What Is Homeland Security? Developing a Definition Grounded in the Curricula

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the treatment of homeland security in the content and context of a purposeful sample of graduate and undergraduate courses. This article establishes a framework for guiding future research in the field by establishing a conceptual definition grounded by what is being taught under the moniker of homeland security. It illustrates the imprecise or multifaceted nature of the definition of homeland security and the varied approaches used to teach homeland security. The research design in this paper employed a purposeful sampling logic, a grounded theory paradigm, and a content analysis technique applied to the descriptions of the courses, topical/unit coverage, and the use of terminology in the syllabi. The study concludes that homeland security courses play a variety of roles in the curricula, that there is very little agreement about what constitutes homeland security as a curriculum, and that the content of the syllabi seems heavily grounded in a variety of disciplines. The article discusses the possible implications of the conceptual definition of homeland security that the syllabi seem to suggest; that is, a system of emergency preparedness that requires military and civilian response to perceived, potential, or eminent terrorist threats against U.S. citizens and interests at home.