Running Head: DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES- THE ARMY 1

Discourse Communities- The Army

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DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES- THE ARMY 2

Discourse Communities- The Army

A group of people that are bound together and share some basic principles and values

that guide their interactions with themselves and the community in the way that they

communicate and execute the mandate that brings them together is referred to as a discourse

community. The army is the example of a discourse community that will be discussed in this

paper in regards to Gerald Gaffs book, Clueless in Academia. The level of training and

learning that a person undergoes before they can qualify to be a military officer is intense,

and cases of people not making through such training and an attitude adjustment is a

common phenomenon. Some of them give up on the way due to the intensity and rigid nature

of the army training, and in extreme cases, some have lost their lives in the process. Basing

the argument from Gerald gaffs Clueless in Academia the army, training in the army

colleges usually makes the intellectual life of the army recruits appear narrow and opaque to

some of the real-life issues that they have to interact within the course of executing their

mandate (Graff, 2003). According to Gaff, it leaves them clueless to many academic issues

as it makes them behave like a robot- like a creature that is controlled and operated through

instructions from one center of command. Attention and support to academics should come

from all the stakeholders for the learning interventions to be impactful in society as Gaff

states But attention to academias opacity has been further divided in recent years by the

polarized politics of educational debate (Graff, 2003, p.6). In other words, it takes away

the privilege and ability of the members of this discourse community to act and think for

themselves as they rely on direction and guidelines from their superiors even on trivial

matters. Based on the above assertion, one can deduce that some discourse communities
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leave their members clueless as they erase the learning and particularly academic abilities

that they may have in interpreting some of the life issues that affect them.

The practice and learning of a discourse community such as the army are shrouded in

bureaucracies and long chains of command that are to be followed before a decision or action

is taken. The bureaucracies hinder the realization of the full learning abilities of the members

of the army as it is not acceptable for a person to act without orders from his or her superiors.

This reduces the eagerness and creativity that the members of such a community may want to

try out thus limiting their learning abilities that would have impacted positively on their lives

and careers thus making them remaining clueless from the academic and other perspectives.

The rigid attitude adjustment and discipline that is entrenched in this discourse community

can change the character and personality of an individual to a more robotized person that

follows certain routines and commands thus reduces the exercising of their free will (Graff,

2003). Most of the academic learning that is retained in the mind of the student arises from

the exercise of free will so that the student can be guided by the teacher on where they may

be going wrong and consequently be corrected. It is through free will that the student can

learn to make extra efforts to learn more about what they were taught thus making the

principles and values taught to them to be entrenched in their minds. When the exercise of

free will is curtailed in the discourse community under discussion, it dents the learning

abilities of the people involved hence making them clueless on some issues outside their field

of practice and also within their field of expertise.

Gaff asserts that the lack of intelligence in academics is reinforced unknowingly by

the technical terms and language, for instance, the discreet language that the military officers
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communicate through that blocks the connection of the curriculum and the failure to explore

the many links between popular culture and academics (Graff, 2003). In his book, Gaff

illustrates that My experience over the years playing both the baffler and the baffle has

made me increasingly curious about the incomprehension, anxiety, and alienation that my

academic, intellectual world provokes (Graff, 2003, p.4). He goes further to suggest that

academics offer unending practical suggestions and solutions in life issues of concern that

may affect any discourse community. The army as a discourse community sometimes

disregards the academic abilities of their prospective recruits and majorly focuses on their

physical fitness for the straining training that goes on in the military training. This is part of

the military culture where physical fitness and endurance are the key features that define any

member of this discourse. Strict body fitness is given keen interest in the army through the

daily runs and extraneous physical activities to keep their bodies in shape and ready for any

battle that borders or any foreign threat to the country. This implies that mental capacity that

relates to the academic abilities of the members of this community takes a back seat in

preference to physical fitness. The resultant effect is being opaque and narrow-minded on

matters that are important in the discernment of real-life issues that may affect the

professional life and other spheres of the lives of the members of this discourse community

(Graff, 2003). Members of the discourse community under discussion are expected to

behave in a certain way that follows strict commands and values that are portrayed by their

professional code of ethics. They have unique and different ways of conducting their daily

lives; for instance, there is a way that junior officers are supposed to salute their seniors, and

the opposite is also true. There is a clear line of distinction between how a junior officer

should address and interact with their seniors and they have different facilities for each
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category of officers where they are not supposed to mix freely. This is one of the biggest

learning disadvantages as there is not a single point that the junior officer can learn from the

senior officer since their interaction is limited interaction thus hindering the learning by

association that is very important in the academic circles. For academic learning to be

effective it should take place in an environment that is conducive to learning to take place for

both the student and the instructor. The student-teacher interaction should be characterized

by some sense of freedom and in being inquisitive through exercising free but within the

control of the teacher. To satisfy their curiosity on the principles and values being taught the

children or students should be as free as possible, this evidenced in Gaffs assertion This

incuriosity which helps explain why teaching has been so notoriously undervalued in

universities takes different forms (Graff, 2003, p.5). The student should be as free as

possible to interact with the teacher and ask for clarification so that they understand the

values and concepts that they are being taught in a depth manner.

The dynamics of a discourse community dictate that when one joins the community

as a novice with no basic training of the requirements of the community and do not leave the

community at their free will but under involuntary ways such as death or retirement. This

illustrates that it is a lifelong commitment being a member of such a community. Therefore

the learning abilities of the people in this discourse community should be enhanced so that

professional judgments can be made more easily without lengthy consultations that may have

negative implications on a situation that requires urgency. As stated earlier in the formative

parts of this paper academia presents a host of suggestions and solutions to an issue hence

entrenching academic abilities into the army would be important in enhancing their
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intervention and interactions to issues under their jurisdiction (Graff, 2003). Academics

particularly science-related disciplines should be incorporated into the army to improve their

accuracy and knowledge by dealing with external threats to their areas of jurisdiction.

Military science in the army has particularly been impactful in the development of very

sophisticated artilleries of war that can conduct surveillance, rescue missions, attacks

amongst other military duties with precise accuracy and with no innocent casualties being

caught up in such missions. This will and have improved the army interventions all over the

world since as they recruit people to join the army, they are enrolled in the higher institutions

of learning for degrees and diploma in military science. The practice aims to sharpen their

knowledge and skills set in the different operations of the army that they will be involved in.

This has also shifted focus from the physical abilities that were previously referred to

academic abilities of the recruits.

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References

Graff, G. (2003). Clueless in Academe: How schooling obscures the life of the mind. New

Haven: Yale University Press.