my primary research questions and interests.
From the total number of interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires’ data, I
decided to select representative pairs of students, three faculty members, and two
educational services officers. In addition, I used selected results from the two
questionnaires to test for truthfulness in the representative interviews responses.
Otherwise I did not use the questionnaires’ data. Lastly, 1 present an abbreviated
classroom observation to complement the investigation’s comprehensiveness.
Although the eight ships’ missions and populations varied, the NCPACE
program operated in generally consistent administrative ways under U.S. Navy
College manuals. However, not mentioned in the manuals but of significant
importance, on every ship, the NCPACE core group of sailor students intent to
obtain a college degree operated to assure the program’s continuity and success.
Even among less interested educational services officers, I found this de facto
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lobby group for college courses effectively insured course offerings and to recruit
new students for the minimum required number of ten. Each ship investigated had
a NCPACE operation in place for many years that prevailed in spite of a
continuous turnover of the entire personnel.
In summary, I found NCPACE to be an integral part of each ship's mission
and program, although its support from the chains of command varied, dependent
upon the enthusiasm and interest level of the commanding officer and executive
staff.
Sampling
Patton describes the power of purposeful sampling as the selection of
information-rich cases for study in depth. His position is that one can learn a
great deal by focusing in- depth on understanding the needs, interests, and
incentives of a small number of selected “poor families” if the purpose, for
example, is to increase the effectiveness of a program reaching lower
socioeconomic groups. Among Patton’s 10 sampling typologies, I found his
second (“maximum variation”), third (“homogeneous”) and fourth (“typical”)
typologies most applicable to this investigation (Patton, 1987, p. 52).
The maximum variation sampling strategy aims at “cutting across a great deal
of participant or program variation” by “applying the following logic: any
common patterns that emerge from great variation are of particular interest and
value in capturing the core experiences and central, shared aspects or impacts o f a
program” (1987, p. 52).
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Among the site locations, significant variations in contexts appeared in the
ships' locations, mission operations, populations, and NCPACE history (numbers
of courses provided, and some differences in NCPACE administrative quality).
Nevertheless, use of this methodology provided an effective way to identify
common themes among the contextual variations.
Also, the use of Patton’s third sampling typology, the “homogeneous” has
value for a focused investigation into the student subgroups. Each subgroup
interviewed reflected student diversity, although they were equivalent in age and
socioeconomic background. This typology held particular value to construct a
strategy for focus groups’ discussions.
The use of the fourth sampling typology, “typical”, afforded a means to
describe a prototypical ship’s NCPACE program for readers unfamiliar with an
academic program on a military ship afloat. Use of this typology illustrated the
academic context, considerations, and complications of a NCPACE course
education conducted during the midst of a military mission.
For each site location I selected student participants from outwardly apparent
diverse backgrounds, geographic origin (urban, rural), gender, ethnic, or minority
differences. I found some students to interview who had dropped out of
university or college for various reasons. I selected interview subjects who had
enlisted in the Navy primarily to obtain college education benefits. During the
course of my interviews, I found that many originated from families with little or
no background in higher education. Because I wanted to investigate and test my
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assumption that diverse interviewees represented different views and perceptions,
I determined initially a set of categories to include
• Ethnic or minority
• Socio-economic status
• Limited or no family college background
• Age
• Gender
• College benefits as major enlistment motivation
• Lengths of NCPACE enrollment
Lower socioeconomic status (LES) was an additional criterion for all
interviewee selections. Most interviewees originated from families without any
history of higher education experience.
Categories of Interviews
Educational Service Officers
As a matter of course on each ship, I interviewed the educational service
officer. Although the ESOs on the USS Essex and the USS Port Royal sought this
billet assignment, none of the others had done so or had received special training
for its administration. For each ESO, the work was a collateral duty assigned in
addition to their regular responsibilities on the ship. ESOs understood their
primary responsibility to arrange courses, administer registrations, arrange the
Central Texas College instructors’ contract, locate classroom space, and sign off
on final papers at course conclusion. The USS Essex ESO had a high
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commitment to the NCPACE program, largely because he had been a full
participant in it, achieved his A.A. degree through it, and thereafter secured a
B.A. and an M.B.A from land based universities. The achievement of these
degrees while in Navy service permitted him to advance from enlisted status to
that of an officer. As an African American, he expressed deep commitment to
NCPACE for minority advancement and demonstrated this through ongoing
recruitment of students and through giving reassurance to those uncertain about
their capacity to succeed in higher education.
Navy Chiefs
On several ships, I interviewed Navy chiefs who were the “direct bosses” of
NCPACE students. Each enlisted sailor is assigned duty as part of a department.
Each chief manages a work department. Each enlisted sailor reports to his or her
chief. On four research sites where I held student interviews, the chiefs were
required to authorize a sailor student’s enrollment in a NCPACE course. The
chief agreed to arrange the student’s work schedule to permit class attendance. I
interviewed chiefs to learn how they viewed NCPACE, its impact upon their work
place operations, and upon other personnel, and if they saw any indication of
improved work records among NCPACE students as a result of their studies.
Faculty
On the USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the two largest NCPACE programs of
the eight site locations I investigated, some six hundred students were enrolled in
it each term, year round.
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Five faculty members were present, including myself. I chose to interview three
who had been long time NCPACE instructors to ascertain their general
impressions of students, their views of NCPACE compared to their present or
previous land based campuses, and their comments about some o f my theories
about nontraditional student participation.
A recently retired faculty member from the North Carolina State University
system, he holds an Ed.D.degree. He teaches management and mathematics. He
has taught NCPACE courses periodically over four years on 14 ships. Upon his a
retirement as a Navy chief, he earned his doctorate.
A tenured professor at a Florida University, the second NCPACE instructor 1
interviewed holds a Ph.D. in History. For the Navy he has taught History and
Academic Skills in Writing and English for ten years during summers or
sabbatical breaks. He served in the United States Navy during the Viet Nam War
era.
The third NCPACE instructor interviewed recently retired as a faculty member
of a branch in the California State University. He teaches Anthropology and
Archeology in the NCPACE program. He is a retired Marine Corps Officer who
is a graduate of Annapolis.
Academic Dean o f NCPACE
On several occasions, during the past 2 years I engaged in both formal and
informal interview conversations with an associate dean of Central Texas College,
a two-year public community college. He has served in this capacity for 14 years.
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He oversees all the Central Texas College Western Pacific Operations with
branch offices in San Diego, Bremerton, Honolulu, and Japan. Each of these
locations marks a U.S. Navy operations center. Each location has a branch of the
Navy College. The Navy College coordinates all the higher education activities
for both enlisted and officers leading to associates, baccalaureate and advanced
degrees. Central Texas College is the single contractor that the Navy uses to
provide faculty and courses aboard ships afloat. Central Texas College, together
with other colleges and universities, also offer distance-learning programs for
many ships.
Faculty members are recruited, evaluated, and licensed under the auspices of
Central Texas College and its accreditation status. Each NCPACE faculty
member is an adjunct instructor, although the U.S. Navy prefers to use the term
professor once the instructor is aboard ship. Credentials are received and
approved at the administrative office of Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas.
The CTC branch office maintains contact with each of the authorized adjunct
instructors assigned to its jurisdiction. When an assignment opens up, the dean’s
staff arranges the invitation to faculty to teach it, provides for the administrative
details, and oversees the preparations, course delivery, and final grading
procedures.
My formal and informal interviews with the dean focused on administrative
problems in the NCPACE program, anecdotes about various ships’ NCPACE
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programs and about the triennial Navy College PACE contract process with
Central Texas College.
Data Acquisition Procedures
The qualitative research method selected for this investigation aimed to
describe and provide an overview of the NCPACE program. This evaluation of its
educational impact upon minority students included the compilation of a list of
student perceptions about their NCPACE experience. To do so I combined several
data gathering methods. These included open-ended interviews, semi structured
focus group interviews, questionnaires, a modest use of a limited narrative
interview among selected prototypical minority students, interviews among
principals in NCPACE, and direct participation and observation. Among these,
the paramount data gathering procedure became the individual participant
interviews.
Individual interviews
I used a variety of interview formats in this investigation. For the individual
interviews, I depended upon an open-ended format to explore the participants’
perceptions of their NCPACE experience. Although I had prepared open-ended
questions, I utilized a method that allowed for nondirected conversation and
questioning based upon primary categories of interest. As each interview
proceeded I was able to examine the ideas and opinions that emerged, both to test
and refine them through restatement and verbal confirmation o f points made.
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I recorded 14 of the individual interviews, both students and faculty, and three
focus groups on audiotape. For brief individual interviews, I took notes either
during the exchange or soon after.
For the focus interviews, I utilized a semistructured format in which I read
aloud all my questions in advance in order to give the participants an overview of
my interest areas. This procedure provided the group members time to think about
the topics. Then I proceeded to initiate the group conversation. I guided the
interview forward, using nondirective interview techniques in order to move
deliberately through the question areas. Following each focus interview, I invited
the participants to summarize their comments, evaluate the group’s process, and
make certain that all their primary points were covered. This procedure permitted
an ongoing test for truthfulness and consistency in the data.
Summary
The qualitative method provided a means to utilize a broad variety o f data
collection activities particularly suited to a discovery of the experiential and
perceptual dimensions among NCPACE participants. In the next chapter I will
present the significant findings of this research investigation.
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Chapter 4: Findings of the Research
Background
The U.S. Navy’s Voluntary Education Program (VOLED) governs two
NCPACE learning systems: a distance learning program and an instructor based
one. In this investigation of the instructor based program, I pursued two
objectives:
• The identification of participants’ perceptions of NCPACE
strengths and weaknesses, and recommendations for
improvements
• The search for information on NCPACE nontraditional
students from two perspectives: the effectiveness of
NCPACE in response to their special academic needs, and
to learn whether the unique context of their Navy education
program contained any models effective for enrollment,
retention, and academic success elsewhere in higher
education
U.S. N avy’ s VOLED Program
According to the FY1997 and FY2000 Department of Defense VOLED fact
sheets, from 18% to 19% of the entire active duty force enrolled in higher
education courses. During the most recent 3-year period recorded, even as the
Navy continued an intended downsizing policy, the actual percentage of enrollees
and numbers of courses taken increased.
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Table 4.1 1997-2000 Comparison Chart of Naval Education Activity
1997 2000
U.S. Navy 332,985 314,083
VOLED enrolled 61,000 59,000
Total courses 140,000 158,914
Percent enrolled 18%+ 19%
The courses ranged from the NCPACE community college level distance
learning programs or instructor based to the Bachelor’s and advanced degree
level, land based or afloat. VOLED, then as now, included three components: the
Navy’s Tuition Assistance Program (which pays 75% of tuition at colleges,
universities, and other approved higher education operations, NCPACE, and the
Navy College Academic Learning Centers offered at 27 Navy bases around the
world.
During this 3-year period, even with a total enlistment decrease, the proportion
of sailors who pursued higher education goals increased over the past 25 years.
NCPACE reflected this growth trend as well, even as the number of ships afloat
decreased in the downsizing strategies of the Department of Defense.
Curriculum for the instructor based NCPACE is built upon a 2-year
community college general studies plan directed at the Associate of Arts or
Sciences degree. In my study, I found few NCPACE students enrolled for
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continuing education reasons. Most students enrolled to earn transfer credits.
Highlighted among the U.S. Navy’s advertised enlistment incentives, VOLED
post- secondary education is offered to all commissioned and enlisted sailors.
Joy’s (1998) research, which measured NCPACE instructional effectiveness, cited
Mallison’s (1994) report that “recruits ranked continuing higher education as their
top motive for joining the Navy,” and Wilcove’s (1992) worldwide survey of
naval personnel which “found that 30% of enlisted and 22% of officers reported
they had taken some form of VOLED sponsored by the Navy” (Joy, 1998, p. 4).
Data gathering procedure
With one of my two primary objectives aimed to evaluate NCPACE as a
potential resource for higher education policymakers on how to improve
nontraditional student enrollment, retention, and success, I interviewed or
surveyed both male and female students, who represented all primary ethnic or
minority constituencies: African Americans, Euro-Americans, Asian-Americans,
Latino-Americans and foreign nationals. Foreign nationals enlisted are offered an
accelerated U.S. citizenship application schedule in addition to the college
benefits plan.
I initiated this study among students in my own classes. 1 conducted research
activities aboard eight ships among 149 students in 26 classes I taught during
deployments between 1998 and 2002. Through interviews, focus groups,
questionnaires, surveys, individual unanticipated conversations, and personal
observation and participation in the Navy ships afloat, I compiled a great deal of
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data. In addition, I interviewed eight educational service officers, three
commanding officers, two executive officers, one chief administrative officer,
seven ships’ chaplains, and seven NCPACE professors. I maintained a journal of
many aspects of my shipboard experiences. These initial research activities
generated a large amount of primary raw material. As I proceeded with my
investigation in 1999,1 refined my questionnaire instruments and interview
questions. I structured these refined instruments upon common themes that
emerged from the initial data gathering.
• Students’ educational background
• Population diversity categories
• Reasons for enlistment
• Strengths and weaknesses of NCPACE
• Recommendations for improvements
Lastly, I selected representative results from these refined research activities to
organize the data upon which this study’s conclusions and recommendations are
based. This data included information obtained from two questionnaires, from
individual or small group interviews among 21 students, and from my
observations at the first two sites. Based upon the common themes stated above, I
organized my investigation to gather relevant and useful data.
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With this structure in mind, I conducted extensive interviews with three
educational services officers, three students, and three long-time NCPACE faculty
members for triangulation purposes in an effort to assure truthfulness in the
results of the overall investigation.
The characteristic questions of the different categories o f interviews I
conducted included
• Brief interviews with students and nonstudents: reasons for
taking NCPACE courses, strengths and weakenesses, learning
style preferences, future academic goals, educational background
• Lengthy student interviews: all of the above, history o f their
relationship with the NCPACE program and comment on all
course work, all the themes of the questionnaires,
recommendations for improvements, educational background,
impressions re: nontraditional student enrollment and learning
patterns
• ESOs: characteristics o f the ship’s NCPACE program and
history, role of the “learning community” if one, strengths and
weaknesses of NCPACE overall, review of their training for the
billet, impressions of nontraditional student enrollment and
learning patterns, recruitment, retention, and success observations
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• Captains and/or executive officers: views towards NCPACE,
impressions of the U.S. Navy’s advocacy of NCPACE,
recommendations for improvements, if any
• Faculty: history of their association with NCPACE, main themes
of the questionnaires, strengths and weaknesses of NCPACE,
views on
• the students’ learning characteristics and academic capabilities,
recommendations for improvements to NCPACE
• Chaplains and other officers: general impressions ofNCPACE,
recommendations for improvements, if any.
To protect the interviewees’ identity, I changed all names in the composition
of this study.
NCPACE and Student Diversity
Except voluntarily, NCPACE enrolled students do not indicate demographic
characteristics of minority identity, age, or national origin on the Central Texas
College’s NCPACE academic registration forms. Therefore, precise, accurate data
is limited, unreliable, or unavailable. I found very few students completed this
voluntary section. On some registration forms, students marked this section ‘NA’
(non-applicable). There may be a variety of reasons for this response; current
tempers towards affirmative action identification, mixed race/ethnic heritage, the
Navy’s emphases upon homogeneity and teamwork, or individual inclinations.
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From the chief administrative officer of one aircraft carrier, I learned that the
Navy does maintain records of demographic diversity among the sailors.
However, this information, classified by military identification numbers, is not
available to outside researchers.
From my direct observations among NCPACE students aboard eight ships, 1
noted that enrollees included both genders, and ethnically and economically
diverse groups. Soon after the United States Federal Government initiated the all
volunteer enlistment system, a greater proportion of minorities in comparison to
the previously predominant Euro-Americans began to populate the Armed
Services.
As noted in chapter 3, most students interviewed ranked highly the educational
opportunity programs among their reasons for enlistment. Moreover, nearly all the
representative minorities I interviewed rated educational benefits as a primary
incentive for his or her enlistment. A career Navy chief petty officer and longtime
NCPACE student, Bill, in his twentieth enlistment year said, “as the Navy
minority populations increased in the volunteer service proportional to
Caucasians, minorities also became a larger presence in NCPACE courses.” This
observation coincided with the results of questionnaire and interview data
obtained from minority students who identified access to college as a primary
reason for enlistment.
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Students questioned expressed belief that VOLED higher education
achievements created opportunities for in-service advancement, postservice
economic mobility and, overall, even an intellectually enlightened life. Once
engaged in NCPACE course work, many nontraditional students expressed
confidence about an ability to learn at a postsecondary level, to gain new
knowledge and to create it. Most affirmed that a college degree represented a
symbol of access to economic opportunity. Many stated that, after a period of
study, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding and its applicability became a
personal objective. This was expressed as sailors used comparable terms that
education is “the way to get ahead,” or, “a college degree means a better life.”
The Study’ s Two Objectives
In this chapter I present data about ways NCPACE augmented students’
higher education goals. In addition, I present summaries of their suggestions to
improve the program for the benefit of a diverse population group, especially
nontraditional students.
To list specific topics for higher education improvements among
nontraditional students, I asked all interviewees to identify problem areas, and the
strengths and weaknesses ofNCPACE. My investigation aimed to chart policies
that might improve the instructor based program for all, and especially for non
traditional students. Based upon this data, in chapter 5 ,1 will present
recommendations for NCPACE policy development and improvements as well as
to suggest areas for future research.
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Diverse voices
Excerpts from the following interviews among selected NCPACE
participants represented the educational history of many young, often poor urban
minority men and women I met aboard eight ships. These persons stated they
enlisted in the Navy to advance their economic and personal prospects. Most
interviewees referred to their maturation years as ones in which higher education
seemed a remote prospect, not part of their family history, purview, or interest.
Some interviewees stated they initially lacked self-confidence in their ability to
succeed in a college program. When asked about their childhood exposure to
career goal setting, most stated they had not been asked “What do you want to be
when you grow up?” Others referred to an intuitive perception that racism existed
among secondary school educators who seemed to believe that minorities had
limited academic potential for college work. Several alluded to peer pressure that
viewed a college education in a negative ways or, that “easier, bigger money
could be earned on the streets.” In the following excerpts, interviewed students
reflected these issues and perceptions. These views established basic factors that
must be taken into account by higher education policymakers concerned with
educational and economic prospects among nontraditional students.
Nontraditional students ’ learning, access, retention, and success
The general themes of this chapter are reflected initially through the voices of
eight pairs ofNCPACE students. These students’ Navy enlistment ranged from a
few months to 20-year career. Additionally, themes are presented from the
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representative educational service officers and NCPACE faculty I interviewed.
Through these interviews, I found topics and issues emerged that are important to
improve NCPACE and are possibly useful to higher education overall. These
included
• How to engage successfully in higher education otherwise not easily
obtainable in civilian life as a result of the Navy’s college programs
and policies,
• How to develop self-confidence in college-level learning ability
• How new knowledge creates intellectual curiosity among sailor
students
• How higher education increases abilities, work skills, and career
advancement
• How to increase NCPACE enrollment among nontraditional students
In the first set of interviews, two students highlighted most of the research
themes emergent from research activities I conducted among nontraditional
NCPACE students.
