Professional reading and the education of military leaders

<p>Prominent military figures, both contemporary and historical have, through both personal example and their promotion of critical literacy initiatives, emphasised the role of professional reading in the development of the professional wisdom that underpins effective military leadership. While biographical studies hint at a connection between the extracurricular reading habits of notable military figures and the development of their professional wisdom, the majority of studies on military leadership development focus either through the context of experience or on development through the medium of formal educational programmes. Considering the time and resources invested in formal educational programmes, and the highly incremental nature of self-development that makes its utility difficult to measure, it is understandable but not acceptable that continuous, career-long self-development through professional reading receives scant attention. Using a hermeneutically derived conceptual framework as an analytical tool, this research explores the intellectual component of military leadership, as embodied in the idea of the warrior-scholar, and the role the phenomena of reading, text, and canon, play in the development of the cognitive skills – critical, creative, and strategic thinking – necessary for successful leadership in complex institutions and environments. The research seeks to contribute original insights into the role that professional reading actually plays in the intellectual development of military leaders. The research also seeks to determine the extent to which a military canon that embodies professional military wisdom exists, and the relationship that this canon might have on the development of military leaders in the contemporary environment. The research was conducted through an engagement with literatures in multiple disciplines and 18 open-ended in-depth research interviews with 24 emerging and established military leaders, and defence academics, in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel and the United States on the role reading plays in their professional development. Data have been analysed through literature mapping and the deployment of theme discovery and interpretation-centred analysis methods. In particular, this thesis has examined the artefact of the professional military reading list as used across nations and individual armed services as a component of contemporary professional military education for commissioned and non-commissioned officers at tactical, operational and strategic leadership levels. The research has confirmed the utility of the reading list approach as a means of promoting professional reading, particularly to assist officers: · prepare for a posting or campaign · prepare for formal professional military education courses · aid developmental activities towards promotion · broaden general knowledge, and · cultivate professional military knowledge in breadth and depth. The research has found that reading lists are syllabi for the informal mode of professional military education, particularly to supplement the study, in breadth and depth, of military history, strategy and doctrine, the art of war, and leadership in command. The research has also examined the construction and implementation of the reading lists and developed twenty principles for the development of reading lists for practical use by militaries globally. The research has critically engaged with canon as a concept. While it has not found that the canon concept in its ‘pure’ form as understood in literature studies can be usefully applied to military education, a set of core texts have been identified as being highly valued by militaries globally for the education of officers. Although the research did not seek to prove the link between reading and the development of military leaders, such an approach being inconsistent with the methodological lens adopted, the research does however indicate that professional reading in breadth and depth is as important a component in the development of military wisdom as is training, experience, and formal education.</p>

Professional reading and the education of military leaders

<p>Prominent military figures, both contemporary and historical have, through both personal example and their promotion of critical literacy initiatives, emphasised the role of professional reading in the development of the professional wisdom that underpins effective military leadership. While biographical studies hint at a connection between the extracurricular reading habits of notable military figures and the development of their professional wisdom, the majority of studies on military leadership development focus either through the context of experience or on development through the medium of formal educational programmes. Considering the time and resources invested in formal educational programmes, and the highly incremental nature of self-development that makes its utility difficult to measure, it is understandable but not acceptable that continuous, career-long self-development through professional reading receives scant attention. Using a hermeneutically derived conceptual framework as an analytical tool, this research explores the intellectual component of military leadership, as embodied in the idea of the warrior-scholar, and the role the phenomena of reading, text, and canon, play in the development of the cognitive skills – critical, creative, and strategic thinking – necessary for successful leadership in complex institutions and environments. The research seeks to contribute original insights into the role that professional reading actually plays in the intellectual development of military leaders. The research also seeks to determine the extent to which a military canon that embodies professional military wisdom exists, and the relationship that this canon might have on the development of military leaders in the contemporary environment. The research was conducted through an engagement with literatures in multiple disciplines and 18 open-ended in-depth research interviews with 24 emerging and established military leaders, and defence academics, in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel and the United States on the role reading plays in their professional development. Data have been analysed through literature mapping and the deployment of theme discovery and interpretation-centred analysis methods. In particular, this thesis has examined the artefact of the professional military reading list as used across nations and individual armed services as a component of contemporary professional military education for commissioned and non-commissioned officers at tactical, operational and strategic leadership levels. The research has confirmed the utility of the reading list approach as a means of promoting professional reading, particularly to assist officers: · prepare for a posting or campaign · prepare for formal professional military education courses · aid developmental activities towards promotion · broaden general knowledge, and · cultivate professional military knowledge in breadth and depth. The research has found that reading lists are syllabi for the informal mode of professional military education, particularly to supplement the study, in breadth and depth, of military history, strategy and doctrine, the art of war, and leadership in command. The research has also examined the construction and implementation of the reading lists and developed twenty principles for the development of reading lists for practical use by militaries globally. The research has critically engaged with canon as a concept. While it has not found that the canon concept in its ‘pure’ form as understood in literature studies can be usefully applied to military education, a set of core texts have been identified as being highly valued by militaries globally for the education of officers. Although the research did not seek to prove the link between reading and the development of military leaders, such an approach being inconsistent with the methodological lens adopted, the research does however indicate that professional reading in breadth and depth is as important a component in the development of military wisdom as is training, experience, and formal education.</p>

