Theorizing Military Student Transitions in U.S. Higher Education

• In Event: Negotiating Higher Education Transition

Abstract

U.S. military servicemembers are quickly enculturated within a system of values, beliefs, and behaviors that bonds them together and enables them to fulfill roles as members of the Profession of Arms. These attributes, which ultimately shape their military personal and professional identities, are deeply internalized and often endure long after servicemembers leave the military. Since military identities influence outcomes of career transitions, the ways in which military students reflect on, deconstruct, and transform self-visions are important to understand. This theory paper presents a conceptual model of military transition that forefronts a process of identity hybridization, wherein students transform military identities into co-existing veteran and civilian professional identities. This paper begins a theoretical conversation about how identity hybridization processes occur.

Authors

• Angela Minichiello, Utah State University

• Michael Kirchner, Purdue University-Fort Wayne