Jeffrey and Mario, about to complete the necessary credits for the Associate of
Arts degree, enrolled in NCPACE soon after enlistment. Both held jobs in the
medical department of an aircraft carrier. Each agreed that he thought his job to
be among the most desirable billets reserved for sailors of intelligence and
education. Soon after enlistment, each felt his assignment to be a less
intellectually demanding job, normally populated by the newly enlisted: mopping,
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and kitchen and latrine duties. To avoid this limitation, both started NCPACE
course work as soon as possible upon enlistment. Each stated that NCPACE
courses helped him to endure the initial job assignments.
While enrolled in NCPACE college courses, each sailor received salutary
Navy fitness reports about his workplace activities and attitudes. Their
responsibilities increased and job assignments improved as a result. Each agreed
he wanted to succeed both in work and college studies, although doing so
curtailed his social activities. Eventually advanced to the medical department
where they met, both requested the billet from among several options. As a result
of their medical department work and their success in college courses, both stated
plans for future careers in some branch of the healing arts and sciences.
“For my mother,” Jeffrey said, “ I am already a doctor. She is so proud of me
because of my present job and my going to college in the Navy. She thinks I will
make a lot of money some day. She is 50 years old. I want to do this for her as
well as for myself.”
He explained that he was from the South Bronx, where life was rough. He said
he knew very few white people growing up. He said he had not considered
college. His mother, divorced and single, paid tuition for him to attend a Catholic
School only when she was able to work. It was the only private school in their
region. When she was laid off, as often happened, lack of tuition money forced
him to go back to the public school. “And,” Jeffrey pointed out, “there was a big
difference.” When I asked him if he had ever met a teacher or counselor who
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recommended that he go to college, he replied that the only person who ever
mentioned it to him was his mother. He stated that he did not have much
confidence in his ability to succeed in college. He felt there was a lot of racism
among the teachers. Black people, he decided, did not go to college; at least he
did not know any in his neighborhood. Jeffrey’s comments set forth several
issues familiar to the experience of other minority students I interviewed. Seldom
did these students consider higher education to be a normal part of future planning
while in secondary schools. Often these students accepted unquestioaingly an
unspoken perception that their secondary school teachers did not consider them to
have college-level academic potential. After NCPACE enrollment, they
discovered they could learn at a college level.
The two sailors’ conclusions are
• Higher education was not viewed as a normal part of future
life planning.
• Public schools did not view minorities, especially African
Americans to have college potential
• Through NCPACE, minorities discovered they could
succeed in learning and did have college potential.
Several interviewed African American and Latino American students stated
that a college education rarely entered their minds while in high school. Many of
these individuals could not recall if any of their teachers or counselors had
mentioned it. Rarely, these young sailors recalled any family member or close
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friend who raised the topic with them. For these persons, from a cultural
worldview remote from the middle and upper economic brackets of American
life, a college degree seemed beyond consideration.
Higher education primary incentive for enlistment
For Jeffrey and Mario, different reasons led them to enlist, but central for them
and for the nontraditional students interviewed, enlistment itself represented a
determination to improve their life prospects. Some indicated that military
recruitment activities, prominent in many minority communities, emphasized
access to a college education. Nearly all minorities interviewed stated that a free
college education attracted their interest, although before hearing about
enlistment, they had seldom considered college. The military recruiters,
therefore, presented college options to these students for the first time.
From these interviews I learned that these students believed that higher
education proponents should present college options specifically, directly, and
intentionally in all secondary schools to all students. Whether the neglect of this
initiative is an example of institutional racism or the response of a less than
effective educational system is unknown. Whatever the reason or lack thereof,
sailor students stated that educators need to find ways to encourage the academic
aspirations in this group.
My research data revealed that minorities’ confidence about their learning
skills and academic potential is affected by lack o f academic affirmation from
mentors in the secondary school systems. Although many NCPACE students
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indicated that economic pressures prevented college enrollment, this might not be
the primary problem. For example, the South Bronx sailor’s story highlights the
complex issues of economics and self-image as a prominent one for many
minority students. The second sailor had a slightly different entree into NCPACE,
yet he also indicated similar treatment in his educational background.
Non-traditional students ’ role models
The second sailor came from a lower middle class, suburban area near Miami,
Florida. A track star in high school, his athletic ability afforded him a scholarship
to a Florida college. “I was excited to go to college. During my first year I had an
accident. I could no longer run track. The college lost interest in me. I lost my
scholarship. I found that the white leadership lost interest in me very fast. This is
true for a lot of African Americans. We are wanted for our athletic skills and the
sports awards we could bring in, but not for our academic possibility.”
He stated that he first began high school in a largely black area where college
was seldom mentioned. In his sophomore year, his parents moved to a mixed
suburban area, where he enrolled in a largely white school. Mario recalled he
joined the debate team and the track team in the mixed high school. He said he
loved being competitive with white students. “I heard a lot about going to college
at that school from teachers and friends. I used to dream about going to college.
One of my uncles became a psychologist after graduating from college. He was
the first graduate in our family. We were all very proud of him. So when my
track scholarship came through, I thought I had a real chance. But, after my injury
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when I no longer was able to run track, college ended.” Here South Bronx
sailor’s experience is observed partially in Mario’s history; in the all-Black
school, college is not raised while in his racially mixed school, the option is part
of the school’s orientation. The Florida sailor believed that his college-educated
relative served as a major influence in his determination to pursue college
somehow. In this interview, the student referred to the role model impact his
uncle presented. For him, the loss of the athletic scholarship did not diminish his
academic plans. He sought and found another source to make it possible. The
military incentive, which provided a free college education, filled in a vacuum
created by the athletic scholarship loss. He continued his story.
Access to higher education fo r all sailors
“I decided to join the Navy to see the world. As a boy, I used to watch Navy
shows on the television. I had a love for the Navy. I wanted to join up. And,
when I found I could take PACE college courses at the same time, I enrolled.
Taking PACE courses has really helped me a lot to adjust to the Navy and to have
a purpose. I am almost finished with my A. A. degree requirements, only one
course to go. I love it.”
These stories demonstrate how access to NCPACE created a bridge from one
life pattern (or lack thereof) to one advantaged by educational opportunity and
intellectual growth. These two stories represent data obtained from all the
interviewed nontraditional students. The Navy’s provision of college educational
opportunities served both to benefit the sailors and to provide an important
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enlistment incentive among nontraditional students otherwise largely predestined
to other life patterns. Whatever the degree of these sailor’s determination to
succeed in the Navy, at the least, it was not inhibited by an intentional or
neglectful social context or economic inhibitions.
Arguing from the microcosm, as it were, to the macrocosm-from the specific
to the general-their successful engagement in NCPACE provided an example of
how a well-funded, assertive program in higher education could make possible
increased access for those otherwise isolated or underrated to pursue successfully
college education.
In summary, from these students’ experience, important recommendations for
change are presented
• Secondary schools should build academic self-
confidence among minority students as a major
policy.
• Society should find ways to present the case to
nontraditional students that higher education’s long
term benefits outweigh short-term economic
alternatives.
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• The military’s command structures should
accelerate and increase incentives for enlistment
education and make consistent its advocacy of
higher education benefits and opportunities for all
service members.
• Both civilian secondary schools and the military
should understand and increase academic
counseling
• and support for nontraditional students, especially
in the initial stages of college enrollment.
In the following interview, two minority students identified key factors they
believe would improve minority enrollment in higher education.
• Secondary schools should build academic self-confidence.
• Schools should respond to minorities’ concerns about
college’s long- and short-term benefits.
Brian and Lucien
Brian is a 22-year-old African American from Compton, California. During
his high school years, he participated in the Crips gang. “After two of my close
friends died in a gang warfare shooting, I took off and joined the Navy. I wanted
something more from life. I was not much of a student in school but I was
curious about various things. I used to have long talks with my dad about his
views. He encouraged me to join the Navy, finally I did. When I heard about
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PACE in my first deployment I decided to take a course in reading and writing. I
had a rough time with it. I almost gave up, but the teacher and some friends
helped me. Now I am on my third course. The support and patience and
developing some confidence made the difference.”
Lucien is a 23-year-old Haitian national. His once prominent political family
was exiled during political turbulence there. His father, a Haitian attorney, had
served in a high government post. Now residing in Miami, Lucien’s family has
had to adjust to less affluent economic circumstances. Lucien joined the Navy
specifically to obtain educational benefits. He intends to become an ordained
minister once his degree is completed. Lucien fulfilled most of his course work
for the A.A. degree through NCPACE.
When asked about other African Americans on the ship and in the NCPACE
program, both Brian and Lucien agreed that a lot of them do not have confidence
in their ability to succeed in college courses. “Or, a lot cover that by saying, they
can make more money faster in other ways,” Brian said, “I think it is more about
upbringing than being Black,” Brian said, “you know, in the inner city the last
thing you want to do is to go to school. You ask the teachers how much they get
paid, they say ‘not much’ so you think to yourself, why go to college when there
are faster ways to make more money, but a lot of it is lack of confidence in book
learning.”
Lucien pointed out that in his Catholic school, “I had a different experience.
Most of the students had the mentality to want to go to college. It was a different
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environment. It seemed possible to go to college either by our parents’ support or
to get scholarships to go to college if we didn’t have enough money.”
Brian responded, “In my group, the whole thing is money; how to make it
and how fast you can make it is the emphasis in the culture. Education, the payoff
on college is long term, so there is a lot to give up to do that and most didn’t.”
Both Brian and Lucien said often friends asked about NCPACE. Both stated
they encouraged their friends to take classes. They said, “some do, most do not.”
They think part of the reason is related to lack of self-confidence, but also feelings
that the payoff is not “all that great,” as Brian put it.
Brian and Lucien reflected attitudes held by other diverse NCPACE students.
Lack of funds for college, lack of academic self-confidence, and doubts about
long-term benefits shaped the predominant responses of interviewees on this
question.
Asked also of 81 students in a questionnaire distributed aboard two aircraft
carriers why they did not attend college prior to enlistment:
• 36 stated, “lack o f funds”
• 20 stated, “lack o f academic self-confidence”
• 8 stated, “a college degree has uncertain value”
• 10 stated, “I wanted to get away from home or to see the
world”
• 7 stated, “tired o f going to school”
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Although interviewed students emphasized the failure of secondary schools to
encourage minorities’ college potential, their societal and familial networks
included few role models who placed high value upon postsecondary education.
NCPACE as a nontraditional student avenue for college degrees
When the educational context encouraged higher education among minorities
during the Navy’s orientation and enlistment programs, the equation changed;
there was an increase in minority participation. For the first time in the lives of
some of those interviewed, the option to attend college became an actual choice.
One high school minority member might ask herself, do I even have a choice
to start higher education? If self-perceptions are, in effect, conditioned by
economic circumstances or lack of academic affirmation or supportive family role
models, then many minorities are unlikely to seek and succeed in higher
education.
Given this research data, academic success is possible when education is
supplemented by appropriate academic support and advancement incentives, as in
the NCPACE support system.
From these interviews with NCPACE minority students, I learned that they
viewed their backgrounds, vis-a-vis higher education potential, by comparison to
what they experienced in the U.S. Navy. Among a nonmilitary, largely minority
population where racial or ethnic separation exists (be it economically determined
or otherwise), incentives and social supports for college appeared to these
students limited, or nonexistent. Aboard ship, the Navy’s completely and
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intentionally mixed social context is diverse and multicultural. Hundreds,
sometimes thousands, of sailors from many backgrounds live and work alongside
each other throughout deployments. This interactive and cooperative situation,
reinforced by training, preparation, and the command procedures, does not permit
racial or minority separation. Promotion, assignments, and jobs are determined by
individual achievement, skills, ability and the desire to succeed. Educational
service officers noted that sailors who enrolled and succeeded in college courses
found their naval advancement enhanced as a result. NCPACE course grades were
placed by the command in the sailors’ annual fitness reports, used for career
advancement review.
Among the nontraditional students interviewed, I found that most believed the
Navy’s support for their college education, both financial and in its advocacy,
represented a major difference from their experiences in civilian life where they
received little, if any, postsecondary encouragement from teachers or others.
Supported by tuition benefits and the knowledge that both their Navy
advancement and personal futures will be enhanced by higher education,
nontraditional students responded with determination to succeed in college
studies.
Need fo r academic support and counseling
Among the students’ proposed recommendations to improve NCPACE, they
ranked highly the provision of academic counseling, personal support, and
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encouragement on a continuous and competent basis. This topic proved to be of
central concern among the women interviewed aboard ships. As part of the
nontraditional sailor student constituency, increased numbers o f females have
enlisted in the Navy in recent years. Although women have enlisted in the Navy
for many years, assignment to sea duty has been curtailed by the lack of berthing
available to their gender, cultural sensitivities, and political uncertainty about
whether women should be placed in combat roles. In many ways, enlisted women
on sea duty represent a new initiative that continues to be controversial at various
levels of the naval operations, particularly in the workplace.
On board one ship, I interviewed two students, Vanessa and Joyce, whose
views reflected the attitudes and experiences of many women I interviewed on
other ships. Among the approximate three-hundred-member crew of this ship
some 10% were female.
Vanessa went to an independent secondary school. She stated she did well in
school. “We were encouraged often by our teachers to plan for college. During
my senior year, I was admitted to college for the fall term. I had a scholarship, but
some severe family financial problems came up so I couldn’t go. And there were
other family problems. As a way to move along, I finally decided to enlist. I knew
the Navy had college money, so that was a major incentive. When I joined I
heard about NCPACE right away and enrolled the first chance I had. I have been
taking classes ever since, but it has not been easy balancing work and study.”
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Joyce described her family as large, lower-middle-class, and often on welfare.
“I had a strong feeling that I wanted to do something different after high school. I
think my family would have been glad for me to go to college, but I was not really
interested in more school then. I wanted to explore, see the world, so I joined the
Navy. A fair number o f people here are not all that supportive of women. There
is a lot of competition to get ahead. I started NCPACE classes to improve my
prospects for advancement.”
Both Vanessa and Joyce remarked how they valued some officers and peers’
compliments made to them for taking classes while trying to advance in the work
ratings. “I want to learn,” Vanessa said, “I have goals. I want to learn more and
more as much as I can. I want to receive my degree. That is my major goal right
now, more than anything. But the work environment is very hard. Education
comes first for me, the job is second but that is not what the bosses think.”
Joyce added a similar complaint about the work/study situation, “the C.O.
and the X.O. are very supportive of PACE, but the lower people don’t care about
it, only the job ahead, and the student gets caught in the middle.” Vanessa added,
“Yes, my boss told me yesterday that he was not pleased that I was taking PACE,
when is it over and so forth. It is a big problem in my workplace. Yet, I spend
more time there waiting around, and it could be used for PACE courses. They
waste our time and then complain when we are taking PACE courses on work
time. A few of my coworkers have put me down for taking classes.” Joyce said,
“I have had some people tell me that it was a waste of time, but I don’t think so.”
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Vanessa added, “I am not treated equally. I have more education than the guys I
am working with. Some are helpful, but others are not.”
O f course, these comments reflected some of the tensions felt by the women
as they tried to balance career goals, study, and daily work. They felt their work
and study to be complicated by social pressures presented in a largely male
competitive environment within a changing Navy culture. Both women declared
a personal need for more support and academic counseling to plan a course
curriculum for a degree. Both represented a different aspect of minority status:
that of females working in the male-dominated Navy culture. Their stated need
for academic counseling and personal support arose as each tried to cope with
work, study, and the stress of Navy cultural change at a time gender integration
expanded in the Navy.
Both Vanessa and Joyce referred to other students, both minority and female,
who needed academic counseling and support. Joyce stated, “it is not enough just
to get us to sign up, we need help all the way through, but especially at the start of
our PACE program.” Both stated they felt a responsibility to encourage their
friends to enroll and succeed in the NCPACE program. They did so both to be
helpful and to maintain a core group of female students. Through this word-of-
mouth system, at least some academic support work is provided to new or
uncertain students. Interviews with some of the older, long-term enlisted students
revealed that they often gave informal support to the newer students.
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With respect to academic counseling and personal support I found that, for the
most part, sailor students are left to their own devices. This is consistent with
Navy culture which values highly ‘making do with what you have’ to challenge
sailors’ practice of self-reliance in the midst of teamwork at all times. This is the
Navy way.
NCPACE professors, on board ships from six to eight weeks, are expected to
provide academic counseling and individual support in the context of the specific
course of study. However, the bimonthly, constant change of professors breaks
the academic support relationship so that beginning students needful of
counseling are at a disadvantage. Rarely are educational service officers able to
provide direct academic counseling. By default, while sailors are on sea duty the
remaining options for counseling are the workplace supervisor and peer students
or friends.
As the Navy has increased its budgetary support for NCPACE over the past
20 years, top command has highlighted the VOLED program both as an incentive
for enlistments and to equip a modern Navy with educated staff to operate it. As
a ship’s chain of command recognizes the multileveled benefit a college
education program provides to individuals and to improved work quality, vocal
support for NCPACE increases aboard ships. My research data, supplemented by
anecdotal evidence, leads me to conclude that the Navy should increase its
support policy, expand its academic counseling resources aboard ship for the
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evident needs of a growing number of the Navy’s population: females, minority
students, and others with limited academic backgrounds.
College degrees and the core groups
The following interview with two NCPACE students, Gary and Rusty,
represented the operations of core groups of regular PACE students on ships. I
named the core group “the Educational Support Community (ESP)”. This core
group o f regular students provided continuity to the higher education program for
NCPACE and land based degree planning. On board two ships I found the core
group lobbied the command structure for suitable classroom space, and research
resources and, at times, insisted on certain key courses for particular programs.
Other ships’ core groups played a comparably active role to promote NCPACE;
an ALL HANDS graduation ceremony was held. There was word-of-mouth
advocacy of college courses. On all ships of my research, I found that the core
groups assisted the educational services officer as he or she encouraged
enrollment among new students. Not only did these students advocate higher
education, they also functioned as de facto experts in how to earn a degree while
on active duty. I found some who served informally to support and counsel newer
students. My interviews and questionnaires revealed that a ship’s staying power
for the NCPACE program depended largely upon the core groups’ determination
to expect and request NCPACE courses throughout the academic tri-terms during
a six-month deployments. I found this phenomenon particularly true on two ships
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where the command was perceived as insufficiently interested in the college
program.
Among each NCPACE core group, I interviewed key members. I asked about
educational history of the individuals and NCPACE aboard ship. I wanted to
learn how their interest in NCPACE started, what it brought to their lives aboard
ship, and how it factored into their career planning activities. Gary and Rusty
represented the views o f one o f the core groups. The following excerpts from my
interviews with them highlighted the ways in which they had enrolled in Navy
college courses, how doing so changed their attitudes, and lastly, how this
established their interest to advocate the program among shipmates.
Gary, an Asian American, is from southern California. Twenty-five years old
at the time of my interview, he recently re-enlisted for a second 4-year term.
