Military veterans bring many positives — and some needs

Many veterans get into the classroom via alternative credentialing and have gaps in their pedagogical knowledge. Yet if they are well-supported in their first year, they can become successful and popular teachers.

With the Iraq war over and U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under way, the number of military veterans seeking new careers in the classroom is likely to increase. Public schools have hired over 17,000 veterans who have participated in Troops to Teachers (TTT), a federal program designed to assist those leaving careers in the military to transition into teaching careers (see www.troopstoteachers.net).

Despite some educators’ bias against former service members, the advantages of hiring veterans as teachers are manifold. Service members must live and work with individuals from other cultures, quickly adapt to changing conditions, be resilient, and collaborate with others to achieve a common mission — all attributes that will serve them well as teachers. TTT completers who enter teaching are more likely than traditionally certified teachers to be persons of color, teach in high-poverty schools, and teach in high-need areas such as math, science, and special education (Gantz, 2004; Nunnery et al., 2009). Also, in a profession that loses over 50% of its members in their first five years, TTT completers are more likely than traditionally certified teachers to stay in the profession (Owings et al., 2006).

Owings and colleagues (2006) further found that school administrators’ rated TTT completers higher in instructional practices, classroom management, and overall quality of teaching than other teachers. A study of 6,500 students in Florida found that students of those who completed the TTT program were higher achievers in reading and mathematics than students of other teachers with the same teaching experience (Nunnery et al., 2009).

While their potential for becoming successful teachers is high, veterans typically encounter a number of problems in their first year of teaching.

Yet former service persons entering teaching have unique needs that should be addressed by school administrators and teachers. While their potential for becoming successful teachers is high, veterans typically encounter a number of problems in their first year of teaching.

One barrier to former service persons entering teaching is the unsubstantiated fear held by many in the public and by some school administrators that a large percentage of veterans suffer from PTSD and other psychological disorders and thus would be a threat to students and colleagues. In fact, most military veterans do not have such disorders, and even those with PTSD can, with proper treatment and support, be caring and successful teachers who pose no threat to those with whom they work.

Culture shock

An overarching problem faced by former service members in their first year of teaching is the stark difference between military and school culture. Veterans have been taught to be loyal to their unit and organization and to value self-sacrifice. If they enter teaching soon after leaving the military, they already are experiencing a certain level of dissonance between military life and the individualism and competition that often characterize civilian life (Demers, 2011), a dissonance that often increases when they begin teaching. Former service members can be bewildered by teachers who aren’t willing to share successful lesson plans or instructional materials and by the cliquishness and rivalry among faculty subgroups sometimes present in schools.

Former service members who spent several years in the military before entering teaching likely had a high level of expertise at their jobs. Many were officers who commanded large numbers of troops. But in civilian life, in schools, suddenly these former experts are novices, and they soon realize how difficult teaching can be. As veterans new to teaching begin to realize their students are not learning as anticipated, feelings of frustration and powerlessness are common. Moreover, because of the norms of privacy and the sink-or-swim mentality present in many schools, the assistance they were accustomed to getting in the military often is not available. One former soldier who we interviewed told us he felt like he had been dropped on an island — his classroom — alone and left there to survive or perish on his own.

Other aspects of culture shock for former service members in their first year of teaching are the hidden or unspoken norms of K-12 schools. In the military, expectations are spelled out in standard operating procedures. Veterans new to teaching often complain about not knowing what is expected of them as teachers. Hidden norms include such things as how to interact with different members of the school community, how to request certain types of assistance, and how to deal with student discipline problems, parent concerns, and so forth.

Most former service persons survive their first year and go on to become effective teachers. However, veterans and their students endure a rocky journey during that first year, which could be made much smoother if they were provided appropriate entry-year support. Here’s what that support might look like.

Information for faculty

One of the environmental problems faced by all first-year teachers is isolation from their colleagues (Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 2014). However, the isolation of veterans in their first year of teaching can be especially severe. This is partly because of the aforementioned bias caused by fears that former service members suffer from PTSD or other psychological problems, but it also is because teachers lack general knowledge about military life. Some teachers may not know how to initiate dialogue with veterans. Also, former service members often are very popular with students and parents, and a new member of the faculty receiving such instant popularity threatens some teachers. One way to reduce veterans’ isolation is to provide information to the faculty that will increase their understanding of their new colleagues.

Some teachers may not know how to initiate dialogue with veterans. Also, former service members often are very popular with students and parents, and a new member of the faculty receiving such instant popularity threatens some teachers.

