SHARED GOVERNANCE FOR INTELLECTUAL OVERMATCH
Posted byMatthew Woessner
March 3, 2022
EDITOR’S NOTE: The current temporary theme we are using only credits a single author. This article was written by Matthew Woessner, Nicholas J. Rowland and Bjorn Prandtner.
An important and cost-effective innovation lies in the process by which institutions evolve their curriculum.
In 2020, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) directed professional military education (PME) to prepare joint officers to “achieve intellectual overmatch against adversaries.” Motivated by the “return of great power competition,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed PME leadership to “adapt our leader development enterprise and not shy away from fundamental change where appropriate.” In response, PME leadership are considering a range of options, from new teaching methods to innovative uses of technology to meet this challenge. An important and cost-effective innovation lies in the process by which institutions evolve their curriculum. While the JCS provided PME broad institutional objectives, the experts who can best achieve those objectives, on a curricular level, are PME faculty. Alas, the military’s tradition of top-down leadership has left PME institutions with few effective mechanisms to promote faculty-administrative collaboration. To achieve the “overmatch” directive, PME institutions must emulate the best practice of shared governance from civilian higher education, which empowers faculty to play a central role in curricular design.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/intellectual-overmatch/
