dc.description.abstract | Most of the research on military servicemen was conducted from the perspective
of organizational management, and used survey instruments to find the pattern of
accommodation model of compulsory soldiers in order to enhance the effectiveness
of leadership and decision-making in military organization. As a result, the
subjectivity of compulsory soldiers’ experience was ignored. Therefore, the present
study builds from Wenger’s community of practice and Goffman’s total institution
theory to analyze the practice of compulsory soldiers in such total institution. The
concepts of participation, non-participation, identity and secondary adjustment were
applied to interpret compulsory soldiers’ experience. From the perspective that
learning is not talking about a person’s mind performance but a social phenomenon,
this study was intended to answer the following research questions:
1. What do the life of the naval soldiers in compulsory look like in total
institution?
2. Under the control of total institution, what do they learn?
3. Under the control of total institution, how the communities of practice
developed?
4. What does the involuntary experience of being naval soldiers mean to them,
particularly about the development of dis-identity?
Using group interview, this study explored the varied experience of compulsory
soldiers from entering into the community to leaving it legally. In the early stage, they
had to align totally with the norms and values of the community. As they engaged
more deeply, they try to make sense of the essence of teaching and learning in
military work, the vague ambit in quality control, and the core concern of manager.
They developed many tactics to maintain a sense of self such that they can live with.
Although the community of practice that the compulsory soldiers developed wasshirked and ineffectively, their relations with the military was presented with
non-participation, which, in turn, hide their conflictual moments from the
undisciplined and loosed army. In the final stage, they all left legally, the domination
also diminished, they handled work and life with ease. On the outbound trajectory,
their engagement in this shared practice engenders a substantial experience of identity.
The compulsory soldiers’ struggling in identity versus dis-identity, participation
versus non-participation was also discussed in detail. | en_US |