Rusty, 24 years old is a middle class African American from Colorado. Both
considered themselves to be committed Navy college students. Both have taken
NCPACE courses on their deployments and, while on land duty, have continued
to enroll in local community colleges. Both expected to receive their A.A. degrees
at the end of the term. Both came from middle-class family backgrounds. Each
claimed to have an uneven academic success record in high school. Each stated
he had been uncertain what to do after high school. The Navy recruited each of
them soon after graduation. Their similar backgrounds provided a natural
common-interest bond between them.
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Gary stated that he loved to play sports in high school. “I had a good time. I
knew I was smart, so studying wasn’t all that difficult. I coasted by with B ’s and
C’s. I wasn’t really turned on by any teacher except once. I found that course
exciting. I worked hard and earned an A, learned a lot. But basketball was my
main interest. After high school a lot of my friends went on to college. I realized
1 had wasted a lot of time not learning when I could have. I didn’t really know
what to do so I joined the Navy. I started PACE classes after my first year, just
one, then more. Now I love to take PACE classes. I read a lot. I have learned a
lot. I have met a lot of good people through PACE who have things to talk about.
It is very important part of my life in the Navy.”
Rusty nodded as he said, “Same story. I was on a down slope from the
beginning of high school. There were a lot of family issues. I didn’t pay much
attention in school. I had a girlfriend and a lot of other interests. By the time I got
to my senior year, I realized I had wasted a lot of time. So I turned around and
decided I wanted to get some good grades. I really worked. I applied myself.
When the class was really interesting, I earned an A or a B. Then one English
class opened my mind. I started to read a lot. After I joined the Navy I started to
take PACE courses right away. I always take courses. I look forward to it. I am
excited that I am about to finish my A.A. degree.”
Gary viewed NCPACE as a way to advance his Navy career prospects. ITe also
considers his NCPACE studies as the best way also to prepare for a post-Navy
career.
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His incentives, he stated, are both personal improvement and economic
advancement. Rusty agreed. He told of going home on liberty when he saw his
high school friends “still in the same place, nothing for them had changed. I did
not want to be caught in that. I want more out of life. I want to achieve more. My
new girlfriend is going to be a psychologist. I want to keep up with her.” Gary
added, “I want to keep going, build my future.” Rusty said, “The Navy taught me
that it was all up to me. The more I take PACE courses, the more I want to take. I
am learning a lot.”
When I asked them how to increase sailors’ enrollment, especially minorities,
both stated they often tried to persuade their friends and coworkers to do so. “I
know that once some of them take a course and do well, they will be hooked,”
Gary said. “We always try to recruit our friends and others,” Rusty said, “I see
people who want to, but are not willing to put up the extra effort. They start, then
drop or fail. Then they are too discouraged to take another one. But some
continue.”
‘When the ESO lets us know that we can have another PACE course or two if
we locate at least the minimum number of students, we get busy,” Gary stated,
“We get at least 10 one way or another, always.”
In each of my research projects, I found the same informal process to be
operative through a core group of NCPACE students. Each ESO knew the key
members and counted on them to spearhead the enrollment activities, once he
announced options for a new term. Once a minimum number of students signed
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up, the ESO proceeded to arrange for a professor through the subcontractor,
Central Texas College. On larger ships with a larger NCPACE course budget
thus able to afford several courses, the core group’s emphasis was placed upon the
types of courses to be offered. On the smaller ships, the core group worked to sign
up a minimum number of students for one or two courses.
None of the official NCPACE literature contained a reference to the core
group operations aboard ships. Each ESO I interviewed referred to the highly
important function the core group fulfilled in the organization, planning, and
continuity of the NCPACE program. Each ESO stated that he or she consulted
intentionally with core group members throughout the academic terms to evaluate
teaching and to prepare for future academic course offerings.
ESOs utilized the interest and presence of the informal NCPACE core groups
to benefit program’s quality, continuity, and expansion. This informal core group
network on board each ship facilitated students’ course requests, provided
informal academic counseling, and provided the ESO with an informal evaluation
of instructional quality.
NCPACE academic quality
At one phase in the interviews I asked students to describe the quality of the
NCPACE teaching and learning experiences. The following excerpts from my
interview with career sailors Michael and Chad represented general views and
common themes that were expressed by other interviewees. I asked students for
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their impressions of their NCPACE teachers after I explained the faculty
assignment system o f Central Texas College.
I explained that Central Texas College, as the subcontractor for NCPACE,
draws upon a pool of instructors who hold a Master’s degree or higher. They are
adjunct instructors from among Americans resident primarily in the United States,
although some live in Europe or Asia. The instructors’ pool is comprised of
retired academics no longer associated with an accredited institution o f higher
education, former military personnel, or those on leave from land based
academies. A few members of the instructor pool are recent recipients of the
Master’s degree who are in the process of seeking full-time academic or other
employment.
I asked students their views about good teaching and learning aboard. Among
sailors aboard ship I asked, how does effective learning happen? What are some
primary problem areas or benefits in classroom education while afloat?
Michael and Chad are career Navy men in their mid to late thirties. Michael,
enlisted for 14 years and Chad, enlisted for 12 years, both enrolled in NCPACE
courses while on 6-month deployments. To start, I asked them to describe a
typical day on the ship. “Life is pretty much the same every day,” Michael said,
“out the rack, coveralls, eat, quarters, work all day long, worn out by the end of
the day.” “But sometimes there are surprises,” Chad said, “something happens
and we have to respond fast-or, if we refuel, if there is some rescue to handle or
intervention, or some conflict, we respond. In port, or out at sea, mostly there is
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not much difference, except in port there are lots of other things to do, that you
have to do. It is easier to take PACE courses afloat when you do not have family
responsibilities or other temptations to take your mind away.”
While on deployments, both Michael and Chad accumulated most o f the units
necessary for the A. A. degree. Michael stated he planned to complete his B.A.
and go after a Master’s degree. “I quit high school,” Chad said “I found it very
boring. Later I got my GED and joined the Navy. On my first deployment I
decided to take a PACE class, found it interesting, kept taking courses and now I
have accumulated 30 units including the credit for work experience.” Michael
said, “I was just burned out from school. I went to a college prep school where
97% of the seniors went on to college. But I had enough. I wanted to see the
world, do different things. The Navy made all that possible. On my first
deployment a friend convinced me to take a PACE class. Well, now I always take
PACE classes.”
Both men stated they had plans for postretirement civilian careers to guide
their higher education choices. “In the civilian sector, and now in the military, to
advance you really need to have a college degree,” Chad said “Although
sometimes I would rather not do all the work, I know that without studying and
doing well, it goes against you if the teacher knows you are not trying.” Michael
added, “at the top level of the Navy, you just get more advancement points if you
take classes. That is a big incentive now. It becomes part of our Navy evaluation
record, the service record.”
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“The whole PACE system is much more advanced now than when I first
started,” Chad pointed out, “but 1 wish it were more available when I am on shore
duty rather than having to go to local colleges and fit in with their schedules.
Often the local schedule conflicts with watch time or short-term sea trips, and I
have to drop or withdraw.”
Next we discussed teaching and learning in NCPACE. To my question,
“What is good teaching?” both men had opinions. “Well, I like demonstrations,
hands-on activities, stories,” Chad said, “Lecture is ok, reading is more difficult. I
guess I enjoy mostly the give and take between the teacher and the students. I
like to ask questions. The thing I get into is the details. I learn a lot by asking and
listening.”
Michael pointed out that in most Navy training courses, teaching is usually
through lectures to present material set forth in the technical manuals. Questions
are seldom asked about the material: “you just memorize it, necessary for what we
do.”
He said, “in most PACE courses I’ve had, the work is a lot more interactive
and interesting. I think that is the best part of PACE, very good learning
experiences when there is a lot of interaction between the teachers and the
students.”
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Chad agreed and added, “However, if the PACE instructor is some yo-yo as our
last one, you can’t really drop and get another so you are caught, that is the bad
side. No choice.” Michael said, “We just didn’t like him, too rough and brash.”
Most of the interviewees mirrored the general comments of Michael and
Chad about NCPACE teaching and learning. Some who had prior university work
stated that the quality of NCPACE teachers did not seem as high. Another
student, Marcus entered the interview at this point. About teachers, he said, “I
have often wondered about professors who come aboard during deployments.
These are the worst part of Navy life, away from home and family for 6 months,
rough work and not a lot of privacy. What would motivate a teacher to want to
come aboard during deployment? Of course, a lot have been prior military and
enjoy reliving a bit of that or there is some payback going on. One teacher I had,
I didn’t like at all. The work did not relate to the text. It wasn’t such a good
course. But all the others have been quite good. I have learned much. Overall,
fine. Sometimes the classes are small enough to have a really good educational
experience going on, that is a benefit, the learning and the easy, daily access to the
teacher. PACE is a good program overall.”
I distributed a questionnaire aboard the two aircraft carriers with the largest
number of students. Regarding the topic o f instructional quality, I asked a
selected group to rank their previous NCPACE instructors.
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Table 4.2 Two ships’ students’ responses to faculty quality question
USS Abraham Lincoln
46 Questionnaires: 42 respondents
Excellent to very good: 21
Mixed quality: some good, some bad: 12
USS Constellation
40 Questionnaires: 35 respondents
Excellent to very good: 17
Mixed quality: some good, some bad: 11
Several noted variations on the phrase, “you get out of it what you put into it.”
A follow-up question asked on both ships o f respondents was, “in 25 words or
less, please complete the following sentence, “I think good teaching is ....” Out of
46 questionnaires distributed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, forty-five responded
in a variety of ways. On the USS Constellation, 21 responded similarly to those
on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
In general, most of the students interviewed expressed appreciation for the
quality of teaching and learning. Several stated words of appreciation for
instructors who made the effort to come aboard to teach the courses. Among
NCPACE benefits, some respondents listed easy access to the instructors, small
classes, give and take of interactive teaching methods, and emphasis placed on
application of information. Most respondents had been enrolled in NCPACE
courses for 5 or fewer years.
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The questionnaire results coincided with views expressed in focus groups and
individual interviews. Among the NCPACE students interviewed individually, I
specifically included sailors who had served over 15 years in the 20-year career
enlistment plan, who looked forward to their retirement pension, and intended
second careers. I selected two students in their final enlistment year in order to
represent the voices of long-time NCPACE students, to learn their perceptions of
the program for comparison with less experienced NCPACE sailors.
NCPACE reflections from senior Navy chiefs
In each of the eight research sites, normally a quarter of the active students
neared completion of 20-year Navy careers. With military pensions, Montgomery
GI college benefits, and considerable Navy management experience, most
interviewed stated their intention to complete a bachelor’s degree or higher after
discharge. To represent the voice of this group, I selected two interviewees who
had enrolled in NCPACE courses throughout their periodic deployments.
Both senior level chiefs, Sam and Bill managed the departmental work of
large numbers of younger sailors. Each had the benefit of long experience with
the development and place in the Navy ofNCPACE. In preceding pages of this
chapter, I recorded the views o f younger NCPACE students as they expressed
their academic interests, their views on how to improve NCPACE, and the ways
in which it seemed to hold promise for their future careers. In the following data,
the responses of these two representative senior NCPACE students provided
longer-termed perspectives on the program.
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Senior chief Sam I interviewed on a larger Navy cruiser. Sam completed his
A. A. degree through NCPACE. Now in the final months of his Navy career, he
said he enrolled in courses to keep his mind alert and to serve as a role model for
his staff. He graduated from high school in 1976, enlisted soon thereafter. He
said he was one of the first enrollees in the NCPACE program, then fairly new to
the Navy. “1 have always had a desire for knowledge. I knew I needed a degree
to succeed in life,” Sam said, “but I didn’t have the funds to go on to college at
the time. When I found that I could take PACE classes, I enrolled. I believe
PACE started in about 1975, so I have been in it almost from the start.” Sam
stated that the Navy has increased its emphasis upon education over the last 20
years. At the beginning, he said, sailors on deployment had a difficult time
accommodating both work and study schedules. “Now access is much easier,”
Sam said, “although there are still complications in some departments from time
to time. The Navy has made education a priority once it realized it was a way to
keep sailors on track, improve skills, provide enlistment incentives and largely, to
benefit a more complex Navy operation. PACE students overall, enhance their
advancement prospects and improve their working conditions as a result of
increased education. They are noticed on the improvement and advancement
route. This goes into their service record.”
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Senior chief Bill, interviewed on a different ship, stated his affirmation of
NCPACE. Bill, also in his final months o f a 20-year career, planned to complete
the requirements for the A. A. degree within this academic term. “I have had a lot
of experience with PACE over my career, although I started my own studies later.
Now that I am about to retire, I want to complete this degree while still in the
Navy. In the early 80’s 1 noticed a number of sailors in my department taking
courses. I investigated the program and started taking a course now and again.
Later, I always enrolled on deployment. At first, I had more curiosity about ideas
than a specific degree plan in mind. Later, as several of my close friends finished
their enlistments to start civilian careers, I decided to pursue this degree to
improve my prospects. I have taken both on-line courses and instructor based
courses.”
Both Sam and Bill enrolled in NCPACE planning for civilian careers. Both
stated an intention to continue in college after discharge. “PACE is an integral
part of the Navy now,” Sam said. “I find myself counseling many of my young
sailors to enroll. I help them arrange their schedules so they can take courses and
succeed. I have seen sailors advance in rank much more rapidly than their peers
as a result of their participation in PACE and the benefits it offered them. I only
wish the majority would enroll.”
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On a similar inquiry about increasing the number of enrollees, Bill stated, “I
think that about 50% of the younger sailors are interested in education, self-
improvement. The rest are not interested at all. They want to see the world, have
fun, so it is not a priority, but for others, probably a minority, education is
important. They make up the core group of PACE students.”
Both Sam and Bill indicated that they specifically urged new enlistments to
enroll. Sam suggested the idea of having an annual ship’s ceremony to
acknowledge PACE graduates. “Honor them. Make a big deal out of the
achievement of an A. A. degree right in front of the entire ship’s company. That
would send a message to enroll. Right now, the core group does most of the
recruitment, but the pattern is uneven. This group, though, leads the program.
They are the stimulators for the program on any ship.”
Bill pointed out, “I think the command level on all ships needs to persuade
and encourage sailors to take courses, to work out the scheduling problem. The
Navy benefits, the sailor benefits, the country benefits. Maybe the indoctrination
period, when new sailors come on board, would be the best place to make strong
presentations. Some ships do this well, while others let it ride by. I think the
command could have some visual things, build excitement and interest and so on.
I tell my sailors all the time to take courses.”
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Sam said, “I think there is a lot of support for PACE at the command level
just about everywhere. The Navy now emphasizes the importance of higher
education. More and more sailors need to learn to do various jobs on these
complex ships. They need to learn how to leam, how to think, how to commit to
memory and to follow through on it. PACE fills in a lot of that and, as a result, I
think the Navy gives a lot more command support to it.
“Navy chiefs, though, have the largest influence over the younger sailors.
They could do a lot more to emphasize the program. But the best support has to
come from the command level and filter down.”
My questions moved to topics of improvements for the NCPACE program.
Sam expressed the view that, at least on the larger ships, a set procedure on the
series of courses should be arranged. “The core group needs to have better
planning and structure so they can take the courses necessary for a degree in some
sequence. There needs to be some flexibility in the scheduling: to move beyond
the basic courses into higher level ones when the sailors are ready for them.”
Bill, located on a smaller ship, supported the proposal to plan course
schedules that facilitate steady progress towards the degree. “When we are on 6-
month deployment, certain courses could be offered, then when back on shore
maybe a flexible schedule that works around the job and liberty periods could be
set up. Rather than the semester system in a regular school, there could be short,
intensive programs offered, extra sessions and planned pauses when we have to
make short trips or something,” Bill added, “maybe a combination of instructor
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based and on-line based given by the same professor would be a sensible plan. I
think most of the sailors are taking the l st-year courses. Once you are beyond
that, it becomes more challenging to find the courses needed when on board.
Rarely have I seen 2n d -year courses available on ships. One solution to that
problem is the shore duty rotation so you can go to a local college. Three years at
sea, three on land. It works, but a lot depends on your job and rank.”
NCPACE learnings
Next we discussed matters o f actual NCPACE course work: benefits, study
resources, quality of teaching and learning, and general recommendations for
improvements. Bill started with personal references, “I think I have learned a lot
of self-discipline in PACE. To do my work and then to fit in study takes that,
otherwise I would probably just be watch movies or do something else in off time.
I see the same thing in some of the other PACE students I know well. I would
take a class and a little later on, things came up that I realized 1 had learned
something about. Taking classes is going to change you; you have more critical
thinking; issues that once seemed simple to resolve begin to be viewed as more
complex.”
Sam reflected on his overall experience with PACE teachers. “1 think the
quality is better now than 20 years ago. Small classes are important. Instructors
seem to be more approachable and more interactive now. There is much more
one-on-one and that is a good thing for sailors who had a poor high school
education. But, still,” he said, “instructors have been a mixed bag. Some ok.
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Some care and some really don’t care at all. They get to go to sea, have a free
vacation and see things. But mostly, they are fine.” With Sam, I discussed the
issue of how to increase the enrollment of minorities in NCPACE, noting the
large proportion enlisted in the current Navy. “Yes,” he said, “the Navy is much
more diverse now. There are many more minorities taking classes now, though,
than ever before. A lot join for the educational benefits. 1 think the best thing to
do would be to increase the diversity of teachers. Mostly it has been white males,
retired military. I have noticed, though, that when we have a minority teacher
aboard, minority enrollment really increases. That would be a good
recommendation for PACE, to increase instructors’ diversity.”
The final question I asked my interviewees had to do with the ships’
educational research resources-its quality and availability. Sam stated that the
“whole area of study and research resources is a major weakness. On this ship,
for example, it is now half the size it once was because the ship’s store needed to
expand. Ship’s libraries are dying away because there is limited space and
because the Navy is depending more on the use of computers. Younger sailors
are increasingly less inclined to read books now that computer research is
possible. But I see a ship with only four free computers and six hundred marines
lined up to play video games. So this is a serious problem area on deployment.”
One of Bill’s major suggestions for NCPACE improvement related to research
resources. “We need to have better access, especially on the smaller ships.
Maybe internet access will help a lot, but we do not have very many computers
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available yet. When I had a land based course, I wrote a paper. I found all my
research on the web, worked very well. Better than the library. But with most
ships now, with limited access to the internet or an adequate library, this is a
problem area for improvement.”
Although many of the interviewees pointed out the research benefits of the
Internet, as a result of the September 11, 2001 event, defense security has been
tightened aboard all military installations, and the use of the internet by students
has been necessarily curtailed except for e-mail.
From these two senior NCPACE students, I gained several primary
impressions. First, both affirmed the notion that higher education has evolved into
a central activity among the U.S. Navy’s population. Although fewer than half of
the enlistees engaged in NCPACE afloat, a majority of the Navy force is enrolled
in higher education paid for by the Navy. As one executive officer pointed out,
“in this way, sailors can add up to $3,600 college tuition per year while on active
duty.” Following discharge, sailors have access to the tuition benefits of the GI
Bill to pursue additional degrees or take college courses.
