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Notes on Contributing Authors
No full textBiographical notes about the contributing authors of Volume 12 of the Journal of Multilingual Education Research
Cohen, Ruthie
No full textRuthie Cohen is a second generation American, with her paternal grandparents immigrating from Poland. When she was born, her family lived at 2805 Sedgwick Avenue, but moved nearby to another two-family home at 2805 Webb Avenue. She remembers how her immediate neighborhood and school was predominantly Jewish, but Italians and Irish also lived nearby and attended parochial schools. Cohen felt very little antisemitism from them. She was the youngest of four children in a relatively observant family.
Cohen’s father was a teacher who was very involved in the larger community, and education and tolerance were important values in her family. She went to a yeshiva for the first two years of her education, before moving to the public school where her father taught. Cohen remembers having predominantly Irish Catholic, single female teachers in public and junior high school. She then attended Walton High School, and was unhappy about it being an all-girls school. Cohen went on to attend Harper College, CCNY, and Yeshiva University.
As a child, Cohen would play street games with her friends and spend time with her family on the weekends. As she got older, she would take the subway into Manhattan with her friends. The family would also take educational trips outside of the city using their car. After her father passed away, she moved with her mother into Manhattan. Cohen then moved out to Armonk after she married and had children. Overall, she remembers her childhood as being a joyous and carefree time in her life.
Key Words: Orthodox, Yiddish, Yeshiva University, Walton High School, street games, Israel, education, history, Irish, Italian, race, antisemitism, Sedgwick Avenue, kosher, Civil Right
Neal Matticks
No full textNeal Matticks is an Elder and Co-Clerk of Session at Good Shepherd Faith Presbyterian Church in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan. Good Shepherd was first constructed in the 1880\u27s, and it is the only remaining building in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex which was built before the Lincoln Square Urban Renewal Project.
In this oral history recorded by Fordham student Manpreet Singh, Matticks discusses the history and architecture of the church, the impact of the Lincoln Square Urban Renewal Project and the evolution of the Lincoln Square community
Gurock, Jeffrey
No full textJeffrey Gurock’s parents, his father, originally from Harlem and his mother from Brooklyn, were among the first people to move into Parkchester when it opened. His father was a firefighter and his mother was a bookkeeper. Gurock was born in 1949 and lived in Parkchester until he married in 1974. After living briefly in Cincinnati, Ohio, he returned to the Bronx and has been living in Riverdale ever since.
Gurock remembers Parkchester as predominantly Irish Catholic with many Italian and Jewish children. No Hispanics or African Americans were allowed to move in until 1968. While he recognizes this segregation now, Gurock says it was unknown to him as a child and many people were Civil Rights supporters, with few ethnic tensions between the different groups in the neighborhood. It wouldn’t be until playing lacrosse at City College that he witnessed racial tensions. He describes some nastiness during the desegregation of Parkchester, but no major protests. Generally he liked playing sports as a kid and was involved at the synagogue. His parents kept a kosher home and he attended Ramaz, a private Jewish Day School, on scholarship. His family had a summer home in Danbury, Connecticut.
Gurock attended City College for 38 dollars a year and credits that experience with meeting his wife and close friends. He went on to get a PhD in American Jewish History and has since been a professor at prestigious universities such as Yeshiva, Harvard, Yale, and Hebrew Union College. He has also published many books, including one on Parkchester. Gurock reflected on what it means to write about things he himself experienced from the perspective of an historian. He says he still loves Parkchester and his Jewish experience there.