Spivak's Planetarity and the Limits of Professional Reading

This article argues that Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's notion of planetarity is premised on a practice of reading. Reading for the planet involves deferring the world in order to participate in the text world and its latent re(-)production of ourselves and our world. To the extent that this ethical attention moves us toward different horizons of thinking and feeling, it may also engender political action in the public realm. Reading for Spivak is therefore an important foundation for revolutionary politics and, ultimately, the production of the planet to which we aspire as readers. I proceed to evaluate the planetary efficacy of Spivak's complementary teaching praxis. I show that the aesthetic education she provides does not enable but rather forecloses the experience of literariness and its associated ethics and politics. In response to the limits of professional reading and the worldliness of Spivak's fieldwork in India, I conclude by thinking about the value of deprofessionalization.

Skrelin Method for Constructing Formants for Studying Phonetic Characteristics of Vowels

This article presents the results of applying method for obtaining formant components of vowel phonemes for the corpus of professional reading in Russian. In this paper, a review of existing areas of development of methods for obtaining formant characteristics of vowels for different languages was made. A review was also made of the extent to which formant picture patterns are used in speech technologies and natural language processing. On the corpus of professional reading CORPRES, data was obtained on formant components for 351929 realizations of vowel phonemes on the material of 8 speakers. The data obtained are grouped in accordance with the symbols in the real transcription, which was performed by phoneticians within the framework of segmenting the corpus. The formant planes represent the distribution of allophones of vowels for all speakers according to the two first formants. The variability of formant characteristics in the corpus for pre-tonic and post-tonic allophones are presented for one male speaker. The article also presents the results testifying the difference between the rounded unstressed /i/ and /a/, which are perceived by both naive speakers and expert phoneticians as /u/. As an experimental material, the recordings of reading by one male announcer of specially selected sentences, which took into account various linguistic factors, were used. Analysis of the data of the formant components of these vowels showed that the values of the first formant of these vowels are close to the values of the stressed vowel /u/ for this speaker. The closure of these vowels corresponds to the closure of /u/. The second formant values in the vowels [u], which were to be realized as [i] and [a] are different. They are more advanced in comparison with /u/.

PaLA Virtual Journal Club: Providing Opportunities for Reflection, Improvement, and Connections

A journal club is one means for those in similar professions or practices to read, discuss, and keep up with professional literature with colleagues. Journal clubs are most frequently associated with the medical professions; however, many professionals, including librarians, can benefit from the reading of research and the subsequent discussions and camaraderie that a journal club can elicit. This article describes the launch of a statewide virtual journal club for librarians in Pennsylvania. Now in its third series, the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) College & Research Division (CRD) journal club has given those who’ve participated the opportunity to designate time for professional reading, reflect on personal practice, discuss and exchange theoretical and practical ideas, and connect with librarians across the state.