Only! 0% enrollment
Through my investigation, I found the primary reasons for the average 10%
NCPACE enrollment aboard ship stated as
• Difficulty in the arrangement of work and study schedules
• Lack of appropriate courses
• Inconsistent pattern of command support
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These two senior students confirmed the role of chiefs as direct role models
and mentors for younger sailors. Both highlighted the influence the command
structure brought into advocacy for sailors’ higher education. These two students
made clear that NCPACE and other college programs served the self-interest of
the Navy’s operations.
Third, Bill and Sam each raised a problem alluded to by many of the younger
sailors I interviewed: namely, how to arrange sequences of courses to permit the
completion of the A. A. degree on a 2- or 3-year plan.
Compared to the perceptions of the younger students, I found general
agreement about the main benefits of NCPACE. Also, on all ships I found a
congruence of views about primary areas needed for improvement. I found that
participants generally think that NCPACE needs not a major overhaul, simply a
“tooling up,” as one student put it.
The possibilities for primary improvements, in summary, are:
• Increase faculty diversity as part of a plan to attract the
interest of minority students
• Improve curriculum and course scheduling strategies
• Enhance quality of teaching and learning
• Improve research resources
• Increase and improve orientation of new sailors in
NCPACE
• Resolve the work/study scheduling problem
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Ships ’patterns in enrollment and retention
Upon each ship investigated, I found that the NCPACE student population
hovered around 10% of the crew. On the aircraft carriers, the entire enrollment for
each ship reached about six hundred each term. On the 350 crew destroyers
reviewed, the enrolled student population ranged from 35 to 22. On the four
hundred-fifty crew supply ship, the NCPACE student population numbered 47
students.
How to expand this percentage is an ongoing challenge for the Navy, largely
delegated to the educational service officers on each ship. All eight ESOs
interviewed counted upon the core group of NCPACE students to assist in the
primary recruitment of new enrollees. The core group’s incentive helped to
assure the offering of college courses. The Navy College contract with Central
Texas College requires a minimum of 10 to authorize a course. Several long term
ESOs indicated that the Navy’s increased advocacy of advanced education,
improved incentives and tuition benefits gave NCPACE a higher profile in recent
years. Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, for example, all the interviewees
highlighted the captain’s one day meeting with the entire ship’s crew. At this
session, the captain and his top staff focused upon the benefits and value of higher
education programs, particularly NCPACE.
On all ships, newly arrived sailors participated in the ship’s general orientation
meeting. Six of the eight commanding officers directed that NCPACE enrollment
be stressed in these training sessions. On the two other ships, the ESOs made
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available NCPACE brochures. On ships where the command placed a significant
emphasis upon NCPACE, I found the chain of command normally seemed to
make an effort to accommodate and support students’ studies amidst work
schedules. On several of the smaller ships where the command delegated the
advocacy task to the ESO, I found increased scheduling difficulties and resistance
by work group bosses (enlisted Chief Petty Officers) toward students taking work
time for courses increased. According to some students interviewed, some
members of the work groups reflected this resistance or made negative comments
about the NCPACE courses. Some of the younger, less self-assured students I
interviewed, particularly minorities, stated that negative workplace conditions
caused them to hesitate or drop from NCPACE studies.
Aboard ships that enjoyed forthright command support, lower-level resistance
evaporated. On the two aircraft carriers, some work supervisors and work groups
went so far as to give support and praise to students who did well in their courses.
On one ship, several of my students invited their work groups to listen to them
practice their course speeches during less pressured moments.
To my question about how NCPACE enrollment, especially among
minorities, might be increased, ESO John replied that the ship’s command
structure made all the difference. “On this ship, the captain and the executive
officer made a big thing out of PACE during every orientation o f new sailors.
This was followed up in several work areas where I was asked to speak about the
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program to smaller groups of sailors. All of this effort explains why we have such
a large number of sailors in the PACE program. I think we might have the largest
number in the Navy. Supervisory staff knew that the C.O. and the X.O. wanted
this, so many adjusted students’ work schedules to accommodate course work.”
For students new both to college studies and the Navy, their primary support
and peer group is their work group. Afloat workstations normally operate on 10-
hour shifts. When work teams and supervisors gave support to NCPACE,
students’ academic retention remained high. Without this support from the
primary support group, new students, particularly minorities who were
unconfident or uncertain about their academic skills, or left to their own academic
devices, often dropped out or failed.
Educational services officer’ s roles
The key operator aboard each ship, the educational service officers influenced
largely the program’s effectiveness. On all ships, the ESO role was assigned as a
collateral duty held among varied other responsibilities. The two aircraft carriers
sponsored the largest numerical student population. Thereupon each ESO had a
support staff to administer the program. On the smaller ships, also enrolling
about 10% of the crew, the ESO managed the program alone. I found the degree
of his or her enthusiasm for NCPACE to be a determining factor in student
retention, enrollment, numbers of minorities, course sequence planning for degree
purposes and effective publicity in the ship’s communication networks.
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On one mid-sized ship, the chaplain, already carrying a large pastoral
schedule, expressed dismay that he had been assigned the ESO responsibility. His
NCPACE program suffered the lowest percentage o f enrollment, a high
withdrawal rate, and the recurrence of work/study conflicts. Due largely to the
efforts of two senior chief petty officers, this ship’s NCPACE program struggled
to overcome the mediocre command support for it.
On board one of the largest ships, I met the African American ESO, a mustang
officer who came up through the ranks, enrolled in NCPACE to earn his A. A.
degree. Later, he proceeded to earn a B.A. and an M.B.A. He stated his
commitment to the NCPACE program. He made major efforts to advocate
college courses to the enlisted, especially minorities. Although the 10% level
held on this ship as well, the number of African Americans and Latino American
enrollment proved greater than on any other ship investigated.
As the direct link between the Navy’s command and enlisted students, the ESO
arranged student recruitment, testing, enrollment, record transmission and overall
management of each ship’s academic term. He or she arranged for classrooms,
managed the activities, and evaluated the work of the faculty. On the larger ships,
I found that these auxiliary duties centered on enlistment training and testing
programs, while on smaller ships the ESO was a junior officer or a senior enlisted
crew member who had other jobs to do unrelated to academics.
One key recurrent suggestion I received from the educational service officers
was their expressed need for formal training. In my view, each ESO I observed
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understood his or her job based upon self-study of appropriate training manuals.
Each claimed to leam on the job or as a result of his or her own earlier NCPACE
student experience. Most educational service officers interviewed stated they
tried to respond to students who requested counseling and support, but admitted
that more formal training would be beneficial. Based upon my interviews and
questionnaires among students, I concluded that many of the expressed needs for
counseling, academic advisement, faculty orientation, and training could be
resolved by more effective ESO training programs and fewer multidirected ESO
work responsibilities.
Each ESO interviewed noted the major problem presented by the need to
accommodate class schedules and work schedules on a “24/7” ship’s operations
schedule while assuring courses availability for the maximum number of students.
On smaller ships, able to afford one or two faculty, I found this problem
particularly acute. Night work shifts or day work shifts and available class times
seldom could be integrated, unless the instructor worked out a split-sleeping plan.
On larger ships, with four or more instructors, some of the faculty provided
courses in the middle of the night to serve students who were free in those hours.
Or, on some smaller ships, courses one term would be offered in the daytime one
term and in the nighttime the next term. As a result of the work and study
schedule problem, ESOs often became lightning rods for personnel difficulties
between students and their work supervisors or between students who missed
classes and faculty. In my investigation, I found three ships’ ESOs tried to
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minimize this problem prior to enrollment with the requirement that workplace
bosses signed an endorsement of the student’s study plans.
ESOs and their staffs tried to provide academic counseling and to support
course activities while ships were underway. At naval bases, Navy College offices
provided these services. Upon the eight ships investigated, only two ESOs had
sought the billet. None of the eight received any formal training for the
responsibility other than to read the administrative manual. Clearly, this training
absence is a major flaw in the overall NCPACE operations. Although training
programs are provided by the Navy College system, none of the ESOs
interviewed had the opportunity for orientation prior to the assignment. None was
sent by the Navy’s detailing office to a ship as a result of his or her special
training for this billet. Subsequently, two stated an intention to take the 2-week
training program when they returned to shore duty. Others had different career
objectives for this advancement plan.
I selected two educational service officers to present the voice of this key
function and both had sought the billet. Lt. Costa, aboard a small destroyer, and
Ensign George, aboard a large amphibious ship, expressed dedication to the
NCPACE program. Both pointed to their own higher education pursuits as a
major reason for their rapid advancement to the officer’s rank.
Lt. Costa said, “I volunteered for the job. I believe in education. When I
enlisted I started taking PACE courses right away. In time I completed my degree.
My Navy rating went up steadily.” Assigned to the destroyer, he took on the ESO
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position out of a sense of commitment and interest in education. “I really go to
work on recruiting students here. I tell them my story. We are pretty successful
in getting students here,” he said, “and sometimes we are able to have two
professors as a result.” Costa also administered the distance-learning program.
Costa, though, had no preparation for the position apart from his personal study of
the manuals. “Because of my own PACE work, I knew pretty much what needed
to be done. I hope to go to an ESO preparation meeting when I get back.” During
my tour aboard this destroyer, I noticed that Costa often checked in with the
students to see how they were doing, to leam if he could be of any help. Highly
respected by the enlisted men and the officers aboard, Lt. Costa’s own personable
skill and experience proved him to be an excellent de facto academic and personal
counselor.
Ensign George, managed as large NCPACE program as ESO on a ship with a
population base that ranged between three and four thousand managed a large
NCPACE program. A career sailor, he had earned his MBA while in the service.
“When 1 first enlisted, I enrolled in PACE. I kept at my education without
stopping, whether on deployment or shore duty. With a mixture of instructor
based classes and computer based, I completed my master’s.” As an African
American, George stated a high interest in being a role model for minorities going
to college. “I seldom stop talking about PACE as an opportunity to advance in
every way,” George said.
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I taught four classes on the large amphibious ship. In each, the majority of
those enrolled were African Americans and Latino Americans. George told me
that he worked steadily to promote the program throughout the year. He set up
what he called, “mini-graduation ceremonies” and other public
acknowledgements of student achievement. As a result, many minorities enrolled
and succeeded in the course work. When the ship was set to undergo some
remodeling, George and several of the NCPACE core group lobbied to build and
equip a special classroom in a unique space next to the hull o f the ship. On
occasion, this space became such a popular location for Marine training programs
as well as NCPACE courses that, on several occasions during my term, a standoff
on priorities between the two occurred, finally to be resolved by the executive
officer of the ship.
When I asked Costa and George about some students’ perceived lack of
research resources, both indicated that this would be less of a problem as the
Navy increased its provision of computers with web access. Both agreed that
physical libraries on ships appeared to be less available than in the past.
Educational service officers confirmed students’ views that enrollment,
retention, and academic success increased when the command made an assertive
effort to advocate NCPACE, coupled with shipboard public recognition of student
achievements both through celebration and rank advancement.
I learned that ESOs recognized students’ stated desire for increased academic
counseling and support services, although few felt sufficiently trained to provide
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it in a comprehensive way. I learned that ESOs, in general, desire more training
to do a more effective job. I did not receive much feedback from the ESOs on
faculty evaluation, perhaps because they had little control over the instructor
assignment process. Some ESOs indicated that they received faculty who,
sometimes, had difficult adjustments to ship culture and the irregular scheduling
posed by the Navy’s defense mission activities. ESOs uniformly declined to
make evaluative comments about faculty whom they had observed in their ship’s
programs. One ESO did state, off the record, that Central Texas College needed
to improve its orientation of new faculty.
Clearly, the data shows that additional academic counseling and support
provided by well-trained educational service officers is needed. Clearly, the billet
needs to be upgraded in importance and status among officers aboard ships.
Given the Navy’s huge budget outlay for education, the ESOs should trained as
rigorously as, for example, a ship’s engineering officer is selected, trained,
evaluated, and assigned to his or her key job in the ship’s operations.
Faculty observations
In person or by telephone, I interviewed seven NCPACE faculty members:
four had served on many ships, three fewer. I wanted to leam their impressions
and perceptions based upon their experiences teaching afloat, their views about
NCPACE at every level of its operations, and its strengths and weaknesses.
Although integral to the NCPACE college program, I found that its adjunct
faculty considered themselves, at the same time, somewhat peripheral to it. The
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instructors had no policy-making role either in the Navy College program or the
various academic departments of Central Texas College. All NCPACE
instructors are hired as part time adjuncts to Central Texas College faculty. The
college department chairs selected the course textbooks, provided the course
syllabi, and determined course objectives. The associate dean of the Navy Pacific
Campus of CTC told me that none o f the Department Chairs had served as
NCPACE professors or had any particular expertise with shipboard life other than
their possible naval service at an earlier period in their careers.
Within these prescribed restrictions, NCPACE faculty presented their own
course lectures and decided students’ grades. Among my interviewees, I learned
that all ignored the prescribed syllabus, substituting their own without notification
to the college. Their evaluative comments on the CTC syllabi generally dismissed
them for qualitative reasons or their unsuitability for the shipboard context and
student characteristics. Three mentioned that the stated syllabi objectives and
required textbooks did not match the general academic skills or academic
preparation of a typical sailor student enrolled at a community college level in a
6- to 8-week course. Complaints about the selected textbooks emerged from
many students as well as all interviewed faculty.
NCPACE procedures, governed by the oversight of the American Council on
Education, require students to evaluate the instructors at the end of the courses.
Instructors, I found, had no formal means to submit formal evaluations of the
programs or courses or to describe a particular ship’s educational context.
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However, I found that several NCPACE instructors informally submitted
evaluations of courses, textbooks, ship’s academic personnel, and resources. From
faculty members interviewed, I learned that, apart from a partial-day NCPACE
procedures orientation led by the subcontractor college, adjunct instructors
received no specialized training about teaching in this unique educational context
aboard a Naval vessel afloat.
Experienced NCPACE faculty listed several factors that condition the
educational context:
• High proportion of students with limited or inadequate educational
background suitable for college level studies.
• High proportion of students who needed remedial education in reading and
writing.
• The 6- to 8-week course term, conducted amidst 10-hour work days,
would challenge even academically-skilled college students.
• The format and content o f textbooks, and the syllabi expectations intended
to fulfill the American Council on Education’s academic accreditation
requirements are, de facto, largely inappropriate for the shipboard
educational context.
New instructors must have had prior academic level teaching experience to be
hired by CTC. Excepting one faculty member interviewed, none of the other six
had done so in a military setting. Long-time NCPACE instructors, I found, had
adapted their teaching systems to accommodate the differences between a normal
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land based campus and a Navy ship. As one pointed out, “I had to change my
normal teaching style because I did not know, from one day to the next, whether
we would have a class meeting or not, given military scheduling, or who would be
present.”
With these topics in mind, I selected representative interviews with three
long-time NCPACE faculty members to leam their perceptions of the program as
they have participated in it over a number of years and upon many ships. I sought
to leam instructors’ perceptions of the NCPACE program compared to their own
land based educational experience; peer review observations of the other
NCPACE instructors met; their comparison of NCPACE students aboard ship
with land based students; and suggestions on how NCPACE might be improved. I
interviewed these three NCPACE faculty members aboard an aircraft carrier in
November 2000 afloat in the Arabian Sea. The ship has one of the largest
numerical NCPACE enrollments of all Navy ships. During the fall term 2000, the
carrier enrolled over six hundred sailors and marines in NCPACE college courses.
Each of the professors interviewed taught four to five courses. Each had served,
periodically, as NCPACE instructors for many years.
Professor Cranmer
A tenured history professor from a Florida University stated his special
interest as U.S. military history. In the Vietnam era, he served in the Navy. He
has taught NCPACE courses for 10 years, usually in the summer time.
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We began our conversation about NCPACE as he compared land based
university students and NCPACE students.
“Generally,” he said, “PACE students are not as well prepared. This is not to
say that good ones are not here but they are the exception. Generally, the
academic level on the ship is much lower in PACE than the university.
“My impression is that there are many more minority students here than on
land based campuses in general, certainly mine. The majority that I have had in
my PACE courses have not been from the minority groups, but those who have
been seemed to me mostly below the sophistication of the other students. Most of
the PACE students are from a lower background. Lack of ability to write clearly
and correctly is most evident among this group. They really do not know any
better, sign of background. Yet, they are a challenge to us to educate them as
much as possible. High school has not prepared them well. I have seen many
indications of exceptional intelligence and potential, however.”
From this general comparison of students in different locations, I asked his
views on what might be improved in the NCPACE program. “Ships must have
libraries,” he said. “The Navy must become concerned that students have enough
time to study, enough time to do research and to have access to the necessary
resources. They have got to have time to study in addition to the time spent in
class. That is simply not made available now. If there are going to be courses
provided, then the Navy should do it right. Provide a time and a space that is
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suitable, no interruptions. The Navy needs to take the PACE program seriously
and soon. They need to provide a study space for the college students.
“I am certain that grades and academic quality would greatly improve if these
changes were made. Interest would increase and both the students and the Navy
would benefit. I think, in summary, that command support, better classroom
facilities and library resources are the primary needs.”
This professor had taught on over 20 ships for many years during his summer
breaks. His assignments included nearly all varieties of Navy ships; frigates,
destroyers, carriers, and amphibious. He has met many NCPACE faculty
members over these years. He is one of the few tenured professors employed by a
4-year university who teaches in the PACE program.
“If I hadn’t my interest in military history and the Navy in particular, I would
not be here,” he said. “I have found a goodly number of the PACE faculty
wanting in their discipline, their professionalism, and limited teaching skills. The
faculty selection needs to be improved. But looking at the pay and the
accommodations, it is not a wonder that lesser quality faculty are often selected.”
This interview raised the matter of NCPACE faculty evaluation procedures.
As presently arranged, during the closing session, the NCPACE faculty member
is responsible to distribute a 1 -page short-answer evaluation question form. Each
student is required to complete it, sign it and return it to the NCPACE instructor.
The Navy requires that there be one evaluation form for each student registered in
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each course. The evaluations are presented to the instructor prior to the
determination of the grades.
I asked the professor his views on this procedure. “I think it is wrong. The
PACE evaluation questions are so inane and poorly arranged that they are useless.
And the teacher sees them prior to grading-this needs to be changed. In every
academic institution I know of, the instructor does not see student evaluations
until after they are reviewed and the grades are posted. For quality control
purposes, the PACE evaluation procedure needs to be changed. Evals could be
used to remove teachers who are poor.
“The improvement of the PACE evaluation system would be of much more
benefit to all concerned if the forms are redone, distribution is handled by the
ESO or someone other than the faculty member, and not seen by the instructor
until after the grades are completed. This is an important change to advocate for
many reasons.”
In discussion of the NCPACE students’ academic quality and the role of
good teaching, this professor said, “I think the real problem is that change needs
to start at the high school level and below to improve things. College should not
be in the remedial activity. This should be done prior to college. Here we find the
great need for remedial work, in every course. The students should not get
college credit here if they are doing primarily remedial work.
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“On another level, the better students suffer from the lack of academic
resources, time, weariness, and the inability to find courses that they want and
need for their degree program.”
As for my question on what is good teaching, he replied, ‘I think it is to have
rapport with students, to be interested in them as persons and to invite their
response, more than just grades. Good teaching is the ability to whet the students’
appetite for the subject you are teaching. If you can build interest, then that is
good teaching. For the students already interested you can build on that and that
is good teaching.”
