Fordham University: DigitalResearch@Fordham
Not a member yet
16374 research outputs found
Sort by
Distributed Integrated Leadership: An Analysis of High-Performing Elementary Schools in Low-Income Communities
No full textSince the advent of the standardized movement in education, there has been a plethora of research pertaining to the characteristics of successful schools. Even more so, studies have consistently been trying to investigate if there is a proverbial gold standard of what encompasses successful school improvement in low-income communities serving minority students. Complementary to this endeavor, types of school leadership have also been examined to see if there are common trends and themes for school leaders within the studied communities. In the past thirty years, three leadership types have been marked as influential: instructional, transformational, and distributed leadership. This mixed-methods case study attempted to look at these leadership types in an interconnected fashion, by amalgamating instructional and transformational leadership as one construct (i.e., integrated leadership; Marks & Printy, 2003) and using distributed leadership as a process variable—thus showcasing how distributed leadership actualizes an integrated leadership model. Two high-performing elementary schools in New York City, residing in predominately low-income minority communities, were purposely selected. Using a reconceptualized survey, the Distributed Integrated Leadership Survey (DILS), as well as qualitative factors (i.e., open-ended responses, public records), this study had the following overarching goals: to investigate the degree to which integrated and distributed leadership manifest within the studied schools and to gauge the relationship between distributed leadership and an integrated model. Quantitative and qualitative results from this study elicited that successful school leadership is not a monolithic construct, but rather an amalgamation of motivational, instructional, and distributed factors
Wolfthal, Diane Fialkow
No full textDiane Wolfthal was born in the Bronx in 1949 and lived on Pelham Parkway. However, shortly after her birth, Wolfthal’s family moved to the Amalgamated Housing Corporation. She remembers the co-op being an idyllic utopia. The co-op, from her memory, was very homogenous, with almost every family in the compound being Jewish, socialist, or communist, and either first or second-generation migrants. Additionally, most of the Jewish families at the Amalgamated Housing Corporation were secular. Wolfthal remembers observing Jewish holidays and going to Bar Mitzvahs but never having her Jewish practices tied to a notion of God. Instead, her Jewishness was tied to familial traditions, such as learning Yiddish. Because of the limited differences between members of the Amalgamated Housing Corporation, Wolfthal remembers tensions erupting between the communists and the socialists who lived there.
For her education, Wolfthal attended Riverdale Junior High School and Bronx Science High School. However, at Riverdale Junior High School, she struggled socially because she had little in common with the girls she went to school with. Wolfthal was bullied and was happy when she went to Bronx Science High School, where her friends from the co-op attended. She went on to get a BA, MA, and eventually a Ph.D. She married her husband while getting her BA, and they eventually settled in the Bronx together, where they had two children. Despite Wolfthal’s love for the Bronx, after a brutal attack and repeated shootings near their home, her family moved.
Today Wolfthal lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband. However, they recently bought an apartment in the Bronx, where they stay for a large portion of the year. She remembers her childhood fondly, particularly the sense of community she felt with the other children and members of the Amalgamated Housing Corporation.
Key Words:
Pelham Parkway, Van Cortlandt Park, Riverdale, Amalgamated Housing Corporation, Yiddish, Socialism, Communism, Vietnam War, Street games, Riverdale Junior High School, Bronx Science, Antisemitism, 1967/1968 Teachers Strike, Riverdale, Fieldston, Spuyten Duyvi
Risk and Protective Factors Impacting the Mental Health of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children From Central America
No full textHundreds of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children (UICs) from the Northern Triangle of Central America were released from Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters between 2013 and 2023. Previous research findings indicate that UICs are at heightened risk of becoming poly-victims through traumatic event exposure (TEE). Trauma poly-victims are at heightened risk of developing posttraumatic stress, internalizing, and externalizing symptoms. Nonetheless, it is critical to acknowledge that mental health problems are not endemic to the UIC migration experience. Factors across the social ecology, including post-migration stress, social support, and internal resilience, influence UICs’ mental health after migration. This dissertation sought to examine how UICs’ lifetime TEE relates to their mental health, considering the aggravating effect of post-migration stressors and buffering effects of social support and internal resilience. Analyses focused on the lived experiences and mental health of ten Latinx young people predominantly from Guatemala (60%). Their shared stories of migration reflected pathways to the United States by land via the Mexico-U.S. border as well as directly to New York by plane. This split coincided with access to legal protections. Their experiences in immigration detention centers reflected the inhospitable conditions at the border. By contrast, ORR shelters were better equipped to meet their developmental needs, but long stays, family separation, and feelings of uncertainty made ORR stays difficult. Salient migration experiences varied among youth with and without legal protections. All ten cases experienced separation from caregivers through migration. Extended family played a key role in maintaining a stable home environment. Youths described both challenges and facilitators to attending school. Participation in legal and social services varied across cases, and in many instances service providers played an instrumental role in helping youth find safety. There was a high degree of TEE among participants; most reported at least 9 lifetime TEE events. Adversities during migration were reported only by young people who migrated by land to the Mexico-U.S. border. Patterns of association between TEE and mental health during resettlement was considered through nonparametric localized analyses. Score combinations were compared to consider how past-month mental health symptoms varied in relation to lifetime traumatic event exposure, post-migration stress, social support, and internal resilience. Comparisons at the individual level highlighted the relevance of considering idiographic data to understand patterns of score elevations in relation to risk and protective factors in resettlement. Clinical implications and directions for future research to promote UICs’ access to culturally responsive evidence-based practices are discussed
The Impact of Structural Stigma on OCD: Symptom Presentation, Help-Seeking, and Quality of Life
No full textObsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) represents a prominent psychiatric condition whose heterogeneity complicates healthcare professionals’ ability to properly identify and diagnose the disorder when encountering taboo (i.e., socially-constrained) symptoms such as aggressive, sexual, or religious obsessions. Moreover, individuals with OCD may be more prone to self-concealment due to concerns related to stigma. While the detrimental relationship between personal stigma and OC symptoms has been investigated, structural stigma remains unexplored relative to OC symptoms. Based on the evolutionary hypothesis of OCD, living in environments with greater structural stigma may predict more frequent taboo intrusive cognitions. In the current study, a sample of 229 individuals completed an online survey to investigate the impact of structural stigma on taboo OC symptom frequency and severity, other psychopathology, help-seeking attitudes, quality of life, and self-concealment. Structural stigma, as measured by state conservatism and perceived local conservatism, was anticipated to predict elevated psychopathology, less positive help-seeking attitudes, lower quality of life, and elevated self-concealment. Results revealed that perceived local conservatism positively predicted anxiety and self-concealment was positively associated with aggressive, sexual, and religious taboo obsessive concerns. No other relationships emerged as significant in regression analyses and primary and exploratory hypotheses were largely unsupported by study findings. Current findings demonstrate preliminary support for the impact of structural stigma on anxiety via individuals’ perceptions of conservative in their immediate environment. Future research should extend this work by recruiting larger, more diverse samples to further investigate the relationship between structural stigma and taboo OC symptoms, elucidate key relationships revealed by study findings (such as the relationship between perceived local conservatism and anxiety), and explore how different dimensions of political ideology may impact psychopathology
Acs, George
No full textGeorge Acs was born in Hungary and was brought, as a three year old, to the United States in 1957, after his parents fled the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. His mother’s cousin, who survived Auschwitz with her, had an apartment in the Bronx and they moved in with her upon arriving in the United States. Eventually they would live on 174th Street and Southern Boulevard, which was a Jewish area but in the process of transitioning by the time they moved there in 1957 until they left in 1964 and moved to Lydig Avenue off Pelham Parkway, which was Jewish and Italian.
Acs remembers the stores and restaurants of the neighborhoods, playing on the streets and in the school yard. His father owned a dental lab that his mother would eventually work in after Acs got older. Neither of his parents could get any higher education in Hungary because of anti-Jewish discrimination. Acs would attend yeshiva, where he said he received a quality education and, like almost half his class, he would go on to the Bronx High School of Science. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was no longer a predominantly Jewish school but Acs describes Science as having a good mix of students. In the Pelham Parkway area, he remembers Italian kids using racial or anti-semitic epithets, but then they would all be the best of friends the next day.
