Wargaming in higher education: Contributions and challenges

Sabin, Philip

doi:10.1177/1474022215577216

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Wargames have a long history as a military training method (for an overview, see, for example, Smith, 2010;Curry, 2020b) and are currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity as a military pedagogical tool (Curry, 2020a;Hirst, 2020). 1 The distillation of the dynamics of conflict into a simplified and playable yet realistic model make wargames convenient for bridging the difficult gap between experiential knowledge and theory (Sabin, 2015;Bartels, 2016;Fjaellingsdal & Klöckner, 2020;Curry, 2020b;Sabin, 2015). Their efficacy as a learning tool is also frequently linked to the human predisposition for narrative as a sense-making paradigm (see, for example, Perla & McGrady, 2011;Curry, 2020a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning (Better) From Stories: Wargames, Narratives, and Rhetoric in Military Education

Hagen

2022

Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

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Wargames have a long history as a military training method. A typical explanatory framework for their efficacy is their narrative aspect. There remain, however, questions concerning the ways narrative functions in context, and how it can be analysed to assess the educational value of wargaming in Professional Military Education programmes (PME). The article offers a case study of how officer cadets employed narrative elements during a matrix game which aims to test their knowledge of peacekeeping operations and to develop their critical thinking and argumentation skills, focusing on how these narrative elements functioned rhetorically. Using positioning analysis buttressed by insights from argumentation studies and expanded with approaches from literary narratology, this study uncovers the extensive and subtle ways players employed narrative persuasion to further their goals, and the extent to which argumentation in matrix games relies on narrative. The study suggests that this aspect of matrix game argumentation has been understudied, and that attention to narrative can have a range of benefits: it helps shed light on how players shift between participatory frameworks or narrative levels in the game, how meaning is negotiated, and how professional reflection and identities are initiated. Demonstrating how subjectivity and experience can be employed as data in military sciences, the study also offers educators an interpretive framework for analysing game interaction. It further suggests that the matrix game's educational value in PME can be extended by incorporating awareness of the rhetorical functions of narrative into the post-game reflection; knowledge of how stories are told could enhance student learning.

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