This professor set forth an overview of faculty problem areas in the NCPACE
program:
• The oft-remedial level of the NCPACE students, particularly minorities
• The inadequate availability of shipboard research materials and libraries
• General lack of quality among NCPACE faculty by comparison to his
university colleagues
• Lack of a mechanism for the ongoing evaluation and improvement of the
program
I found that other faculty members I interviewed held many of these
observations. In the next representative interview the professor brought a unique
perspective as a retired Marine Corps officer and a graduate of the U.S. Naval
Academy at Annapolis.
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Professor and retired Marine Officer
Not long before my interview with him, this professor had resigned as a
anthropology faculty member at a California State University. A veteran o f the
Vietnam war, he lost his lower left leg in combat. He wore as prosthetic device.
Fully able to climb ship’s ladders, carry luggage, and do the other normal physical
requirements set by the Navy for NCPACE instructors during off-term periods at
the university, this professor has taught on Navy ships for over 10 years. On this
assignment he taught cultural anthropology and geography. Popular with students,
he was on a repeat assignment on the ship. He had the largest number of enrollees
among the five instructors during the term. He believed his military background
and experience provided part of the reason for the high enrollment.
“I am a person who interacts with students a lot,” he said,” I present, I do not
lecture. I like to present in an atmosphere that is casual but controlled, students
give a much better response to the discipline. I have read my reviews. I am
pleased.”
Prompted by my question about his impression o f NCPACE faculty quality,
he said, “I think there should be strict quality guidelines for faculty. My
impression is that the credentialing, the hiring, the review process is of poor
quality over all. Most PACE students are transfer-oriented. They are bright for
the most part. They deserve good teachers. There should be a guarantee that they
have learned something from a quality professor. This is most important. This
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whole area needs much more oversight and development from both the Navy and
Central Texas College.
“I also agree with my colleagues who you have interviewed that the student
evaluation system needs to be reconceived completely. It is not the best. The
misbehaving professors need to be out o f the system. A thorough ship’s critique
of the instructors is the way to improve the quality of instructors and instruction.
“I think, also, that we instructors should be asked to write a thorough
evaluation of the ship’s PACE program and send it to the Navy and the College. I
do it on my own anyway after each tour.”
With regard to improvements needed for the NCPACE program, he noted the
limited library resources, lack of adequate computer access, and the textbooks. “I
would like to have more control over my textbook choice. The college just sends
whatever they like. This frustrates me a great deal. I have to work around it. I
have students who are excited about the topics. They are curious. They have not
heard this information before. They want to learn once the topics are opened for
them. They are excited. They should have good textbooks.
“About the students, I have had more minority students on the ship than in
my land based campus. The young group just out of high school is mostly
missing from PACE courses. The students I have are a bit older, have more
specific objectives, are more self- motivated. I am pleased to have them and work
with them.
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“I have found, though, that many of the minorities, the Blacks, the Latinos had
poor high school preparation, they are missing the academic basics. The
intelligence is equal to all, but academic preparation, family background are the
major problems for their ability to succeed in college.
“Then I have a lot of Anglos who lost interest in school or other problems and
joined the Navy to figure things out. That was my story. I came from a poor
family in the Midwest. No one in my family had any college. I had to leave that
group, join the military. Later, when I could, I started taking classes and made my
way through the doctorate. I think the PACE program is great opportunity to
draw minorities into higher education.”
This professor, as a devoted Marine veteran, expressed his interested in the
role the military command structure could play in PACE activities. He stated,
“the command support for PACE varies from ship to ship. Last one I was on the
C.O. was not at all interested in it. The program was a weak one, full of problems
as a result. The students were underserved. This ship is tops in the Navy. The
C.O. is tops, he is determined to have a superior PACE program, and it filters
down the chain of command. There is a good response all over this ship as a
result, at every level.
“The C.O. can make certain there is an effective educational services officer
in charge. Usually, the ESO has the job as a collateral duty, but many do not like
it. This duty needs to be improved a lot all over the Navy. The ESOs need more
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training, more commitment and more enthusiasm for the program. On this ship we
have an excellent one but that is a rare thing, I have found. The whole ESO
system needs to be improved.”
In this interview, I found his remarks about teaching and learning coincided
with the views o f other students interviewed:
• A preference for interactive teaching
• An emphasis upon practical applicability of course work
• An improved evaluation system
• An appreciation of the unique military context that holds both a demand
for excellence in work habits and challenges to create a balance
work/study schedule
His Marine Corps status, especially his extensive combat experience and leg
loss, seemed to create a specific credibility among students based upon their
shared military experience and honored values. Some faculty, students, and ESOs
interviewed expressed a view that greater numbers of minority faculty might
serve to increase enrollment. In this professor’s case, a 60 year-old Anglo male
veteran, provided a different form of identity, honored by service members as one
of their own.
For the third representative faculty interview, I located a professor who
reflected equal concern for teaching quality issues and improved research
resources yet specifically placed his emphasis upon the student development or
what he called, “educating the whole person.”
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The North Carolina Professor, now retired
In this interview, the NCPACE professor emphasized issues of student
development, academic counseling, and student affairs. Although the interview
covered the same questions asked of the other faculty members, he drew upon his
lengthy experience as a human resources administrator both in the Navy and in a
subsequent academic career.
As a retired career Navy master chief, he served as the highest-ranked
enlisted man on a ship. He expressed his devotion to the Navy and the NCPACE
program. He started his academic career while in the service. During the Vietnam
era, he was asked by the Navy to develop the first series of human relations
seminars to deal with significant racial conflicts among sailors. These seminars
and programs became a centerpiece for subsequent Navy orientation and training
programs. He continued to pursue his research and interest in education and
public affairs as he completed his doctoral program after his Navy retirement. For
several years, he served as an administrator and teacher in the North Carolina
higher education system. After early retirement from this system he started to
teach on Navy ships nearly year round. He has taught on all types of Navy
vessels. He teaches Math and Psychology. His great interest is human relations
education and training. He said, “many of the racial tensions seen among sailors
during the 1960s have been minimized now as a result of improved training,
improved advancement opportunities, and complete integration.”
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He brought to his NCPACE teaching considerable experience and
understanding about the many aspect of a ship’s operations:
• The ship’s primary defense and military strategy mission
• Maintenance of the ship afloat
• Management of complex human relations and resources aboard a
tightly compacted, multicultural, multigenerational and gender-diverse
population
• Leadership of innovation, change, training activities constantly
underway in the responsive, always ready and alert militaiy
organization
We started the interview with discussion of faculty evaluation. “PACE has a
poor format for students to evaluate faculty. It should change to a different,
statistical system, not to be seen by the faculty until after the evals are sent to the
school and the Navy, then to the teachers following the grading process.
“My impression of the instructors has led me to think that PACE should work
on the improvement of faculty teaching skills focused by the Navy constituency
and situation. And, I think there definitely should be an improvement in the
evaluation of the instructor’s credentials definitely both for experience in teaching
and academic quality. Overall, I think PACE instructors are a mixed group in
terms of academic quality and teaching expertise.
“There is a need to improve compensation, improve recruitment in order to
better the quality and retention of effective faculty.”
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In review of specific ways to improve the PACE operations aboard ships, he
said, “the worst problems are inadequate library resources, overcrowded computer
labs, and the work schedule that needs to be looked at so that students have
enough time and energy to study to prepare for their classes, and to do their jobs.
The course schedule needs to fit well with the work schedule, to provide sufficient
study time outside of class and work. Very little of that is possible underway. The
students suffer and educational objectives are not fulfilled. Maybe it is almost
impossible to have a good program with twelve hours a day work, then twelve off
to sleep and incidentals. Overall it is not working well at present.
“I have wondered about other patterns for the courses, to accommodate the
realistic situation. I have thought about a weekend intensive program for all
students all day long, perhaps over a month’s time, to cover the material in
different ways. There may be other ideas to consider.”
This professor stated that he made a point to meet with each student on an
individual basis two or three times during each term. “I meet with them not only
to catch up on how they are doing in the course but also to talk about their goals,
their academic plans and how to succeed in college,” he said. “I have found many
times that students have not learned how to study, how to prepare for
examinations. Often I will find students who are bright but lack self-confidence
in their ability to learn. I count these meetings as an integral part of my PACE
work, for these students, for the most part, are not traditional college students.
They do have a deep desire to improve themselves. Many joined the Navy in
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response to that desire. They perceive a college degree as part of that
improvement process. On board ship, for these 8-week terms we live and work
with students daily. There are countless opportunities for faculty who make
themselves available to interact with students outside of the classroom. It is a
natural place to create a thorough-going academic community.”
From this interview with this uniquely experienced professor, I learned that
• NCPACE administration needs to change its faculty recruitment,
orientation, and training policies focused by the intention to
enhance quality teaching and learning within a naval educational
context.
• There should be an objective process developed whereby a faculty
member or other appropriate staff attends to student academic
advisement, particularly among less experienced or inadequately
prepared students.
• NCPACE needs to consider different course scheduling patterns to
resolve more effectively the work and study time tensions.
• NCPACE needs to develop an academic skills orientation that
trains new students how to study, how to learn, how to fulfill
written requirements, how to conduct research, and how to read
academic materials.
All the faculty members I interviewed had specific interest in NCPACE
teaching, however, these three representative faculty agreed that there is much
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more to this academic responsibility than solely presenting the subject matter of a
particular discipline. All three looked at the NCPACE operations in a
comprehensive way to note its areas of strengths and weaknesses.
For the last data report in this chapter, I interviewed each member of a typical
NCPACE course taught aboard the USS Constellation. I asked each about his or
her personal background, educational history, current and future academic plans,
and professional aspirations. I asked each about his or her impressions of the
NCPACE program, the problem areas and recommendations for improvements. I
kept a daily journal about the 16 class members to serve as a composite record. I
noted attendance, and detailed unexpected drills or other ship’s events that
affected the normal course procedures including military actions, refueling,
emergencies, and some individual students’ accidents or illness.
For the data gathering, I selected a communications course that I taught over
an 8-week period. Through this field observation, I wanted to test the observations
of previous interviewees as well as to record the class interactions over a term. I
aimed to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the NCPACE program within a
specific locale that others had identified within the data gathering interviews.
Classroom observation
In previous sections of this chapter I presented data gathered from individual
students, educational service officers and faculty about NCPACE. For this
section, I describe what takes place in a typical class during one 8-week term. I
selected a public speaking course required for the Associate of Arts degree. I
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taught this course aboard the USS Constellation during July and August 2001
while underway in the Persian Gulf.
There were 16 students enrolled in the course. Among the 16, there were two
females, five Latinos, four African Americans, two foreign nationals, five Whites.
O f the total, 6 were Marines and 10 Sailors. The age ranged from 6 who were 25
years or younger to 10 students who were in their 30s. Two were newly enlisted,
while the others’ enlistment ranged from 2 to 15 years.
Eight enlisted soon after high school graduation. Two dropped out of high
school and earned a General Education Degree in the military. Six indicated they
had taken college or university courses prior to enlistment. Four o f the college
dropouts stated they did so for financial reasons, two dropped for failing grades.
Four intended to complete the A. A. degree as part of their Navy career plans,
while 12 intended to pursue a bachelor’s or higher degree as part of their career
planning.
The class met on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for 90 minutes in the
late afternoon. This time slot permitted some of the students who worked the
morning shift to come to class after work, while others attended before the start of
their duty. Ten students had their bosses’ permission to adjust work schedules in
order to take the course. Six students enrolled in the course because it was
available during anticipated off-work schedule. O f the 10 with bosses’
permission, 6 were Marines.
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As part of their overall discipline system, the Marine students reported to
their respective superiors weekly on their course work to indicate progress and
grades status. I found the Marine students always prepared and determined to
succeed. They often requested my help, they often asked me “How am I doing?”
The Marine students’ evident support and accountability outside of the course
seemed to be anticipated by the sailors. However, seldom did a sailor ask me
about his or her progress or ask for course work assistance. Absences or tardiness
among the sailors became high during unexpected ship’s activities or
emergencies. Marines on board were mainly on scheduled training activities
without responsibility for the ship’s operations, therefore they seldom had a
problem attending class. Sailors held responsibility for the ship’s operations and
maintenance. During informal moments in the course work, an undercurrent of
teasing competition between the two services emerged as one branch member
might say to another, well, “you have nothing else to do but exercise and eat.”
Four of the sailors with particular responsibility for the flight deck often missed
when intensive aircraft takeoff and landings were underway. Two of the sailors
called upon their work groups to serve as practice audiences for the speech
assignments. Three of the sailors who fell behind in their course work
assignments required extra tutoring by the instructor. The two female students,
one a Marine and the other Navy, expressed to me their determination to succeed
in college studies. Both stated various difficulties they experienced as females
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working in a predominately all-male service. Both expressed the view that they
enrolled in NCPACE to accelerate their rank advancement.
Two Latino students and two African American students, all in their late teens,
indicated they had joined the Navy to avoid gang warfare or other urban problems
to respond to their family’s desire for their achievement. Early in the course, their
class work revealed a need for remedial education in composition, reading, and
study habits. Three expressed difficulty in balancing work and class schedules.
One dropped out of the course after the fourth week. The others sought help and
received it. They passed the course.
Apart from the 24 course meetings, I conducted 6 extra, small-group sessions
for students who had missed due to emergency drills or refueling. I found this
practice normal procedure for NCPACE instructors. I conducted eight tutorial
sessions for four students at various times. During the emergency drills (called
“General Quarters” or “Man-Overboard”), the entire ship’s company stopped all
scheduled activity and reported to drill stations. This drill included the instructors.
During refueling activities or other major military events, various segments of the
class indicated their required absence. Two of the students, assigned to the
medical group, were on constant readiness in case of emergencies.
In a course that required the research, preparation, and delivery of four
speeches, access to research resources proved difficult, because the library often
was secured from use. Long lines of sailors and Marines waited regularly outside
computer lab rooms with Internet access to send e-mail. At other times, for
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security reasons, Internet access was prevented. During the deployment of the
USS Constellation, a 3-day quasi-liberty period was set aside when the ship
entered a port for supplies and refueling. Due to the hostile environment in the
nearby United Arab Emirates cities, liberty was restricted to a highly guarded
USO oasis. Even so, having been at sea for many weeks, all the NCPACE
instructors cancelled classes after being advised that few students were likely to
attend.
In the 8-week NCPACE term afloat, I found that instruction schedules
required my class scheduling to be flexible. Several extra sessions had to be
arranged for students who had been absent due to duty calls. I found all students
conscientiously tried to complete assignments in a timely manner. However, I
also found that I had to adjust course requirements and due dates to accommodate
unexpected circumstances and absences. Through my interviews with other
faculty members, I found they had experienced comparable challenges in course
management.
On all eight ships investigated, I found that NCPACE courses proceeded in
comparable ways. Experienced faculty adjusted well to unexpected and
emergency events through flexible management and extra sessions.
Inexperienced NCPACE faculty expressed frustration with the irregularity of
attendance and class interruptions. One faculty member aboard the USS Abraham
Lincoln who tried to maintain his familiar land based course plans lost all but two
of his students. I found some students dropped course work when their work
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schedules interfered to the degree that they felt unconfident of scholastic success.
Most students, however, I found to be persistent and determined in their college
endeavors. In my individual interviews with each member of this particular class,
I heard repeatedly intentions to earn a college degree.
Together the students represented a confederation of varied backgrounds
determined to earn a degree as part of a plan to succeed in a profession. With few
exceptions, due to economic conditions, social status, or environmental pressures,
most of students interviewed stated that they probably would not have been able
to earn a college degree apart from the military opportunities for it. For these
students the Navy’s support, advancement incentives, and disciplined military
training appeared to be significant factors to account for their present academic
achievements. In every interview with a NCPACE student who was an ongoing
core group member, I found he or she determined to earn a degree. The additional
military support, both financial and moral, seemed to assure the possibility.
What does all this mean?
In chapter 4 ,1 presented the views and experiences of NCPACE constituents
at varied places and stages of involvement in the program. These views included
• Stories and observations of students new to the program or long-time
participants in it
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• The perceptions of six educational service officers and three long-time
NCPACE faculty members who identified convergent strengths and
weaknesses, and made proposals for improvements to resolve persistent
problems
• A description of what takes place in a typical NCPACE course, its
demographics, persistent scheduling problems, and teaching and learning
challenges
• A description of some of the strategies long-time NCPACE faculty
members have devised to manage educational challenges unique to a
military context
The data gathered from the individual interviews, focus groups and
questionnaires I presented in the subdivisions of this chapter as a way to portray
an enlarged picture ofNCPACE. In doing so, I intended to establish the bases
and parameters for policy proposals to improve and strengthen NCPACE focused
upon goals for the individual service members5 access, retention, and academic
success. Three earlier major NCPACE research projects discussed in the
literature review focused upon dimensions of the program other than its personal
impact upon individual military college students. None o f these projects
contained any substantial consideration of the unique opportunity ofNCPACE to
promote higher education among nontraditional populations. This research project
sought to complement previous research in ways that gave emphasis to student
learning and the teaching context.
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In chapter 5 ,1 provide further analysis and descriptions of the data from
chapter 4 and additional data obtained from questionnaires to supplement or
corroborate individual and focus groups’ observations. In chapter 5 ,1 identify
areas for additional research. In conclusion, chapter 5 will identify policy
recommendations for changes in the United States Navy’s Program for Afloat
College Education.
Through my investigation, I found all the NCPACE constituents to be
convinced of the program’s value to individual sailors and to the progress of the
Navy’s human resources pursuits. Noted as a way to upgrade the learning
abilities and skills of sailors located in an increasingly complex military
organization, NCPACE stands in need of significant particular policy changes.
These will be discussed in the following chapter’s data analysis to support
specific recommendations for NCPACE policy changes and improvements.
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Chapter 5: Discussion, Recommendations, and Conclusions
Background
In chapter four, I presented the results of a series of interviews about NCPACE
conducted among representative participants aboard eight ships during periodic
deployments over 3 years. I sought to learn the perceptions of students who, in
particular, might be considered nontraditional and underrepresented in land based
campuses. Although my interviews were not limited to this category, I aimed to
learn from them the strengths and weaknesses ofNCPACE in ways that weaved
in their issues with representative perspectives from faculty, U.S. Navy
educational leadership, contracting college administrators, and traditional
populations of enlisted students.
My three primary research categories focused upon participants’ perceptions of
quality in NCPACE, measured by their knowledge and impressions of good
learning and teaching: and upon their recommendations to strengthen the
NCPACE organization, educational activities, and the ways in which NCPACE
successes might provide models elsewhere for the improvement of educational
objectives among nontraditional or under-represented student constituencies.
Stated specifically, the research questions included
• What can be learned about the quality ofNCPACE educational
activities from the experiences and reflections of its participants?
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• In what ways should NCPACE strengthen its organization, teaching,
and learning activities to attract, retain and assist naval personnel to
succeed in higher education, especially nontraditional or
underrepresented constituencies?
• In what ways could NCPACE provide useful models for the
improvement of land based higher education’s enrollment, retention
and success of nontraditional college students and underrepresented
constituencies?
