“Fundamental challenges of homeland security education:” Preliminary findings
This post summarizes some preliminary findings from an empirical study of homeland security education. Because Homeland Security Watch has been discussing education this week, the author allowed me to post this summary. However, since the findings and conclusions are still provisional, the author requested not using the author’s name until the study has been finalized. Once it is, I will provide information about how to obtain the full work.
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Fundamental Challenges of Homeland Security Education
A growing question is arising as to the focus and status of the “academic discipline” of homeland security. This is not unique to homemade security.
A quote attributed to Paul Samuelson, the Nobel Laureate Economist, in his Collected Scientific Papers on the state of the discipline of economics seems appropriate: “Economics has never been a science, and is even less now than a few years ago.”
Similarly, homeland security education seemed to be more coherent a few years ago than now. A few graduate programs were engaged in educating homeland security practitioners, assessing the value and relevance of the curricula, and making deliberate, thoughtful changes based on the evidence. Educational volume increased and many in academe as well in the workforce established their versions of “model” curricula. By 2007 the crowded field was metastasizing:
The homeland security academic discipline is currently an evolving ungoverned environment of numerous programs purporting to prepare students for various positions of responsibility. Many of today’s homeland security offerings are an amalgam of pre-9/11 programs and courses that have since been revised to reflect some undetermined level of education and instruction in homeland security issues.[1]
Curricula appear to be touted more than tested. However, rather than take a completely negative position, there is support for a synthesized “way forward” toward an academic homeland security discipline.
Abbott describes academic disciplines as social and cultural entities for which there are few rules but two main functions:
Reproduction (of Employment for Academics): “being an academic means, willy-nilly, being a member of a discipline” and
Preventing Knowledge from becoming too Abstract or Overwhelming: “Disciplines … define what is permissible not to know and thereby limit the body of books one must have to read.”[2]
One function is self-serving, the other is self-limiting. Neither function is especially appealing at this stage of development of homeland security education but the need to assess the status of homeland security education has never been more important.
The Homeland Security Education Project
This [research] project began with an assumption: the emerging discipline of homeland security is in the germinal stages of development with a clear direction and focus, even if the elements of the discipline are somewhat unclear.
The research presented here does not support the assumption of a discipline, and it is not clear that there will be an academic discipline of homeland security. The future will be determined by the degree to which academics in homeland security can offer better solutions to problems, and subject-specific knowledge than parallel disciplines.
Issues Facing Homeland Security Education
There are many good reasons to applaud the emergence of homeland security as a new academic discipline. Encouraging the coalescing of research and knowledge around the critical issues inherent in homeland security is important. A colleague is fond of quoting a line from Mao Tse Tung, “Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences….” If homeland security is destined to be an academic discipline, it should become increasingly evident as more research is conducted, more theories tested and refined, and more scholarly publications emerge, not simply an increasing number of degree programs seeking to increase head-count.
Students, particularly undergraduate students, rely on faculty and university administrators to exercise good judgment in developing academic programs and pursuing the students to populate them. There are two honorable reasons to lure students into classes – enhance vocational capabilities and become better educated citizens. Some programs blend or balance the two, probably compromising one, the other or both. One issue at hand is the degree to which homeland security education, as currently conceived, addresses either of these objectives. If it does, students should be encouraged to enroll, complete degrees and accomplish the objectives of the education. If it does not, homeland security is still a viable research area, attracting multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary attention to the safety and security issues facing the nation. …[But] the trust of the consumers of education, the students, should not be lost.
The method adopted for constructing this [analysis] is the customary research process common in the social sciences. Problems and issues are articulated, research questions identified, literature reviewed to formulate possible answers to the research questions, research products described, and conclusions stated that flow logically from the research. Based on the answers to these research questions, recommendations on a way forward will be made, based on all evidence.
["Research Method" not included in this summary]
Research Findings [excerpt; supporting data not always included in this summary]
1. Who should be the consumers of homeland security education?
The most critical, and perhaps the exclusive consumers for homeland security education today are practitioners, with homeland security administrative or leadership responsibilities, working in the 51 professional disciplines or groups identified in the research. Additionally, the most appropriate tier of education is at the first graduate level (Master’s degree). Committees sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, meeting in 2004 and 2005 identified some core elements of a homeland security curriculum, however, the report stated clearly and unambiguously, “Not a single workshop participant, or any of the committee members, voiced support for an undergraduate degree program focused specifically on homeland security.”[3] Additionally … that education is [probably] best provided at the graduate level.[4] Training is appropriate for many others in the professional disciplines but the objectives and capabilities described [in the study] are most appropriate for graduate education.
2. What is the efficacy of such education?
The research suggests that graduate education could prepare professionals in homeland security leadership positions to be much more effective in their capability to operate in an ambiguous environment …, engage in strategic collaboration …, and engage in critical thinking …. It would appear that undergraduate vocational education in homeland security, as an employment opportunity, is not central to the largest potential employment, law enforcement, even though the professional discipline is engaged in homeland security preparedness activities…. It would appear that homeland security vocational education at an undergraduate level would not be effective in enhancing employment.
