Reimagining Emancipation in Norwegian Naval Leadership Education and Practice — A Reflective Practice Approach

Naval leadership education at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy (RNA) has changed significantly over the past decades. In this paper, some Personal Experiential Phenomena from a Military perspective and possible notions of, or differences in Norwegian Naval Leadership Education past and present were examined. Firstly, the article relied mainly on the Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire’s authorship as a basis for original and critical reflections. Reflective Practitioners use this process to modify and enhance their understanding of Professional Practice. The initial approach in this article was based on the Reflective Practice Research Method. “Which contributes to educators’ professional development and personal growth”. But knowledge of reflective methods alone are not sufficient. This article therefore also employed results from a survey conducted at RNA. Thus, mixed methods were adopted for the study to create a bridge between Personal Reflections and recent findings. Therefore, the survey among today’s Cadets, this paper may shed new light on Naval Leadership Education from both learners’ and educators’ perspectives. It would thus also have relevance for civilian educators within the field of Leadership Education and -studies. Keywords: formation, higher education, liberation, military leadership, oppression