To build upon NCPACE participants’ interviews and their representative
reflections presented in the previous chapter, I present my major findings in this
chapter to clarify the implications of the primary research questions, to identify
significant issues in the program, to set forth areas for possible future research,
and to conclude with a summary statement.
As a result of this investigation, I found a broad range o f concerns, issues, and
observations about the overall NCPACE program, its impact upon sailor students,
and measures of quality in higher education institutions. Among these, I highlight
four major findings to organize and identify by category most o f what I found:
• The U.S. Navy’s provision of higher education opportunities is a major
incentive for enlistment among demographic groups underrepresented
in land based higher education institutions.
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• There is qualitative evidence that NCPACE enrolled students are eager
to obtain college degrees but need remedial education in language
skills, preparation for college level study and research, academic self-
confidence, and substantial changes in pedagogical approaches
appropriate to their cultural learning modes.
• There should be substantial concern about the quality and competence
ofNCPACE faculty to teach appropriately in the naval context among
every constituency interviewed, based upon widespread perceived
needs of this unique student population.
• There is significant variance in support for NCPACE activities among
ships’ chains of commands that ranged from high to low priority in the
overall military mission.
The four major findings that emerged from this research are framed by the
U.S. Navy’s substantial support for NCPACE, both to improve the caliber of its
crews and as an avenue for higher education among a population group impacted
by many factors: poor educational background: economic limitations: unsettled
social circumstances including, difficult adjustments to different living standards,
low self-esteem particularly in terms of academic ability; and uncertainty about
adult objectives.
Most of my interviewees referred to one or more of these factors as reasons for
enlistment in the military. For some, uncertain about their career choice,
enlistment represented a chance to make a fresh start or to set their life objectives.
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Each interviewee also referred to the Navy’s college education program as a key
incentive for their enlistment. The degree to which NCPACE course work
actually proved satisfactory for these students once enrolled is the subject o f the
second and third finding. The fourth finding considers the disparity found among
various ships’ support for NCPACE that affects and is affected by the other three
findings.
In presentation and discussion of these findings, this chapter is subdivided into
four sections:
• A convergent discussion of the interviews and questionnaires
organized by the research questions and primary findings
• Identification and discussion of significant issues for NCPACE reform
• Further exploration of significant strengths ofNCPACE that might be
important for general policy and planning in American higher
education leadership circles
• Conclusion
Qualitative perspectives on NCPACE
For the second chapter’s literature review, I found three earlier research
investigations about the United States Navy’s higher education programs. None
of the three studies contained data based upon extensive qualitative interviews
with student and faculty participants. The first study, composed by Professor
Stephen Bailey of Harvard University, provided a critical examination and report
of the NCPACE program in its early days (Bailey, 1979). Guided largely by the
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author’s comparisons of military higher education programs with the practices
and outcomes o f top ranked higher education academies, Bailey criticized
NCPACE as deficient in many areas. The other two subsequent studies presented
quantitative research data that measured and assessed effectiveness in the Navy’s
higher education programs (Joy, 1998; Garcia, Joy & Reese, 1998). These studies
examined statistical results from testing, numerical analyses ofNCPACE
evaluation reports, and grade records. The two studies compared the N avy’s
programs with similar categories of data received from selected land based
community colleges. The earlier Bailey study presented important theoretical
critiques of the overall NCPACE program aimed at its improvement or
continuation by comparison with top ranked higher education ideals (Bailey,
1979). The two subsequent studies provided quantitative data useful to locate
quantitative indicators of effectiveness by comparison with comparable land
based community colleges. This present research sought to obtain perceptions
and observations elicited from directly engaged NCPACE participants. Therefore
I initiated this investigation ofNCPACE from a different vantage point than the
other three studies.
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Discussion
In the following section, I discuss basically what I found from my interviews,
questionnaires, and observations:
• The overall philosophical objective ofNCPACE, although well-meaning,
is ineffectual in practice, based upon its primary constituents and their
educational needs.
• The Navy’s offer of college education is a primary incentive for
enlistment among nontraditional students from minority backgrounds.
• Nontraditional NCPACE students revealed major educational deficiencies
when presented with basic college level courses. Pedagogical methods
adapted to diverse mentalities, ways of learning, and educational interests
affected retention and academic success.
• Each ship’s size, category of mission activity and support level of the
chain of command affected the success and enrollment numbers in
NCPACE. Each ship’s informal NCPACE network played a powerful role
in the continuity and success of the program.
• The lack of adequate research resources, appropriate textbooks, and
skilled faculty represent the greatest challenges to the quality ofNCPACE.
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College education-an enlistment incentive
Mindful o f my research questions, 1 evaluated the educational quality of
NCPACE during a period when the U.S. military’s volunteer enlistment program
had reached a quarter century of experience. As the volunteer enlistment program
accelerated its recruitment activities, one central incentive became the offer of a
free college education. Among the nontraditional college aged sailors
interviewed, (minorities, the economically deprived, few family college mentors
or role models), I found that many enlisted to take advantage of higher education.
As a result, I paid particular attention to nontraditional students’ views about
NCPACE aimed at issues of their enrollment, retention, and academic success.
As I interviewed each student, faculty member or line administrator, I found
information and perspectives based upon his or her own NCPACE experience and
higher education objectives. Although my questions were topically similar,
respondents presented views nuanced by their individual histories, goals, or other
interests and, to some degree, the history of the NCPACE program on their
particular ship.
From the students, instructors, and Navy administrators interviewed, as well as
my own observation, I found NCPACE enrolled students largely limited in their
secondary school academic achievements. The opportunity to pursue a college
degree drew a group particularly determined to improve their life prospects in
ways that seemed unlikely at earlier periods in their stories. Achievement of a
college degree represented a major step in this direction. Among the students
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interviewed, I came to recognize the determination and ambition the students
expressed in their intention for self-improvement. As stated by these students, the
pursuit of higher education they believed would increase their future economic
status, would enhance their advancement while in the military, and enabled them
to take advantage of a major benefit to military enlistment, the Navy’s college
tuition program. As I interviewed sailor students, I normally asked about their
academic and family backgrounds. The majority of the students interviewed did
not come from families for whom higher education was a normal pursuit. Few
students had either or both parents who held postsecondary degrees. Few o f the
Latino students had been encouraged by family members or high school staff to
attend college. Many Latino students stated they came from families for whom
military service was a highly regarded objective, especially among young males.
Among the young Latinas I interviewed, those who enlisted stated they had to
make major breaks with the protective culture of Hispanic families towards young
women, even though enlistment in the military remained an honored act in the
culture. Mainly these Latinas stated they were highly determined to build their
own lives and careers. They sought to earn a college degree and advance as fast as
possible in military service. Some African Americans, from comparably lower
economic backgrounds, normally stated that one or both parents had urged them
to go to college even though few of the family members had pursued higher
education. Since the close of World War II when President Truman fully
integrated the Armed Services, for many African Americans the military services
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have been perceived as a location o f improved prospects for equal treatment,
personal advancement, and economic improvement. Building upon this access
opportunity, improved political and economic circumstances of African American
youth in the current era, children o f parents who came of age in the civil rights
era, could probably be expected to harbor greater higher education goals and other
ambitions attributable to the upwardly bound.
Most of the White and Asian students I interviewed from middle-or upper-
middle- class backgrounds gave a different reply to my questions about what
influenced their higher education ambitions in their pre-enlistment years. Most
either had considered it or had friends or family members who had attended
college or received degrees. Many o f the Anglos stated they chose not to attend
college right after high school because they were tired of education and wanted to
see the world. Others stated they could not afford college at that time after high
school. For most White and Asian students I interviewed or questioned, higher
education was a considered option that seemed important or possible at some
point in the future. Several interviewees from these groups noted that, at first,
they had been tired of school and wanted to “see the world” as the Navy slogan
puts it, and so they joined later to begin college courses prior to discharge. The
Navy’s higher education benefits became a major incentive for their enlistments.
Among the Latinos and African American students interviewed, few had any
family members with college backgrounds. For most, college represented an
unknown world, a location quite remote from their experience. The Navy’s offer
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and active encouragement of higher education or persuasive activities by
shipmates of similar backgrounds provided the stimulus for most to enroll in
college classes while aboard ship.
All of this is to say that the NCPACE students comprised a group with
different patterns of purposes: specific degree objectives for future careers, a
means to advance more rapidly in Navy rank and obtain economic benefits, a
desire to fulfill family members’ hopes for their sons or daughters, and a way to
improve their minds and fill time while on long Naval deployments.
Educational deficiencies
What were some of the primary ways in which ethnic differences and
educational deficiency affected many NCPACE students? Two faculty members
interviewed noted their observations of considerable academic inexperience or
poor learning habits in general comparison to their land based college students.
Among younger sailors from urban, minority backgrounds, faculty noted limited
self-confidence about an ability to succeed in a college course. Faculty and Navy
educational administrators stated the need to provide extensive academic
counseling and support, particularly for new students. Mixed among older
students, some of middle-class backgrounds and average high school educations,
other faculty and I found minority students who often required remedial education
in composition and reading. Additionally, faculty and Navy administrators
observed a widespread need to adapt educational activities to students who had
limited skill in study habits and normal classroom preparation. Other students,
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culturally bound in varied communication modes or methods o f learning, had
considerable difficulty with participation in the traditional classroom lecture,
textbook study, and testing methods. Several students and faculty noted that less
experienced students with uneven past academic success often dropped out of
NCPACE, not to return.
In another difference, interviewed instructors noted some new students from
under- represented backgrounds brought to the course learning habits possibly
established in high school: arrival at class without notepaper, pencils, or
textbooks: or little evidence o f advance preparation or readiness to discuss the
pre-assigned topics of the session. Compared with their land based students,
instructors’ reports of these differences demonstrated by first-time NCPACE
students led me to conclude that the program would benefit from a required
preliminary series of orientation sessions on how to learn, study and succeed in
college level studies: a revision of pedagogical methods; and improvement of
faculty adaptability.
With few exceptions, all the students who became involved in the NCPACE
courses had been certified eligible to do so by Navy testing procedures.
Permission to enroll in college courses resulted from a minimum or better rating
score on the Navy’s academic level testing (ASVAB tests) or previous college
enrollment. Other faculty and Navy administrators concluded that academic
deficiencies seemingly resulted from inadequacy of educational experiences,
training, and poor orientation to learning in secondary schools.
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A summary of what I found follows:
• The NCPACE program is not an open admissions program
although the enlistment incentive promises higher education to all.
• NCPACE nontraditional students, particularly needful of remedial
education, are presented with typical college level course work
rather than the academic skills preparation for a successful transfer
adaptation.
• NCPACE academic planning, support, and counseling is hit and
miss.
• NCPACE students comprise a mixed competency group: minorities
in need of remedial education, minorities highly skilled in
academic research, bright students who left college due to lack of
money, and students who used NCPACE studies as avenues for
naval career advancement.
• Only an average of 10% of the ships’ crews enrolled in NCPACE.
What were the primary commonalities among most of the students? This
question came to mind as I interviewed students or evaluated their course work or
noted their suggestions about how to strengthen the NCPACE program. Among
first-term students new to the Navy and newly enrolled in a college course, I
found myself making general comparisons between the community college
students in my first-year courses at a land based campus in San Diego. The
principal difference, of course, related to the disciplined environment on a Navy
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ship. As a NCPACE instructor, I carried the titular rank of a professor thus the
students’ classroom attendance, orderly behavior, timely submission of
assignments, and readiness to respond characterized the educational culture, or the
students would always present reasons for being unprepared. The Navy’s culture
of accountability and responsibility to one in authority required justification for
work unfinished. In the land based community college this might or might not
happen.
As a NCPACE instructor and researcher, I found I had to make major efforts to
draw out the views of students in a conversational context that was natural and
relaxed. This situation proved quite different from my land based student-
instructor relationships. In my initial teaching assignments and early stages of this
investigation, I was largely unaware of this officer-enlisted relationship dynamic.
In subsequent assignments, I intentionally asked all the class members to practice
participation in team-teaching projects of a “learning community” group activity.
The reports of the learning community groups would be presented to me for
response and dialogue. The initiation of support groups proved to be important
factor in retention of less experienced nontraditional students.
Many of the NCPACE students needed remedial education in reading and
writing. A few gave evidence of being well-prepared high school graduates. As
noted in the previous section, I found many of the minority students unconfident
about their ability to succeed in a college course, thus they required extra tutoring
and encouragement. I found many nontraditional students intellectually capable
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but uncertain how to proceed in course assignments, even as if they were learning
how to swim for the first time. Once they got over their uncertainty and
nervousness in the speech communication course, for example, confidence grew
and work performance improved. On the last three ships where I taught, the
arranged team learning groups proved successful in the accomplishment of course
projects and individual assignments. As every ship’s company is arranged by
team activities and shared responsibility, the use of this pedagogical technique
was easily arranged and successful in the classroom. It was particularly useful to
improve retention rates.
Enrollment and retention affected by a ship’ s mission
The mission of a ship seemed to affect the successful enrollment and
retention in the NCPACE program on all sizes ships. For ships embarked upon a
6-month deployment in international waters. I learned from the interviews
NCPACE proved to be a welcomed diversion from the work schedule. As several
older Navy chiefs told me, “when I am going on deployment, I always enroll in
PACE courses.” When the USS Oldendorf for example, was on a schedule of
short trips to sea and back to Pearl Harbor, alternating between a few days at sea
and the rest in port, the course work was affected by attendance problems, for the
enlisted were permitted liberty at the end of a workday. A liberty period in
Honolulu at the day’s close often proved of greater interest to the crew than
course work, except among a few determined, degree-oriented students. On the
larger ships I found that long-term deployments at sea, without many liberty
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breaks, meant that attendance and course work likely would be completed.
For several hundred sailors aboard the aircraft carriers, for example, college
courses became a top priority over movies or other relaxing diversions. When
long-deployed ships pulled into port for a weekend liberty, experienced
instructors adjusted meeting schedules to accommodate the break, for few
students would attend classes if these conflicted with recreation times in ports of
call.
A ship’ s population creates variation in NCPACE effectiveness
I found NCPACE operations affected by the ship’s size and organization.
Smaller ships, as in the proverbial small town, contained crews aware of the
interests, behaviors, and activities of all the other members. Larger ships of
several thousand crewmembers appeared as small cities, afloat with many
different groups and activities underway; college courses were one alternative for
off-work-time pursuits. The USS Port Royal, a cruiser, and the USS Oldendorf a
destroyer, each carried a company of approximately three hundred officers and
enlisted. The USS Essex and the USS Denver, as transport ships, both carried a
large number of Marines as well as sailors to comprise a ship’s company range
between thirty-five hundred and four thousand. The two aircraft carriers, the USS
Abraham Lincoln and the USS Constellation, as the largest ships, each carried a
contingent of five thousand or more. Smaller ships carried officers and enlisted
who, comparable to a small town, knew each other in more detail than a company
aboard a larger ship.
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I found distinct variations affected by the size of the ship and ship’s
company. After two months’ research on each of the three primary ship categories
(large, moderate, small), I observed differences that affected NCPACE
operations. The smaller ships included a company that became quite familiar with
one another, in spite of the degrees of official formal distance within the chain of
command. On the smaller ships, the NCPACE students were clearly identified by
the crew as college students as well as sailors, and were often questioned by their
superiors on their study progress and their professional intentions or ambitions
and their record of achievement was noted. A large number of the entire
company seemed to take an interest in the work of the subordinate group. The
college classes became an ongoing subject of conversation. To withdraw from
courses or to do poorly, a student’s course of action became part of the general
knowledge of the ship’s company. In effect this social pressure reinforced
retention. On both small ships, I found some officers who informally encouraged
younger sailors to enroll in NCPACE. On larger ships, officers seemed seldom to
have available informal avenues of comparable conversations with enlisted men
and women largely due to the complexity and time limitations of their duties. On
the larger ships, the role of enrollment, academic support, and retention became
part of the formalized duties of the educational services officer promoted by the
annual message of the commanding officer to the crew to engage in college
studies.
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On the two smaller ships, both commanding officers often asked me to report
on the course progress, and the students’ work and skills development, at a
meeting, or a meal in the presence of all the officers. Both commanding officers
took a strong interest in the NCPACE program and my work in it among their
sailors. This interest was reflected in the series of questions and regularity of the
informal reporting requests. It seemed less official and more paternal in tone, in
keeping with the naval culture’s way of speaking about its younger staff as the
ship’s company, almost a familial relationship while underway at sea. The terms
ship’s company and shipmates, for example, identified the unity of the enlisted
men, women, and the officers particularly evident aboard smaller ships. One Navy
chaplain characterized this relationship to me when he said, “when you are aboard
a destroyer, you experience the ‘real Navy’.”
On the five mid-sized transport ships and the larger aircraft carriers, only two
commanding officers asked me about their NCPACE program’s progress. Of
course, the massive scope of responsibilities for the larger ships’ captains and the
larger number of enlisted men, women, and officers normally prevented much
interaction among lower level programs’ participants. On these larger ships, I
found some but few7 subordinate officers or Navy chiefs (often labeled the
“backbone of the Navy”), who gave evidence of concern or interest in the
progress of the NCPACE operations. On these ships, the upper levels of command
viewed NCPACE student participants mainly as the “hard chargers” eager to get
ahead on naval advancement tracks and future career plans. On a few occasions, I
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found that some Navy chiefs directed some of their linguistically challenged
sailors to take the English composition or communication courses. In incidents
such as these, NCPACE courses seemed to be viewed by these chiefs as solutions
for personnel problems. The culture of the larger ships gave comparable attention
to the NCPACE program as it did to many other recreational, entertainment,
athletic, or religious activities. On the smaller ships, however, the NCPACE
program became a highlighted and well-observed one.
The role o f the informal NCPACE “learning community”
On all ships, I found evidence of a “learning community” that served as the
core interest group for the NCPACE program. This group saw to it that the ship
arranged for college courses, contracted for teachers, enrolled new students, and
tried to keep informed on academic degree requirements. On all ships, I found
that the assigned educational services officer worked informally with this core
group. On one ship, the USS Denver, I found that some of the students had
formed an informal academic counseling peer group to help new students. On
two ships, the USS Essex and the USS Port Royal, NCPACE students built or
arranged classrooms and found equipment for them. On four ships, the USS
Abraham Lincoln, the USS Essex, the USS Constellation, and the USS Denver,
the core group took an active part to make certain the NCPACE program was
successful. On the USS Constellation, the core group arranged an annual
commencement ceremony for the entire ship’s company, arranged for the
commanding officer’s invitation of a high-level NATO military officer to be the
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speaker, had the ship’s band play Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” for the
academic procession, and planned for the captain’s distribution o f ship’s diplomas
to students who had completed a degree or other academic program. The leaders
even arranged for a high-level Navy officer to deliver a commencement address.
Several hundred of the ship’s company attended this commencement exercise on
the main deck. Although seldom mentioned in NCPACE literature or the naval
operations directives for the educational service officers, the presence of the
informal network of NCPACE students I found to be a key factor in maintenance
of higher education’s continuity, in spite of the constant turnover of crewmembers
and variations in ships’ chains of command.