3. What learning objectives and capabilities should be the foundation of the education?
Based on data gathered since 2004 from 19 independent survey groups, across all major professional disciplines in homeland security, the most important objectives and capabilities for homeland security leaders and administrators are:
Strategic collaboration
- Ability to coordinate, collaborate and communicate across agencies
- Ability to identify and build strategic relationships within your homeland security organization and across the homeland security community
- Capability to build, sustain and operate within interagency teams/task forces
- Improve efforts for collaboration, information-sharing, threat recognition, and target hardening between various disciplines
- Communicate appropriately with other agencies and organizations to insure the sharing of critical information during and following a homeland security threat or incident
Critical thinking and decision-making
- Ability to think about complex issues using scientific/critical thinking approaches to solving problems and make sound judgments
- Capability to take action that is consistent with available facts, constraints, and probable consequences
- Ability to operate in extreme ambiguity.
The objectives and capabilities [identified above] were the items scored highest in importance by the [survey groups]. The entire list of categories of capabilities, from most important to least important, was:
- Strategic collaboration
- Critical thinking and decision-making
- Foundations of Homeland Security
- Analytical Capabilities
- Leadership
- Legal Issues
- Strategic Planning
- Cognate or Specific Knowledge
4. Is there sufficient agreement [about what] homeland security courses [should educate] appropriate students on the appropriate capabilities?
Based on available literature, it appears that there is no more agreement on homeland security core curricula today than in 2007 when Rollins and Rowan found “The homeland security academic discipline is currently an evolving ungoverned environment of numerous programs purporting to prepare students for various positions of responsibility.”[5]
5. Are established, more mature, parallel disciplines better capable of educating students on the appropriate capabilities?
While it was initially expected that existing programs such as Public Policy and Public Administration would better accomplish the two most important elements [above] and cognates could address the remaining ones, examination of the core courses in those disciplines seems to suggest otherwise…. The conclusion is … these parallel programs do not suffice in meeting the needs of homeland security graduate education.
6. Is homeland security a viable academic discipline?
The answer to this key research question is “Not at this time.” Whether it is an interdisciplinary or a multi-disciplinary study area can be debated but it appears not to have evolved to a point where idiosyncratic theories and methods of research in homeland security are better paradigmatically than those of the disciplines initially producing them and coming together to address or assess the issues in homeland security. Homeland security education appears to be too immature and amorphous, with its educational goals in dispute, to merit proceeding vigorously in the development of new programs beyond those providing the knowledge and capabilities needed by those leaders already in defined homeland security roles and key public safety positions, and producing evidence of the efficacy of the education.
Consider, for example, the list of things homeland security education is missing, according to Kiltz:
To date, there is no agreed upon definition of homeland security, no grand theory explaining the phenomenon of homeland security, no standardized curriculum, little discussion of the history, paradigms and philosophies of the field, and ill defined faculty roles.[6]
Faculty in the emerging discipline of homeland security, seeking to craft (or cobble together) courses and coursework, in their zeal to incorporate and homogenize the theories and research of others, may drift away from the areas of their expertise and do a less-than-creditable job instructing students when faculty more central to the disciplines being instructed are available.
A Way Forward
Steps forward are still possible, despite the skepticism of the paragraph above….
Continue to encourage graduate education, but strongly encourage the inculcation of [such objectives as ] … strategic collaboration capabilities, the ability to think critically and analytically, and the capability to operate in the ambiguous environment of homeland security.
The recommendations, going forward are:
- Assess the courses and the program using those key [objectives] as dependent variables in the assessment processes;
- Assess impact of homeland security education using disciplined, reliable methods that can discriminate effects…
- Disseminate the results to other universities and colleges with recommendations of smart practices…
- Encourage (through special journal issues, fellowships, and proactive recruitment) faculty in existing disciplines to adopt homeland security issues and problems within their research agendas….
- Encourage the Department of Homeland Security to partner with the U.S. Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and other federal agencies to take a leadership role in a process similar to the Bologna Process…, using homeland security education as the example….
- Engage representatives of more mature disciplines, already contributing to homeland security education and research, to be manifestly involved in the development of theories, methods, and analytical capabilities that should be considered in the development of graduate homeland security education….
Based on these recommendations, it should be feasible to then begin to formulate model curricula that are evidence-based.
[1] Rollins, John and Joseph Rowan. (2007). The Homeland Security Academic Environment: a Review of Current Activities and Issues for Consideration. Homeland Security and Defense Education Consortium.
[2] Abbott, Andrew. (2001). Chaos of Disciplines. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. P. 130-131.
[3] Committee on Educational Paradigms for Homeland Security, National Research Council (2005). Frameworks for Higher Education in Homeland Security, National Academy of Science Press, p. 19. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11141.html
[4] Common, Michael Lamport. (2008). Introduction to the Model of Hierarchical Complexity and its Relationship to Postformal Action, World Futures, Vol. 64: 305–320 and Common, Michael Lamport. (2008). Implications of Hierarchical Complexity for Social Stratification, Economics, and Education, World Futures, Vol. 64: 430–435.
[5] Rollins, John and Joseph Rowan. (2007). The Homeland Security Academic Environment: a Review of Current Activities and Issues for Consideration. Homeland Security and Defense Education Consortium.
[6] Kiltz, Linda. (2011). The Challenges of Developing a Homeland Security Discipline to Meet Future Threats to the Homeland. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Vol. 8(2), Article 1, pp. 1-22, at p. 13.
