"The Rock of Transfer": A Synthesis of Ethics in Higher Education through the Lens of the United States Military Academies

Abstract

With unconventional modern-day warfare and the pervasiveness of social media comes an unprecedented operational environment of highly publicized ethical dilemmas for young military officers. The United States service academies are in the unique position of educating their undergraduate students in the traditional four-year academic construct as well as in ethical decision-making within strict values- and rules-based cultures. Further complicating this charge is the posturing of students as both scholars and contracted employees of the Department of Defense, liable to the American taxpayer. Using the construct of ethical education at the United States military academies, this paper makes the case for why ethics matter in higher education, and will explore a variety of models by which they may be taught, to include pre-scripting (Gentile, 2010), ethical triangulation (Baker, 2012), and Theme Centered Interaction (Wortel & Bosch, 2011), among others.