Identification o f the learning community
Some of the learning community members whom I taught or interviewed noted
how the daily access to NCPACE instructors created an important support for the
program. As a result, on the larger ships, I began two daily “walkabouts” in the
morning and the evening during mealtimes. On the smaller ships, I made time to
walk along the deck and, at times, stop and watch the water. Nearly always,
during these activities, both students and nonstudents would initiate conversations
about higher education, or their studies or other topics of academic concern. Any
number of times, my own students would introduce their friends to me. In effect,
this ease of contact with students and others on a daily basis proved to be an
important part of the instructor’s teaching and academic counseling activities as
well as a visible support for the program. I came to view these times as beneficial
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to the educational activity, and not easily possible on land based campuses,
particularly the commuter community colleges. Throughout a 2-month
deployment, this ease of contact and conversation provided an opportunity to
interact with students, instruct, respond to academic and personal counseling
topics, and build interest in the pursuit of a college degree. As both the students’
teacher and, as a temporary rank equivalent to a Lieutenant Commander (GS12), I
had access to all levels of the ship’s company. This access permitted not only
ease of educational activities, but also provided a means to resolve problems or
obtain resources for the program or students. During my initial days aboard all
the ships, I made a point to meet as many people as possible so that word would
spread that there was a NCPACE instructor aboard. As the oldest person on the
ship in civilian apparel, each ship’s company rapidly came to know who 1 was
and why I was aboard and welcomed me into their midst. For my research
activities, this ease of access to students, nonstudents and potential students
proved useful. Time and again, on all the ships, sailors would stop me to ask a
question about some topic of debate or issue. When a sailor stopped me to say,
are you the professor, then to my affirmative reply would ask a question normally
available by access to an Internet search engine or an encyclopedia. This
extracurricular role as an intellectual resource made me doubly aware of the
inadequacy of research resources on most ships. Yet, at the same time, the role
pointed out one of NCPACE strengths in the provision of shipboard faculty who
supported and focused a measure of attention to each ship’s learning community.
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Inadequate higher education research resources
One o f the key activities in higher education, if not the most important, is
student access and use of research resources. To develop critical thinking skills,
engage in individual research, and present one’s discoveries to the learning
community, higher education depends significantly upon the availability and
quality of the library, be it electronic or direct literature access.
Among NCPACE deficiencies aboard the ships, I found the lack o f research
resources to be the most significant. On board four of the largest ships, the
chaplains had organized small libraries o f a few hundred volumes built largely
through donations of books. These libraries normally contained one or two
encyclopedias, an assortment of nonfiction books, and a larger amount of fiction
for recreational reading. On the two smaller ships, there was no appreciable
library at all. The larger ships did have several computers and a small number of
computer disk research resources, such as the Compton’ s Encyclopedia and the
Encyclopedia Britannica.. The two aircraft carriers had computer rooms where,
on occasion, sailors would have access to Internet search engines. However, given
the fact that all ships afloat are embarked upon defense missions with high
security requirements, access to the Internet was restricted. Some students had
access to the Internet through the computers located in their workspaces, but these
computers were also restricted in varied ways, for example, use required
permission of superior officers. For the larger public computer rooms, long lines
of sailors and marines sought to use the machines to send email to family and
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friends. On all the ships, small and large, available space for a library is minimal.
Some effort has been made by the Navy College to put together a Learning
Resource Kit of CD literature to be placed aboard each ship. The one kit I
reviewed included an encyclopedia, an atlas, an almanac, a dictionary, and some
basic Western History books.
In my interviews with several instructors, I found the topic of inadequate
research resources to be a major concern. Some instructors stated they brought a
few research books for their particular courses. Course instructors, who normally
required students to do outside reading for research papers, had to adapt their
learning plans to accommodate the inadequacy of resources. Each NCPACE
student was expected to purchase his or her own copy of the course textbook.
Apart from the specific course lectures, the textbook remained the single research
resource for the course. For upper-level courses this inadequacy of research
material proved to be an important issue that needed to be resolved, particularly
for humanities and science courses. The need to resolve the matter of research
resources is an important one. How will students develop competency in research
skills, obtain access to comprehensive literature connected with a particular
academic topic, and justify the educational program as an institution o f higher
education? As Frank H.T. Rhodes wrote in his Characteristics of the New
American University, the “best universities and colleges of the future will be
those demonstrating the most effective gains in learning and learning skills among
their students.. .the traditional pattern of a student accumulating information -
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however advanced- and a professor teaching subj ects-however effectively-will be
displaced by an emphasis on developing in students the initiative, skills and
discipline to pursue knowledge independently, to evaluate and weigh it
effectively, and to apply it creatively and responsibly” (Rhodes, 1999, p.3).
NCPACE academic quality in question
Questioned and interviewed NCPACE participants from the eight ships had
convergent views on the primary strengths and weaknesses of the program. From
my interviews with the varied levels of participants and from results of two
questionnaires, I learned that access to first-year general education college
courses aboard ship was considered the primary strength of the program. This
access included the Navy’s provision of tuition to pay for a maximum of eight
courses, the right to take courses while on deployment, and the ability to transfer
course credits to a 4-year college. Among the primary weaknesses, the students
identified the nonavailability of desired courses, inadequate research resources,
and too-large amounts of material to learn within a 6- to 8- week term period.
From my shipboard interviews with students, teachers, and the educational service
officers, I found consistent agreement on these basic strengths and weaknesses in
the learning activities. Yet, these learning activities and resources are not the only
measures of program quality. The environment of the educational program, I
found, received the largest amount of criticism for its inadequacies and uneven
quality.
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Within the administrative context of NCPACE, I found widespread concern
about a seemingly perennial conflict between work time and study time, and
perceived uneven treatment by workplace supervisors towards students in their
course work. I found broad numbers of students expressed the view that, in actual
practice, the level of support for NCPACE from a ship’s chain of command
varied, that it seemed often inconsistent with the Navy’s recruitment emphasis
upon provision of free college education. With regard to the work study time
problem, upon three of the large ships, I found that the educational service
officers had put in place a system that required the workplace supervisors to grant
permission for student course enrollment. None of the other four smaller ships
had this system in place. As a result, the problem of attendance, due to conflict
between work responsibilities and course work, proved to be a recurring issue,
thus the lack of administrative controls created a major perceived weakness of the
program upon smaller ships.
Faculty observations on NCPACE quality issues
In general, I found the interviewed NCPACE instructors agreed with views
of the students on the topics of the program’s value for access to higher education
while in military service, on the need for research resources, on the necessity to
resolve the work/study time problem, and improved classroom conditions. Based
upon the individual instructors’ comparisons with the students at their land based
campuses, several indicated that NCPACE students seemed to include a larger
proportion of those needful of remedial education in reading and composition, and
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others indicated that the students comprised a mixed group, with some able to
comprehend complex concepts and engage in theoretical discussion. Two
instructors noted a tendency to passivity among the students when asked to
engage in discussion or question course content. All instructors interviewed
criticized strongly the lack of research resources, the quality of the course
textbooks selected by the Central Texas College department chairs, and the course
evaluation procedures. I found that instructors new to the NCPACE program
primarily were concerned about the work and study schedule problem, and how it
affected attendance and continuity of course lectures. More experienced
instructors had resolved this problem with flexible schedules, extra course work,
and advisement. Apart from these observations and those indicated in chapter 4,
the NCPACE instructors considered the program a valuable one, largely as a
means to increase nontraditional students’ entrance into postsecondary education.
Strengths o f NCPACE
Among all the interviewees and those who responded to the questionnaires, I
found five major themes to identify NCPACE strengths. The first is the access to
college courses aboard ships during deployment missions. Among the faculty
members, including myself, I found NCPACE offered a unique avenue for
nontraditional students in significant numbers to begin their higher education.
Among the captains and other officers, I learned they viewed the NCPACE
program as an excellent morale booster that also improved the capability of crew
members in their workplace as well as their enhanced learning skills. Among the
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students I found widespread appreciation for the small classes, the opportunities
to learn in a team setting, the daily access to instructors, and the opportunity for
job advancement as a result of their academic success.
Recommendations for Improvements
In this section, I discuss four resolutions to the primary problems I found in my
investigation of NCPACE:
• Change the philosophical orientation of the NCPACE program
from a subcontractor-provided enlistment benefit that serves few,
to one that enhances the education, training, and operations
function for each sailor in the U.S. Navy.
• In recognition o f the Navy’s unique constituency, revise the
definition of nontraditional students to increase and expand
NCPACE.
• Initiate all of the recommended changes presented by NCPACE
students.
• Attend to organizational, administrative, and pedagogical
improvements to meet the needs, skills, interests, and career
objectives of all enlisted crew members.
Initiate philosophical context change fo r NCPACE
This investigation’s second research question asked: In what ways should
NCPACE strengthen its teaching and learning operations to attract more naval
personnel, especially nontraditional students? In my research among NCPACE
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students, I found limited numbers of so-called traditional representatives from
majority backgrounds who planned and pursued higher education. Most o f the
NCPACE potential constituency included underrepresented populations,
economically limited majority racial groups, significant numbers of young men
and women from marginal or troubled backgrounds, and others who enlisted
because they had few other options. In general assessment of this overall
constituency, the Navy seems largely comprised of nontraditional individuals
who, apart from their naval association, would be uncertain participants in land-
based higher education.
At the center of proposed improvements for the NCPACE program there is the
recognition by the Navy and enlistees that it is uniquely placed to be served by
and to serve this diverse constituency. Armed with the Navy’s financial support,
the NCPACE program serves as an important enlistment incentive and as a way to
improve the intellectual quality of the force in this updated, technologically-
oriented defense force.
In summary, the NCPACE program is a potentially important resource for the
Navy because
• It melds with the Navy’s defense mission, based as it is upon
constant application of an educational rhythm of training,
execution, and evaluation.
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• The educational programs are conducted through a mechanism of
teamwork, mutual support, and shared accountability under the
chain of command.
• It provides an avenue for crewmembers’ motivation to improve
their career options, increase and sharpen intellectual capabilities
and strengthen morale.
Presumably the philosophical role of higher education is to serve as a means to
prepare citizens to exercise their role in a democratic society w ell educated,
committed to the pursuits of justice and liberty for all. NCPACE, as a constituent
part of higher education, should endeavor to educate sailor students to the
maximum of their capability, minimize racial and ethnic separations, diminish
elitism, and serve eventually to increase capital distribution in more equitable
ways-one primary outcome of education’s application.
As NCPACE begins to develop the learning communities on each ship as
progenitors of the democratic model, it discourages blatant individualism that
tends to treat the weak and poor and nontraditional as pawns or objects. As
NCPACE fulfills educational objectives for each sailor to his or her maximum
capability, increased career competence and a sense of citizenship might also be
engendered to benefit democratic behavior and ethical decision-making.
NCPACE improved would serve interdependence and mutual responsibility for
teaching and learning throughout the Navy and, in turn, benefit the nation.
Through revision of the role of NCPACE from an enlistment benefit of
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questionable academic quality that serves a voluntary few to that of a central and
mandatory postsecondary education program of excellence for all enlisted sailors,
the Navy and the nation will benefit in many ways.
Through my investigation, I received many suggestions for improvements to
NCPACE. Most of these suggestions related to administrative changes, increased
orientation for instructors and a ship’s educational service officer, resolution of
the perennial course and work scheduling problem, and expansion of adequate
research resources aboard all ships. From a practical, organizational, and program
administration standpoint, these improvements are important. However, from the
standpoint of policy and planning for American higher education improvements
and social responsibility to educate nontraditional students on a larger scale,
specific attention to the characteristics, learning styles, and academic needs of
these students is of greater importance. Consequently, I concluded that a
philosophical revision of the NCPACE purpose and function should be a
fundamental change recommendation. As a first step in the application of this
revised philosophical model, increased attention to nontraditional students and
their unique educational needs should become the uppermost objective of the
program. This change would diminish, if not phase out the present understanding,
which provides as an enlistment benefit the presence of an on-ship, land based
oriented community college that attracts only about 10% of a ship’s company,
accredited by different measures and standards not authentically applicable to the
Navy’s educational context or the larger needs of the nation.
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Therefore, the Navy should develop its own Navy College program
independent of subcontractors from land based community colleges, restructure
the NCPACE program as a fully integrated training and operations division in
which each sailor is an active participant: locate appropriate, skilled, and
adaptable educators; and request new accreditation standards from the American
Council on Education, applicable to the military context.
Increase NCPACE’ s nontraditional student population through redefinition o f its
characteristics
The principal topic of the second question- how to increase nontraditional
students’ enrollment and support their academic success- permeated subordinate
suggestions for improvements. Although there is evidence that their numbers have
increased in NCPACE over the past 25-years, even as the minorities have
expanded their percentage representation in the all-volunteer force, the numerical
response to the opportunity the military’s higher education programs offer to them
is below potential. Most nontraditional students interviewed stated their primary
reason for enlistment to be its promised access to higher education programs.
Even so, upon all eight sites o f this investigation, the total enrollment of the ships’
crew hovered only around 10%. Upon all eight sites, the total number of minority
students enrolled ranged from 40% to 55% of the 10% total. Given that about
31% of the Navy is from African American or Latino American derivation, for
example, notwithstanding modest percentage demographic variables from ship to
ship, total NCPACE higher education enrollment is significantly less among
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minorities, including economically impacted white females and males. Based
upon the stated enlistment priorities of minorities among other underrepresented
groups and actual enrollment in NCPACE, in fact I found significant numbers
from these groups to be nonparticipant.
Over the past 25 years the military services have increased the numbers of
enlistments among population groups that are particularly sought among land
based higher education institutions. In addition, overall the U.S. Navy’s volunteer
force from all backgrounds revealed a major increase in high school graduation
rates. For example, in 1975 among the 300,000 recruits, 22% were African
American, 9% were Latino, and 15% were female. In 1975, 61% of the sailors
were high school graduates, and in 1999, 93% of the sailors were high school
graduates, according to the most recently published Department of Defense
Population Representation in the Military Services Report (Department of
Defense, 2000).
According to the Department of Defense Population Representation in the
Military Services Report, 2000 the following percentages identify the increased
number of minority participants in the services.
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Table 5.1 1975-1999 Percentage o f High School Graduates Among Minorities
1975 1999
Recruits 300,000 189,000
African American 14% 22%
Hispanic 1.4% 9%
Female 2.0% 15%
No. of H.S. grads 61% 93%
Dept, of Defense Report (2000)
Put into effect what the nontraditional students say: improve educational quality,
improve educational procedures, and increase instructor quality and credentials.
From the interviews and the questionnaires, I obtained suggestions for the
improvement of the NCPACE operations, particularly among nontraditional
students. Many of these suggestions, 1 found, related to administrative changes,
increased orientation for instructors and Navy College staff about minority
students’ recruitment, learning how to learn and appropriate academic support,
resolution of teaching and scheduling problems, and improved research resources
aboard ships.
In addition, a number of interviewed NCPACE students stated that racial and
economic factors caused some if not much internalized lack of confidence about
their academic abilities. A re-oriented, reconceived NCPACE intended to serve
this population group would be well placed to overcome these preconditions,
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improve retention, and support academic success. However, placement and
educational quality might not converge without considerable reassessment and
change of the programs operations at significant levels such as those
recommended by interviewed students:
• The orientation of NCPACE instructors should emphasize
improvements to educational methods appropriate to students
from nontraditional backgrounds and cultures.
• Appropriate, well-trained academic support counselors and tutors
should be made available to complement each NCPACE
operation.
• Initiate and practice collaborative educational formats to enhance
and support learning activities.
• Improve research resources: locate course materials appropriate
to the nontraditional students’ learning patterns, interests, and
unique defense time schedule.
• Increase the numbers of minority instructors.
• Navy College should guide the preparation and organization of a
higher education learning plan for each sailor as part o f his or her
enlistment and advancement record.
Based upon my research, there is sufficient evidence that the Navy is solidly
committed to provide higher education for all its eligible enlistees on a voluntary
basis. In fact, few sailors take advantage of the program in a given year. The
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NCPACE and overall Navy College program is potentially well structured and
organized for the delivery of quality higher education. My investigation o f actual
practice identified greater numbers of problems presented
• by unqualified instructors of mixed educational credentials
and background,
• student and faculty complaints about inappropriate or
impractically-sized textbooks, also questionably selected
under the auspices and values of the Texas State Legislature as
delegated to the subcontractor, Central Texas College
department chairs,
• inadequate research resources, insufficient course and
instructor evaluation procedures,
• casual grading standards and inconsistent course scheduling
procedures.
Attend to organizational and pedagogical improvements for the N avy’ s unique
constituency
In my literature review, I found support for higher education changes that
advocated improved pedagogy among minorities. This includes contextual
integration of cultural formation factors, culturally characteristic communication
methods, and diverse cognitive skills. The significant body of literature that has
been developed on the values of programs used among Latinos, for example the
Puente Programs, gives evidence of ways to improve retention and success rates.
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Within the quasi-controlled context of the military, there are considerable social
support structures available to benefit and encourage nontraditional students to
enroll and succeed in higher education. The presence of de facto learning
communities, oriented towards every ship’s college program, is a resource to
build upon for improved enrollment, retention, and success. Sufficient research
literature exists to support the criticism and recommended improvement of the
present NCPACE educational philosophy and practice. Higher education
pedagogical resources are available which, if effectively integrated into the
NCPACE operations or provider college contracts, could aim to improve and
increase higher education among nontraditional students. At the center of an
improved pedagogy and strengthened context, the contracting college’s selection,
qualifications, training, and orientation of the NCPACE instructors appears to be
the predominant factor in need of change; or cessation of it may be necessary as
the Navy fully integrates the program into its overall operations and training.
This proposed resolution is a radical one: that the Navy change its higher
education program’s current status as an enlistment incentive to one that is fully
integrated into the training, operations, and career advancement track of every
sailor to the extent of her or his ability.
Whether each sailor would have a college degree plan developed or a
certificate program for individuals less academically inclined would have to be
determined by planners.
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Clearly in NCPACE at present there is the need for:
• academic support and counseling
• new pedagogical models that improve interest, retention, and success
that are significantly different from secondary school methods that
largely failed this nontraditional constituency
• NCPACE’s complete integration into the Navy’s chain of command
responsibilities.
Potential benefits to general American higher education
The next destination in the roadmap for models to improve American higher
education would be to recognize and apply the NCPACE emphasis that each
sailor student can be educated to the maximum of his or her ability and that fellow
participants in the learning community take part in this mutual higher education.
Key to the success o f this program and of importance to higher education
everywhere is a reformed NCPACE operation. The reforms of this operation
would include its organization, administration, pedagogy, and quality of
instructional staff guided by responsiveness to diverse cultural backgrounds,
learning characteristics, and the unique military context.
With this reformed NCPACE practiced within the United States Navy’s
college programs for its enlistees, specific models for learning and teaching might
naturally follow as educators respond to the question, “In what ways can we
engender a sense of citizenship, democratic behavior, and mutual responsibility
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for teaching and learning among those who make their ways to our academies of
higher learning?”
