Academic literature on the topic 'Polish national minority group'

In this article, we are presenting the work of a Polish poet from a Polish minority the Czech Cieszyn Silesia Wilhelm Przeczek (7. 4. 1936 v Karviná, Czechoslovakia - 10. 7. 2006 Třinec, Czech Republic) into the Czech and German language, as the author’s poetry was published not only in journals but also in books. We understand translation as an expression of intercultural communication, and especially in the area of the literature of a national minority, which is undoubtedly a Polish ethnic group in the Czech Cieszyn Silesia, it is a paramount phenomenon comparing the quality of literary life in the area with majority culture (Czech); as far as translations into German are concerned, it shows the interest of translators in the work of a poet from the Polish national minority, without this witnessing the emanation of a typical Polish soul in Polish literature in the Czech Republic and former Czechoslovakia, but it is evidence that it is fully competitive in total Polish national culture.

During the last three years, extensive academic as well as public discussions of national minorities’ rights have taken place in Poland. Scholars can be roughly divided into a pro-national minorities rights group and an anti-national minorities rights group. Some strive to reconcile these two disparate positions. Similar groups can be found in the Sejm (Polish Parliament) which has been discussing the draft of a law on national minorities since Autumn 1993. This brief article investigates the situation of national minorities in Poland ever since a “specific” policy towards ethnic minorities was carried out in Poland by communist governments (though it focuses primarily on the German minority). It also reviews changes in the official policy of the Polish government, the Sejm, and assesses the prospects for the adoption of a Minorities Law, by discussing the major arguments of those groups proposing national minorities rights and those of its opponents.

The paper focuses on Polish Old Believers’ anthroponymy as the element identifying the group. The Old Believers are one of the ethnic, religious and national minorities in Poland.They came here shortly after the schism in Russian Orthodox Church. They settled down in North-Eastern Poland in the second half of the 18th century. Their descendants live there till now. After coming to Poland, Russian immigrants were living in hermetic, homogenous communities. This protected their religion and culture from strong exterior influence. After the Second World War the community became more open to external world. Nowadays, after a number of civilizing and geopolitical transformations, the isolation practically disappeared making the Old Believers’ culture defenceless against influence of dominant Polish culture. Together with all that changes the Old Believers’ anthroponymy has been transformed. Contemporary Polish Old Believers’ anthroponymy consists of Russian and Polish (in Masuria region – Russian, Polish and German) elements, as a result of bilingualism (and multi-lingualism on Masuria).

Drawing on ethnographic and archival materials, this paper examines the ethnic politics of the Second Polish Republic by taking into account the experiences of the Lemko-Rusyn population, a minority East Slavic group inhabiting the peripheral mountainous area in southern Poland. It illustrates the changing policies towards Lemko-Rusyns and discusses the different responses of the local population to these policies, demonstrating the inadequacy of categories imposed from above as well as manifold motivations behind people's political views, choices of national identification, and religious conversions. In so doing, the article has three main objectives. First, in line with recent critical scholarship on nationalism in the Second Polish Republic, it attempts to problematize the – frequently exaggerated – difference between ‘federational’ and ‘assimilationist’ conceptions, exposing the discriminatory nature of interwar minority politics, as experienced locally. Second, moving beyond the interwar period, the article presents the long-term consequences of the interwar policies and the events of the Second World War, including a series of ethnic cleansings that took place in the aftermath of the war as well as present-day discourses on and policies towards ethnic and national minorities. And third, in discussing state actors' agency in the domain of minority policies, it calls for a more thorough recognition of the agency of the people who are the target of those policies. The article considers all these issues by presenting a history of a Lemko-Rusyn locality and its inhabitants, as recorded in school records, state reports, and oral histories.

Abstract The article tries to analyze the participation and political representation of the Polish minority in Ukraine and the Ukrainian minority in Poland in the period 1990-2015. Its meaning stems from at least several reasons. Firstly, because the both states officially accepted national minorities after 1990, they have introduced institutional arrangements of protection of their rights and have signed the major international documents in this area. Secondly, because the process of adaptation of European standards of minority protection took place in both countries in the situation of deep democratic changes and market reforms. Hence, the question of the role of minority policy in this has emerged. Thirdly, because the both countries are linked to one another because of a shared common history that sometimes divides societies and public opinion in these states and the political activity of both groups can increase or diminish these socio-political divisions. In the case of the Polish minority in Ukraine this article draws attention to the lack of political representation at country level and its limited activity as the Polish group at the local level (based on the Zhytomyr example). On the other hand in the case of the Ukrainian minority in Poland the article highlights the process of gradual decline of its political activity on the country level (as a result of the spatial dispersion of this group and the absence of a political partner on the country political scene) while we may observe its political activity at the local level.