Former service members who are experienced educators should be involved in sharing information with the faculty regarding veterans in their first year of teaching. They can describe various aspects of culture shock discussed above and tell teachers that combat veterans, because of the life and death experiences they have been through, tend to have low tolerance for petty politics in schools or for initiatives that seem unrelated to educating students. Former service members may sometimes seem overly assertive in discussions with colleagues.

An educator with extensive military experience explained this to us:

Soldiers typically are not a shy bunch and may seem aggressive when addressing an issue or disagreeing with a particular point. This presentation style is not meant to be unprofessional but rather is considered professional in that it demonstrates confidence and conviction . . . . Also, many soldiers have had leadership roles and even served as commanders. These experiences are cherished and typically are not abandoned when they enter the teaching profession.

If teachers know about the tendencies described above and the reasons for those tendencies, they are more likely to understand and accept their new colleague.

The best way for other teachers to develop collegial relationships with veterans new to teaching is to engage in conversations with the beginners. Former service members may feel comfortable talking about some of their military experiences and uncomfortable discussing others, and which experiences they discuss should always be their option. Discussions of shared experiences, shared values, and shared goals can help veterans and other teachers begin to build relationships.

Levels of structured support

Three strategies provide an effective way to support veterans new to teaching:

Mentoring,
Support teams, and
Support networks.

Veterans we have interviewed said ongoing assistance by an assigned mentor was the most valuable support they received. Effective mentors assist new teachers by providing pedagogical and moral support. The successful mentoring relationship with a former service member, however, may take a slightly different twist than the typical mentoring relationship. For example, soldiers in the U.S. Army assist and are assisted by their battle buddy — “the person to whom a soldier can turn in time of need, stress, and emotional highs and lows, who will not turn the soldier away, no matter what” (Orsingher, Lopez, & Rinehart, 2008, p. 66). Based on this type of relationship in the military, former soldiers might expect a more reciprocal relationship with their mentor, rather than the purely one-way assistance traditionally provided by mentors to new teachers in K-12 mentoring programs.

The team concept is very strong in the military — effective teamwork is necessary for the success of the mission and often for survival. Veterans in their first year of teaching are perplexed and disappointed when an instructional team they belong to is dysfunctional or when team members are not supportive. In some cases, they use skills they developed in the service to establish their own informal support team. Former service members, however, should not be left on their own to develop a support team. School leaders and colleagues from the new teacher’s grade level, content area, and so forth should work with each other and the new teacher to meet the beginner’s support needs.

The transition to civilian life for veterans can be assisted by discussions with others going through the same transition (Demers, 2011). Districts with a number of former military members in their first year of teaching could coordinate the creation of internal peer support networks; smaller districts could link with others nearby. The objective is for new teachers to be located close enough to each other to meet in person on a regular basis to discuss experiences, concerns, problems, solutions, successes, and joys of the entry year. Larger, online networks can supplement networks small enough for in-person meetings (Johnston et al., 2010).

General assistance

At the beginning of their entry year, veterans should have a thorough orientation to the district, the community the school serves, and the school itself. A map of the school with locations of different grade levels, departments, facilities, resources, and materials can be extremely helpful. Military technology and equipment can be very different than that used in a school, and the new teacher will appreciate even simple assistance like being shown how to use the campus copy machine or the electronic grading system.

Mentors and support teams can help the beginning teacher by discussing formal policies and procedures as well as informal, unwritten school norms. Sharing the history of how the formal and informal rules came to be also is helpful. It is difficult to absorb the myriad expectations of a school and district in one or even a few meetings, so it is best for the mentor to have regular, informal discussions with the beginner and for the support team to have regular meetings with the new teacher throughout the entry year. A helpful tool is an information binder (hard copy or electronic) with notes on important school and faculty activities, due dates for teacher tasks, and explanations of those tasks.

Classroom-based assistance

The mentor and support team should regularly review the curriculum with the novice and discuss curricular issues the new teacher will face. What are the most critical parts of the curriculum? What should be the balance of breadth vs. depth in teaching the curriculum? How can the teacher adapt the standard curriculum to students’ cultures, abilities, and interests? In addition to hearing about big-picture issues like the curriculum, former military members new to teaching greatly appreciate concrete assistance such as sample lesson plans and copies of instructional materials, especially early in the entry year.

