Toward the Twenty-first Century: Air Command and Staff College Curriculum from Theory to Practice.

Responding to a perceived need resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the Cold War, the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) at Maxwell Air Force Base (Alabama) revised its curriculum. Data for the descriptive study were gathered through interviews of the leadership of the school and questionnaires sent to the 75 instructors and 580 students. Responses were received from 44 instructors (59 percent) and 134 students (23 percent). The survey instrument was developed around Grundy's (1987) three fundamental human interests--technical interest, practical interest, and emancipatory interest--to see which of these interests the respondents considered most appropriate to the curriculum. From the interviews, the underlying theory behind the new curriculum was found to be heavily influenced by the practical and emancipatory disposition. From results of the questionnaire, the instructors tend to lean toward a curriculum informed by practical interest. About the same number of students think the curriculum should be informed by the emancipatory disposition as think it is actually technical in the way it is practiced. Most of the students who think the curriculum should be practical in design also think it is practical in practice. A far smaller percentage of students than faculty think the curriculum is actually designed in an emancipatory way. The curriculum of the school was changed as a result of the efforts of Colonel Warden, the Commandant of ACSC, who functioned as a change agent to overcome the dogma that had been established over a long time. As the school's new curriculum nears the end of its second year, there is a gap between theory and practice but it is not a large one. To satisfy faculty and students, the practical interest should be developed more thoroughly, and the faculty should eventually become more emancipatory in their practice. (The school's vision, mission statement, and objectives and the survey document are included in the report.) (KC)