Keywords: Parkchester, Riverdale, Orthodox, synagogue, Ramaz, City College, Columbia, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, race, Lake Waubeeka, histor
Striving for Peace Through Speech: Analyzing the Effect Personal Diplomacy and Summitry Had on Presidential Communist Rhetoric, 1984-1986
No full textGlobalization has ushered in an unprecedented era of connected national politics, economies, and populations. Strong ties have intertwined the fates of nations and brought about a new era of international cooperation. However, the rise of populist and isolationist movements in the past two decades threatens to change the geopolitical landscape and diplomacy around the globe. As the United States loses its hegemonic role to the quickly growing economy of China, it is imperative that American foreign policy reflects the need for continued cooperation and support. This raises the question of the effectiveness state diplomacy and summitry has in easing tensions between world leaders. Examining the period of summitry between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev offers insight into how effective their meetings where in reducing tensions and easing anti-communist rhetoric. President Reagan was the first president in 10 years to meet with a Soviet leader. His Presidency also offers a unique opportunity to compare his first term which hosted no summits with the Soviet, to his second term which saw four meetings between himself and Gorbachev. By observing primary sources detailing Reagan’s shift in rhetoric and utilizing existing literature, I compare the Presidential rhetoric regarding the Soviet Union before and after the first two summits in Geneva and Reykjavik with Gorbachev and Reagan. I found that summitry did in fact have an immediate impact on Soviet rhetoric and worked to strengthen the relationship between the two leaders
The United States of Percussion- Changes in Music and Society in the Late 1960\u27s Which Set The Stage for the Rise of Hip Hop
No full textArmenia: Overcoming Economic and Geopolitical Obstacles
No full textOver thirty years of Armenian independence has been characterized by existential security threats, a hollow political establishment, economic and defense reliance on Russia, and an out of touch diaspora. This paper takes on a historical analysis to identify the roots of these problems, and ultimately attempts to seek out potential solutions and identify Armenia’s place in an ever changing global landscape. Beyond the history, it studies the relationships Armenia has with its neighbors, its diaspora, and the international community at large. Establishing a forward looking outlook, Armenia’s goals should be oriented toward investment based relations with its diaspora; embracing the role of a north-south transit state from Iran to the Black Sea; and expanding defense partners beyond Russia to willing states such as India or Iran. Furthermore, it should begin taking efforts to evaluate and revamp its energy infrastructure, diversifying and domesticating ownership. Ultimately, the region at large is likely on the precipice of turbulent change. Between the potential implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine, continuous instability in Iran, and rampant autocracy between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia is unique in being not only democratic, but with growing untapped human potential and geographic relevance
Education and Welfare: Their Impact on the Experience of Poverty in India and The United States
No full textThe experience of poverty and chances of upward mobility is drastically different in India and the United States. The following thesis contends that this is largely due to the current educational and welfare policies in place in these two nations. Education allows for a higher possibility of financial upward mobility by allowing students to learn skills that prepare them for higher-paying career paths. High-quality welfare gives recipients aid for their necessities while providing them time for growth to pursue financial independence. The following thesis investigates these policies and how accessible they make education and welfare to poor populations in India and the United States to question how intensely these factors impact the way poverty is experienced in each country. The paper finds that quality affordable education and welfare are hard to access for impoverished individuals in India but which is more accessible in the US; the United States government provides public education and healthcare with higher quality and quantities of resources that allow for better distribution. The thesis calls attention to the importance of better education and welfare policies in India to break the cycle of “low-wage, low-skill” jobs that have held impoverished communities captive for so many generations. Reform would allow the large youth population to be more highly-skilled and better prepared for careers that would build their chance of upward mobility and improve their overall quality of life
Trapped in the Margins: Russia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Story of Afghan Refugees in Tajikistan
No full textSince the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans have fled the country in search of refugee status abroad. In the wake of this crisis, one country in the region, Tajikistan, opened its borders to Afghans, vowing to grant refugee status to 100,000. Today, Tajikistan has closed its borders and is forcibly returning Afghan refugees and asylum seekers. This research aims to reveal the extent of influence that external parties have on Afghan refugee flows in Tajikistan. For this paper, the two external parties examined are the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Russia. In examining the role of these two parties in Tajikistan’s refugee policy, this paper deals with two separate cases of Afghan refugee flows to Tajikistan. The first was engendered by the Taliban’s most recent return to power in 2021. The second case was incited by the Taliban’s original rise to power in 2000. To analyze these two cases, this work utilizes the frameworks set up by border externalization literature to understand the competing influences of the UNHCR and Russia in Tajikistan. While the current Afghan refugee crisis does not yet have a clear result, and the role of Tajikistan is ever-evolving, this paper highlights the importance of discussing external influences when researching refugee flows
The Data Struggle Is Real: Building Teacher Capacity to Engage in Continuous Improvement
No full textThe purpose of this mixed methods, longitudinal Improvement Science study was to examine the conditions that influence teacher capacity to engage in continuous improvement using data to guide curriculum and instructional changes. This study took place during the global COVID-19 pandemic. We Can Do It Academy, a pseudonym, was a designated priority school and one of the lowest performing schools in New York State. English Language Arts and math teachers (N = 7) in grades five through eight worked in grade-level PLCs using data for problem exploration, problem-solving, and solution testing with a goal of improving student learning. The principal focused on changing the micro-culture at WCDIA and engaging cultural carriers. Teachers differentiated students based on academic outcomes into three focus groups, using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and Professional Learning Communities to focus on data reflective of instruction and student skills. The key attributes of principal leadership that supported continuous improvement included being intentional, creating a psychologically safe space for change, establishing norms for discussion, designing opportunities to incorporate teachers’ voices, and promoting distributed leadership. Factors influencing teacher capacity in the use of data included meeting times, establishing norms, perceptions of readiness, creating common language, providing opportunities for feedback and co-constructing the work, working in Professional Learning Communities, using PDSA cycles, peer feedback, and use of a rubric. The final PDSA cycle saw the biggest improvement (+20.56), with mean improvements of +23.03 for ELA and +9.06 for math. Improvement varied by student achievement: average (+22.06); low (+16.30); high (+9.78)