Veterans in their first year of teaching have served in a military organization based on discipline, and they tend to be able to achieve student compliance but may have difficulty developing the kinds of relationships that promote student self-discipline. A former service member in his first year of teaching told us the following:

To be quite honest, I was probably more scared the first day of school than the kids were. Given my background and military experience, that’s a lot to say. I did what I always do when I feel threatened: I got mean. Those kids sat straight, stayed quiet, raised their hands, and knew how and where to pick up and turn in assignments. Even the hard-case kids who had been rejected from other schools knew that they had to raise their hands to speak and that they could not leave my class without first being in their seat with their desk cleared. Some even cried the first weeks of class.

The teacher quoted above eventually learned that the best way to assure positive student behavior was to develop caring relationships with students and to make student learning and mutual respect the basis of classroom management. The teacher made the following comments at the end of his first year of teaching:

Teaching does not mean you organize your classroom so it looks neat. It means you organize your classroom because the students need to know where they are, what they are going to learn, and what they are expected to do. Teaching doesn’t mean you discipline students in order to control the classroom. You stay consistent in your discipline so the students can depend on your actions, and you, in turn, acknowledge the fact that they can. It reciprocates respect.

This teacher learned through the experience of his entry year — an experience that, in the early stages, was not pleasant for him or his students. Our aim should be for school leaders and other teachers to assist the beginner early on to understand that developing caring relationships with students is the best avenue to both positive student behavior and student learning. Helpful monitoring and professional dialogue, not trial and error, are the best ways to learn this reality.

Many veterans new to teaching are alternatively certified. They typically have taken a few credit hours in general pedagogy and little if any coursework covering, for example, how to teach particular content, like math, science, and so forth. One former service member in his first year of teaching middle school math discussed his lack of pedagogical content knowledge: “The only strategy I knew was to work hard at it and learn it myself, and that was how I was going to teach it to the kids . . . I didn’t understand that the kids were not going to understand it.”

Differentiating instruction

Veterans new to teaching often have difficulty providing the differentiated instruction their students require. A former service member we interviewed realized early on that one-size-fits-all teaching was not working in her elementary classroom: “I think the hardest adjustment for me was that I had a range of academic ability in the classroom. I had some kids who, everything was really quick, and then I had some who would really struggle.” This teacher told us she knew almost from the beginning of the school year that she needed to provide differentiated instruction, but she did not know how.

The problems discussed by the two teachers quoted above represent common support needs: Many veterans alternatively certified need assistance to further develop pedagogical skills and pedagogical content knowledge as well as skills for differentiated instruction. This support can be workshops, seminars, observation of expert teachers, coteaching with expert teachers, or peer coaching. Most former service members in their first year of teaching are eager to develop the knowledge and skills to be effective teachers; they were involved in various types of skill development throughout their military careers. School leaders and colleagues only need to accurately assess the beginning teacher’s needs through observation and consultation and then provide relevant professional development and classroom follow-up to meet those needs.

Return on investment

The transition from military life to teaching can be difficult. However, investing in tailored support for veterans new to teaching is well worth the effort. Former service members tend to be committed to their students and tenacious in their efforts to improve. Most of them are willing to admit to problems they experience as new teachers and work hard to overcome those problems, but they are much more likely to do so and to do so more quickly with support from school leaders and their fellow teachers.

References

Demers, A. (2011). When veterans return: The role of the community in reintegration. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 16 (2), 160-179.

Gantz, J.R. (2004). Troops to teachers: A source of quality math and science teachers. Pensacola, FL: Author. http://bit.ly/1R4NZkc

Glickman, C.D., Gordon, S.P., & Ross-Gordon, J.M. (2014). Supervision of instruction: A developmental approach(9th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Johnston, S., Fletcher, E., Ginn, G., & Stein, D. (2010). Retirement transitions from the military to the civilian workforce: The perspective of Marine Corps noncommissioned officers. Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 26 (1), 74-95.

Nunnery, J., Kaplan, L., Owings, W., & Pribesh, S.A. (2009). The effects of troops to teachers on student achievement: One state’s study. NASSP Bulletin, 93, 249-272.

Orsingher, J.M., Lopez, A.T., & Rinehart, M.E. (2008, July-September). Battlemind training system: Armor for your mind. U.S. Army Medical Department Journal, 66-71. http://1.usa.gov/1QgzHk2

Owings, W., Kaplan, L., Nunnery, J., Marzano, R., Myran, S., & Blackburn, D. (2006). Teacher quality and troops to teachers: A national study with implications for principals. NASSP Bulletin, 90, 102-131.

Citation: Parham, J.N. & Gordon, S.P. (2016). Military veterans bring many positives — and some needs — into teaching. Phi Delta Kappan, 97 (7), 43-47.