Conceptual socialization in debriefing: tactics as an object of knowledge in wargame interactions

Debriefing sessions play a crucial role in enhancing the effectiveness of simulations for learning in professional education and training. In this paper, we focus on post-game debriefing sessions in military officer education, where wargames are used with the goal of enhancing students’ understanding of military tactics. The central focus of this article is how the concept of tactics is used in the debriefings. The study was undertaken at the Swedish Defence University, where video data were collected from a variety of wargaming-based tactics courses for navy and marine cadets (officer students). Using a microethnographic approach, we analyze a set of video-recorded post-wargaming debriefing sessions. In the examination of the practical reasoning present in the discussions, we find that participants engage with the concept of tactics in three main ways: (1) Delineating it from other forms of related but separate areas of military knowledge (such as team communication and leadership); (2) as part of “tactical reflections” on specific events in the game, by both students and teachers; and (3) as a generalizable and transferable military skill. The adversarial nature of wargaming plays a significant role, where the goal of creating dilemmas for the opponent is important throughout. Knowledge of tactics is found to not be transparently communicated through participation in the wargame, but to require unpacking in reflective discussions. The analyses show how the concept of tactics is articulated by teachers and appropriated in students’ post-game reasoning. We discuss these findings in terms of conceptual socialization.