Acs’ family spoke Hungarian at home and attended synagogue on the High Holidays, practicing other major holidays at home and not keeping kosher. Acs would go on to attend Fordham University, helping to found the Jewish Student Union there, convincing the university that there were far more Jews than there actually were on the campus. He left the Bronx to attend dental school in Boston in 1976, though he returned often and was aware of the arson and crime going on in the city. Acs says he would move back to the Bronx today, now that his children are out of the house, and likes the idea of being back in the Bronx with all of its parks and history
Vivian Jones
No full textAbstract prepared by Jordin Arnead-Wilson In this interview the narrative of Vivian Jones, a vibrant and colorful personality, unfolds through her recounted experiences at the SAGE Center, reflecting a life rich in travel, friendships, and resilience. From her disco-era clubbing adventures to her deep connections with friends and family, Vivian\u27s zest for life shines through. Her journey through the five boroughs of New York City, marked by simultaneous hardships and beloved experiences, underscores her unwavering spirit. Vivian\u27s passion for astrology, fashion, and storytelling binds her to her queer community, while her album of memories serves as a testament to a life well-lived and loved. Through her tales of travel, queer love, and friendship, Vivian embodies the importance of cherishing relationships and embracing life\u27s adventures. Her enduring positivity and warmth remind us of the enduring power of human connection
Fighting for Change in the 21st Century: An Examination of Social Activism and the Role of Social Media in the US and France
No full textThis thesis explores in-depth the role of social media in the efforts of contemporary social activism in the 21st century by focusing upon activism movements in the United States and France. By studying the ‘#MeToo,’ Black Lives Matter, and BLM-inspired movements of the two countries, this study attempts to evaluate the ability of social media-based activism to initiate substantive social change. The case studies do this by evaluating the history of each movement, the quantitative and qualitative role of social media in disseminating information, and the impact of each movement upon its respective society’s public opinion. The research concludes that social media is a key tool in activism mobilization, but it does not necessarily guarantee a desired change in social attitudes, and rather prompts discourse that may or may not lead to change
Leadership in Mission: A Protestant Pastor’s Implementation of an Afterschool Program
No full textProtestant Pastors and small churches face a threefold problem embedded in the context of the local church mission: a lack of resources to provide mission-based educational programming, a decline in people not joining or affiliating with local church congregations, religiously unaffiliated persons in communities that pastors and churches need to address according to their church mission. This qualitative research case study examined the leadership skillsets pastoral leaders possessed to help engage the church’s mission and implement an afterschool program according to that mission. It explored whether an afterschool program offered an alternative programmatic proposition that embodies the Great Commission and the local church’s mission and if implementing a mission-derived afterschool program helped affiliate community members with the local church congregation.The data originated from semi-structured interviews conducted with the Senior Pastor who implemented the afterschool program; the current church Senior Pastor and lay leaders; afterschool program stakeholders, directors, and leaders; multiple site visits and field observations, and document collection of organizational materials.The study utilized Transformational Leadership and Appreciative Inquiry theoretical frameworks to analyze the Pastors’ leadership skillsets and the church’s organizational change practices.The researcher presented three findings: Mission played a role in decision-making; Each Pastor displayed indicators of Transformational Leadership; Leaders and stakeholders reported no influence on church affiliation. Also examined were additional sub-findings, implications, and recommendations for future study
Investigating Sense of Belonging in Chinese International Students
No full textThis study investigated Chinese international students’ sense of belonging by exploring the cultural and cognitive validity of a commonly used sense of belonging instrument, namely the Hoffman et al.’s (2002) Sense of Belonging Scale. Cognitive interviewing procedures supplemented with open-ended questions were administered to 20 sophomore- and junior-level Chinese international students attending U.S. undergraduate institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The cognitive interview results indicated that participants understood most of the items, although some phrases were identified to be problematic given different meanings in Chinese. The qualitative aspects of the research showed that Chinese students were more likely to define belonging as connection to a social group or community. Participants also reported feeling lower levels of belonging because of the pandemic and limited institutional support. Ultimately, these findings could help to inform campus climate policies and practices related to supporting international students. Implications for developing culturally valid instruments of belonging are also discussed
Land Dispossession and Native American Climate Adaptation: The Hopi Tribe
No full textSince the 16th century, Native American communities have lost over 99% of their historical land. New settlers came in and completely destroyed the natives’ way of life, disregarding the love and respect that was once shown for mother earth. Flash forward to the 21st century and we are now struggling with the constant rising threat of climate change. However, this is not an equal fight. Past studies have shown that Native American communities are more vulnerable to climate change hazards compared to the general United States population due to their existing disparities. This paper focuses on the Hopi Tribe and examines how ecosystem services; regulating, supporting, provisioning, and culture services are completely being destroyed as they are unable to adapt to climate change hazards. Chapter 1 uses quantitative data to examine the environmental concerns occurring on the Hopi reservation. Chapter 2 discusses the history of land dispossession during the colonization of the United States and how the settlers indirectly amplified the rise of climate change. Chapter 3 explores how climate change is deeply interwoven with global patterns of inequality, which in turn increases the Hopi nation’s vulnerability to existing disproportionate disparities. Chapter 4 uncovers the continuous violation of indigenous rights as an outcome of our deep-rooted racialized history. Lastly, chapter 5 concludes with new policy recommendations that can be used to redress human rights violations and restore traditional land back into the hands of indigenous nations as well as sheds light on the idea that indigenous values are beneficial tools for combating climate change challenges