Facilitating the Transition from Military Instructor to Academic Educator: Cognitive Apprenticeship in Teacher Induction at the United States Air Force Academy

Abstract

This article examines teacher induction in the military undergraduate education context. The U.S. Air Force Academy relies on approximately 520 military and civilian instructors to educate nearly 4000 future military officers each year. These educators must be highly skilled and unquestionably capable in their abilities to teach these future leaders. Many of these instructors derive from highly technical active duty operational career fields (such as pilot, missile operator, etc.). This article reveals how Collins’, Brown’s, and Newman’s (1989) theory of cognitive apprenticeship is manifested within teacher induction experiences at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, this research integrated data from observations, interviews, and participant journals to reveal how the six methods of cognitive apprenticeship (modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulating, reflecting, and exploring) are facilitated in the individual operator-to-educator transition experience. The findings from this study inform faculty orientation and faculty development policies and processes within the U.S. Air Force Academy and bear implications for civilian post-secondary educator induction processes as well.