One primary emphasis of this study has been its focus on nontraditional
students eligible for the U.S. Navy’s college programs. Although this study
focused upon only one aspect o f the Navy College’s VOLED, its NCPACE
program, its central objective has been to identify the current program’s strengths
and weaknesses as these applied to military higher education in general. Most
minority students stated that a primary reason for enlistment was the provision of
access to an affordable higher education. In my view, this incentive establishes
significant reason to reform NCPACE from being a beneficial, corollary activity
to one that is central to naval operations and training.
Recommendations for Future Research
Three primary areas in which further research is needed include the
improvement of college teaching methods among nontraditional students,
improvements in methods to achieve greater retention of nontraditional students,
and procedures to provide for timely and steady degree progress within the
normal course of a naval career.
First, the steady increase of a potential non-traditional student population
among military recruits, largely from the urban centers of the nation should
become a primary factor in future research to improve college level teaching. This
includes the development of understanding and appreciation for diverse learning
styles, improved faculty training, and the provision of appropriately designed
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courses. Very little literature exists in the field of military higher education policy
and practices on the characteristics and import o f cultural and gender differences
that affect the learning process. Secondly, there needs to be an increased amount
of research into improvements o f retention rates for NCPACE students,
particularly nontraditional students. This research study might consider systems
and procedures at use on comparable land based campuses, such as the Puente
Program, possibly applicable to a military educational context. Third, there needs
to be research on ways to improve the NCPACE curriculum so that degree
progress can be achieved in a timely and organized way well integrated into a
service member’s career planning and assignments.
Summary
Throughout the course of this research investigation into the United States
Navy’s Program for Afloat College Education, I have been interested to leam
from its participants their views, concerns, and recommendations to strengthen,
enhance, and extend the program. During the course of the investigation among a
broad variety of individuals connected with NCPACE at different levels, I have
become impressed by the opportunity it presents for higher education among
enlisted sailors and nontraditional students in particular. Both as a researcher and
educator, I have listened often to the stories of sailors who, by birth or class or
economic circumstances or maturational confusion, had little conception of
themselves as able to earn a college degree. As I reviewed the history o f the
World War II era Montgomery Higher Education Act and learned its impact upon
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221
millions of American veterans, I realized that nothing short of a social revolution
has been the result when men and women of humble and average means are
educated well, turn that education into increased productivity and, more
importantly, take a greater share in the exercise of the democratic way of life.
Now, in the era of the voluntary enlistment program of the United States Armed
Services, yearly increased numbers of nontraditional constituencies from ethnic
and minority populations are being provided an opportunity to continue their
higher education. For whatever reasons or lack thereof, few take advantage of
NCPACE. NCPACE is, of course, only a modest-sized part of the entire Navy’s
VOLED program in which far greater numbers participate. However, as NCPACE
improves itself and its participation rate alongside comparable postsecondary
programs, the entire nation’s higher education objectives will benefit as well,
particularly among the nonrepresented constituencies who enlist in the military as
a way to get ahead in life.
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Appendix A
General Interview Invitation Announcement to Classmembers
While I am aboard this ship, I will be conducting a series of brief interviews
with NCPACE students about this college program. I am gathering data for a
dissertation research study as part of my doctoral program in the Rossier School
of Education at the University of Southern California.
I will ask about your perceptions, impressions and opinions o f the NCPACE
program; especially about its strengths and weaknesses. I will also be interested
to learn your views on how the program might be improved so that it reaches a
broad diversity of sailors.
There are no public or private organizations sponsoring my research. The
interviews are entirely voluntary as is any questionnaire I might present to you
while we are together on deployment. I will be ready to answer any questions you
have in person, or you may write to me at Terence E. Lynberg, Post Office Box
33344, San Diego, California 92163-3344 or by email at TELynberg@aol.com.
Thank you for your interest and time.
Terence E. Lynberg, interviewer and researcher
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238
Appendix B
Interview Invitation Letter
Terence E. Lynberg
Post Office Box 33344
San Diego, California 92163-3344
Email: TELvnbergi@aoi.com
Dear
While I am aboard the U S S __________________________ , I will be
conducting a research project about NCPACE as part of a doctoral dissertation
project in which I am engaged at the Rossier School of Education, University of
Southern California.
Some days ago you participated in a brief interview with me on this topic for
which I am grateful. 1 was impressed by your interest, responsiveness and
willingness to be interviewed at greater length and depth for the purposes of this
study.
I write to invite you to meet with me for an additional interview about
NCPACE at your convenience. I will be in contact with you to arrange a meeting
time, if you are willing to participate again.
I anticipate that we will need about an hour’s time to exchange views. I wish to
tape record our conversation. This will help to assure the accuracy of our
interview. I will keep all interviews anonymous. The areas of questions that I
will ask have to do with your educational background, how you happened to start
taking NCPACE courses and why, what your impressions and perceptions of
NCPACE are, your views about its strengths and weaknesses and ways in which
the program might be improved. I am very interested to learn your views on the
ways in which NCPACE might attract diverse students and retain their interest
and support. Also, I am interested to learn your experience with taking classes
while underway on ship’s deployment at the same time you have duties to
perform. Please be assured you are free to decline response to any question I
might ask.
Thank you very much.
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2 3 9
Appendix C
Focus Group Invitation Letter
Dear _____
Thank you very much for our brief interview the other day about the NCPACE
program. As you know I am conducting research about NCPACE as part of my
doctoral dissertation project at the University of Southern California in the
Rossier School of Education.
I write to ask you to join w ith __________other
(students/faculty/administrators) in a focus group interview about NCPACE. I
would like to explore, in greater detail, some of the topics that emerged from the
brief interviews with students about the strengths and weaknesses of NCPACE
and about the ways in which you experience the program in a particular network
of interest.
I anticipate the interview session will take about an hour. I would like to tape
record the interview to assure accuracy in transcription and reporting. I want to
assure you that the interview information will be entirely anonymous in any future
written or oral reports. No names, other than fictitious ones, will be used to
identify your views as stated.
I will be in contact with you soon to learn if you are willing to participate in
this focus group with two or three others and to arrange a convenient meeting
time.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely yours,
Terence E. Lynberg
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240
Appendix D
General Consent Form
Rossier School of Education -the University of Southern California
Research on the United States Navy’s Program for Afloat College Education
The purpose of this research project is to learn about the NCPACE program
from the perspective of its participants; students, Educational Services Officers,
administrators and NCPACE instructors.
By means of interviews individual, focus, informal and formal plus a
questionnaire, I intend to collect data about the strengths and weaknesses of the
NCPACE program, about ways to improve it, about its successes among sailors,
about its expansion particularly among diverse groups of students and its future
directions. From this data, I plan to prepare a dissertation research study as part
of my doctoral program requirements. In addition, it may be that I will submit the
completed study to the NCPACE administrators for policy and planning purposes
in the future or to be published.
There are no public or private organizations sponsoring this research project.
The interviews, the questionnaire and discussions formal and informal are entirely
voluntary. The researcher will answer any questions that any participant may have
about the research process or the use of the data at any time. These may be
directed to Terence E. Lynberg, Post Office Box 33344, San Diego, California
92163-3344, Email TELynberg@aoLoom or telephone 619.239-2317.
Any harm or discomfort to participants is not anticipated at any time. Any
question may be declined at any time. Your participation in this research is
welcomed and appreciated for its potential benefit to the continued successful
operations of the NCPACE program.
Agreed and accepted:
Terence Lynberg, Interviewer/Researcher Interviewee/Participant
Date____________________
Location
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2 4 1
Appendix E
Research Questionnaire about NCPACE
Please do not place your name on this questionnaire. When completed hand to
Terry Lynberg. This questionnaire is part o f a research project conducted by him
fo r the School o f Education at the University o f Southern California.
T o start: I w ould like to know m ore about you, in general.
D EM O G R A PH IC S:
1. Age: 22 or younger_________ , 23-27 , 28 or older______
2. Gender: M ale____________ Fem ale____________
3. M arried_____________ Single____________
4. A pproxim ate num ber o f college courses taken (PA C E or other) none (prior to this
course)____________
5. W hich o f the follow ing comes closest to identify your m ajor academ ic interest area?
physical sciences/engineering/m ath___________, social sciences (education, psychology,
econom ics_________
hum anities___________health related fields other______________.
6. Previous ship types in which you have enrolled in PA C E________________________________________
7. Previous land based cam puses in w hich you have enrolled________________________________________
8. Types o f PA CE courses taken___________________________________________________________________
9. Did either or both o f your parents or any siblings attend college courses at all?______________________
10. Did either or both o f your parents graduate from c o lle g e? ____________ father,_______ m other,
both___________
11. If you are degree oriented, w'hich term inal degree do you have in m ind?______________
12. How w ould you identify yourself in term s o f ethnic/national/cultural/m inority
background?__________________
13. How long have you been in the Navy?
R EG A RD IN G TH E PACE PRO G RA M
14. W hat is your prim ary reason for taking PA C E courses?
15. W as the N av y ’s support for college education a prim ary or secondary reason for your
enlistm ent?_______________
16. Do you intend to m ake a career o f the N avy?
17. In your view, is the taking o f PA C E courses an advantage to your N avy career? o f m ajor significance? or
partial?_____
18. The follow ing words are selected to identify your view s o f the strengths o f th e PA C E program ? W ould
you rank (1 being highest) the strengths? taking courses w hile enlisted_________ , small classes__________,
tuition provided________
intensive learning in six to eight week term s____________ . ability to transfer to other colleges____________ ,
good to excellent instructors____________.
O ther_____________________________________________________________________
19. The follow ing words are selected to identify your view s o f the w eaknesses o f PA C E. W ould you rank in
order (1 being the weakest) the follow ing: non availability o f needed courses___________, inadequate research
facilities_________ ,too m uch to learn in too short a tim e___________ , insufficient access to teachers and
counselors____________ , overall poor to m ixed quality o f teachers. . O ther______________
20. W hat is your general, overall im pression o f the quality o f teaching and learning in your PA C E courses?
21. In 25 w ords o f less, please com plete this sentence: “ 1 think good teaching
is__________________________________________________________
22. W hen you graduated from high school, w hy did you not go to college the next
Fall? _____________ ' ______ ______________
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242
Appendix F
General Protocol: Open-ended Questions for Brief Interviews
1. Tell me about your participation in NCPACE; when you started, how you
came to enroll in the program, how many courses you have taken, what
your goals are?
[This set of initial questions I used to start the interviews. In each
case I would restate its parts in the conversational interview until all the subjects
had been considered].
2. Tell me about your educational background? High school graduate? Other
college courses? Have any members of your family or close friends
attended college?
3. How long have you been in the Navy? How does NCPACE fit into your
Naval career or other long range plans?
4. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of NCPACE as you
have experienced it?
5. What are your recommendations to improve the NCPACE program?
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Appendix G
Interview Protocol: Questions for Intensive Interviews
1. How long have you been in the Navy? At Sea? Describe a typical day in
your life on board?
2. Tell me about your educational background from high school on.
3. Tell me some of the reasons that led you to pursue higher education.
4. In addition to NCPACE courses, have you or are you involved in other
college courses?
5. Tell me about your experience with NCPACE. How it started, how many
courses you have taken, how it seems to fit in with your work schedule?
6. As you finding what you need and want in NCPACE for your college
goals?
7. As you reflect on ways that NCPACE might be improved to serve your
interests, what specific ideas come to mind?
8. What about the quality of teaching? What do you like about it? What
seems to work well on board? What might work better? How did learning
best take place for you?
9. What about the quality of educational resources available? Do you have
any suggestions for how to improve the educational resources aboard
ship?
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244
10. Based upon my experiences with several NCPACE programs aboard
ships, I have the idea that there is something of a ‘learning community’ of
students; ones who always seem to take courses; a core group. Have you
had any experience or knowledge of this sort of core group? If there is
this mutual higher education support group aboard, in what ways does it
appear or work to your advantage?
11. In what ways do you think your fellow students aboard view the
NCPACE program? In what ways do you think non-students aboard view
the program?
12. Given than the numbers o f enlisted Navy personnel who have post
secondary degrees is less than 5%, what are your views on ways in which
this percentage might be increased?
13. If you had the opportunity to develop NCPACE in specific ways, what
comes to mind?
14. Have you had any negative experiences with NCPACE? Memorable
ones?
15. How do your bosses view your NCPACE participation?
16. Are there any other suggestions or ideas about higher education in the
Navy that you might want to mention now?
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Appendix H
Focus Group Protocol
Introduction: Thank you for your time to discuss with me NCPACE. I have
asked you to join in this group conversation about the program for my research
project. As you know I am tape recording the conversation. There are many
benefits to group conversations but certainly uppermost is the way in which we
can expand ideas and comments, polish and probe them as well as respond to new
thoughts that come to mind as we proceed. What I would like to do is to start by
asking a few questions. I have the list that you have looked over but other
questions might come to mind so, to clarify or follow up I might ask other
questions not on the list. Here we go.
Questions asked of all groups:
1. How long have you been in the Navy?
2. How long at sea?
3. Tell me about your educational background
4. Are you now enrolled in higher education elsewhere or have you been, in
addition to NCPACE?
5. What motivates you to pursue higher education?
6. Are you finding what you want in NCPACE? What might be improved?
7. Can you recall some positive experiences with NCPACE?
8. Some negative ones?
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9. How do you think most or some of your shipmates view NCPACE? What
about your participation in it, what do they think or say?
10. How do your ‘bosses’ view your work in NCPACE?
11. What are some of the main problems in taking courses while at sea?
12. Describe a typical day in your Navy life on ship.
13. Do you see yourself as part of a ship’s college student group? A learning
community that generally takes the courses?
14. Given that the numbers of enlisted men and women who have higher
education backgrounds is less than 5%, do you have any thoughts on ways
NCPACE might improve the enrollment?
15. If you had the chance to improve NCPACE in any way, what comes to
mind?
16. In your work with NCPACE, as you recall, where did learning or how did
learning best take place for you?
Questions asked of specific groups in addition to the previous all groups questions
Group #1 Upper level enlisted bosses of NCPACE students
A. Because you have a number of enlisted men and women who work for
you, in what ways does NCPACE enrollment seem to affect their work,
the personnel in the work place or other factors that come to mind?
B. How could the ship’s “bosses” be supportive of the program and increase
its enrollments and student academic success?
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C. What is your general impression of the Navy chain of command support
ofNCPACE both on individual ships and in general?
D. Tell me about some o f the challenges you have found in getting young
sailors active in NCPACE?
E. Once they are engaged in courses, from your experience, what are some
of the problem areas that can be anticipated as you view these in the work
place?
F. Are there any problems that seem to be perennial or persistent, that often
occur?
G. From your vantage point as a long time sailor, are there some ways in
which NCPACE might be shaped or changed to improve its purpose and
functions?
Group #2: Seven sailor students who had completed NCPACE courses:
A. How would you compare the several NCPACE courses you have taken
except mine?
B. What is your view of good teaching and learning in NCPACE college
courses?
C. Have you found approval or otherwise from your peers for your NCPACE
activities? Can you think of any examples of comments?
D. How are you experiencing any change, if you are, as a result o f increased
education?
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248
E. What educational resources are available on the ship? What would you
like to see available?
Group #3 Small group of female sailors enrolled in NCPACE
A. What is your experience with being part of the NCPACE program as a
woman?
B. How might your Navy NCPACE educational program specifically assist
or support your career plans?
C. What is it like to take college courses in a class in which you are a
minority?
Group #4 A small group of male minority student sailors enrolled in NCPACE.
Some scholars think different people learn in different ways. Knowing the
ways in which you and some of your special friends learn best, what are your
views on good teaching and learning in NCPACE?
A. Last year I met with several Afro-American and Latino/Hispanic sailors.
We discussed their impressions of courses taught mostly by older white
male professors. So of the sailors I met with viewed their course teachers
as having a limited understanding of your heritage, ways of learning and
interests. Do you have any views on this subject?
B. What is your impression or memory of your high school education? Did
anyone ever encourage you to consider college? How did you happen to
decide to join college?
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249
Appendix I
Interview Protocol with Educational Services Officers
At the start of each interview, I asked permission to tape record the
sessions. I indicated that the information gathered was part of my research
into the NCPACE program from a perspective of how to improve and expand
it.
My approach in these interviews was to engage in an open-ended
conversation. Prior to each interview I had become well acquainted with each
Educational Service Officer as part of our joint administration and operation
of the NCPACE academic term.
The three areas of questioning:
1. Tell me about your educational background. Tell me about how
you came to be the ESO.
2. How did you learn the job of the ESO?
3. How would you describe the job of the ESO in a position
description aboard this ship?
4. What seem to be the familiar challenges, problems or
administrative issues in the ESO job?
5. How might NCPACE be improved?
6. What do you consider its strengths and weaknesses?
7. What are your future plans for the NCPACE program on this ship?
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250
Appendix J
Protocol for Faculty Members Interviews
Statement to the faculty members interviewed: As you know I am gathering
dissertation research on NCPACE. I want to learn about its strengths and
weaknesses, possible ways to improve it, how the program provides an
educational opportunity for non-traditional college students to obtain a degree. I
am also interested in issues about good teaching and learning upon a ship afloat.
As you know and have agreed I will tape record this interview to assure accuracy
in my data report. Thank you for your time.
The first set o f questions are based upon a series o f response invitations to issues
related to good teaching.
1. How do college faculty members best determine teaching
effectiveness?
2. What is the importance of student evaluation?
3. How would you define good teaching?
4. How do you know if you are being effective as a teacher?
5. On a teacher evaluation committee, what would you consider
good evidence of teaching effectiveness?
6. How would students rate you as a teacher, do you think?
7. How do you think “we” faculty should view student evaluations?
8. How much time do you prepare for your teaching?
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251
The second set o f questions is related to the topics o f NCPACE.
9. How long have you taught for NCPACE?
10. What are some o f your experiences ofNCPACE aboard ship at its
best? At its worst? Why?
11. What is your view about the strengths ofNCPACE?
12. What is your view about the weaknesses ofNCPACE?
13. What improvements should NCPACE develop?
14. How were you prepared or oriented to NCPACE when you
started? Was the training effective? How might it be made better?
15. Do you have any general comments about the quality of faculty
members you have been associated with aboard ship over the
years?
16. What is you impression of the NCPACE teaching evaluation
system?
17. What is your impression of the quality of research resources?
18. Do you have any general observations about the general quality of
the NCPACE students by comparison with your land based
college?
19. Do you have any views on ways that the Navy might increase its
support for NCPACE, for increase in the number of students,
especially minorities?
20. Any additional comments you would like to make?
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Lynberg, Terence Ellsworth
(author)
Core Title
A study of the Navy College Program for Afloat College Education: Implications for teaching and learning among nontraditional college students
School
Rossier School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education
Degree Program
Education
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
education, higher,OAI-PMH Harvest,Political Science, public administration
Language
English
Contributor
Digitized by ProQuest
(provenance)
Advisor
Tierney, William G. (
committee chair
), Hagedorn, Linda Serra (
committee member
), Sundt, Melora (
committee member
)
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-281763
Unique identifier
UC11339237
Identifier
3103942.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-281763 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
3103942.pdf
Dmrecord
281763
Document Type
Dissertation
Rights
Lynberg, Terence Ellsworth
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...
Repository Name
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Repository Location
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Tags
education, higher