The two most recent Polish general censuses, carried out in 2002 and 2011, excited numerous controversies among the national and ethnic minorities living in Poland. During the general census of 2002, questions regarding nationality emerged for the first time since the era of the communist People’s Republic of Poland and our country’s socio-political turning-point. Both censuses addressed the matter, providing a foundation, first and foremost, for the size of the German and other national minority groups to be established. On the basis of the results, the Polish government enacted the Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and Regional Languages in 2005. The representatives of national and ethnical minority groups in Poland, including the Germans, had a great many concerns regarding the way in which the general censuses were carried out. They warned the Polish authorities that the data obtained would not be fully objective, nor would they reflect the actual numbers of the groups in question.In the article, the author details the particulars of the preparation and conducting of both general censuses. He presents the multiplicity of problems with which the national and ethnic minorities, including the Germans, were grappling and shows what the consequences of that fact have been, and are, for that group. He analyses the factors which had an impact on the numbers for the German minority, the reasons why those numbers have decreased with each general census and what has influenced the fact that, in the two censuses, more and more people gave their nationality as Silesian on the form, while fewer and fewer put themselves down as being German. At the same time, he describes the phenomenon of feeling Silesian, explaining how the ‘Silesian’ national and ethnic category came to figure on the Central Statistical Office’s questionnaire and clarifying how it should be defined. In addition, he focuses on what consequences the social manifestation which is the declaration of Silesian nationality, as well as the emergence of organisations centred around the Silesians who do so, might bring for the German minority movement in Poland in the future.

In no other country were Jews, proportionally, such a huge minority as in Poland. Religiously, economically, and politically Jews varied a great deal. They were an urban and closed group which kept only economic contacts with the rest of the population. In the Polish state they had to struggle for equal rights. Anti-Semitism propagated by nationalists was very powerful. In the second half of the 1930s the Polish government (sanacja) adopted the nationalists’ slogans and tried to restrict the Jews’ economic activity. An expression for the modernization of the Jews was the emergence, in the end of the nineteenth century, of a Jewish intelligentsia. Political parties were established and represented both the Polish state and Jewish national movements. Polish Jews created a rich trilingual culture in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Polish. The second Polish Republic can be considered a golden era for Jewish culture in Poland.

This study is on the relationship between a dominant nominal Lithuanian majority and a Polish minority in regions with either a straight dominance of the majority or with a high proportion of minority members, who outnumber the national majority. Compared to ‘normal’ regions, the latter situation creates an inverted power differential that we expect to have an impact on how the two groups essentialize their own and the other group’s ethnic identity, how they stereotype the out-group and how they cope with the perceived change in power balance by more or less disparaging the others. We analysed the discourse in eight focus group discussions with members of both groups comprising a total of 66 participants. As expected, the nominal minority exhibited a tendency to self-essentialize more than the majority in general. Members of the Lithuanian majority that was locally outnumbered by the minority also self-essentialized but to a lesser degree and additionally used marked arguments of in-group favouritism at the Poles’ expense in their discourse. Members of the unambiguous majority were the most ‘politically correct’ participants by conspicuously favouring a non-generalising and anti-essentialist conversation. The findings are discussed in terms of inter-group relations and implications for politics.

The purpose of the article is to present a historical and cultural review of the fourth largest national minority living in the territory of modern Latvia, namely the Polish ethnic group. Based on the comparative historical method, the issues of preserving the identity of the Poles, as well as their role in the history, scientific life and cultural life of the country, are considered. As a result of this work, the facts of the interpenetration of Polish and Latvian cultures were revealed, which the author considers as a positive factor for the coexistence of different peoples in a multi-ethnic environment. It is concluded that the lack of hostility and hostility of the ethnic majority towards national minorities living in the territory of their state is extremely positive and has a significant contribution to the further formation and development of the nation.

Social and political processes taking place in the modern Ukrainian society are reflected, among other things, in the language of our mass media. The study of the language question is important not only due to the constant discourse regarding the status of the official language and the supposed number of official languages, but also as the subject matter of reflecting the national identity of the citizens of our state. As of 2001, the population of Ukraine was estimated at 48, 2 million people, being representatives of 107 nationalities. Support and preservation of ethnic and cultural as well as linguistic consciousness of ethnic groups is an important goal of every multiethnic and multilingual country. Ukraine signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on May 2, 1996 (hereafter — the Charter), ratified it in 2003, though it came into effect only since 2006. The introduction of the above mentioned document into the national legislation testifies respect and willingness to protect regional languages or minority languages. The provisions of the Charter are applicable not to all the minority languages of the national minorities living on the territory of Ukraine, but only to the following ones: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Greek, Jewish, Crimean Tatar, Moldavian, German, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Slovak and Hungarian. According to quantitative linguistic analysis of printed periodical publications that are published in the languages of national minorities and come under protection, only the ethnic Poles (1,07 of publications per one ethnic group representative that considers the language of his/her nationality to be his/her mother tongue) and the Hungarians (5,94) may be regarded as well provided for; the Romanians (0,08) and the Russians (0,03) are partially provided. Keywords: periodicals, journalism, mass media, media space, propaganda, agitation, party press.

The United States is an "interest group society" and federal statistical policy, like all other aspects of contemporary American political life, is dominated by well-organized interest groups. The public review to revise the "Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," formerly known as "Statistical Policy Directive 15," was notable for the significant presence of minority population interest groups. The politics of representation in the national statistical system during the 1970s is the subject of this article. The first part of the article summarizes the role that interest groups played in the recent debates on revising Statistical Policy Directive 15. The second part of the article discusses the origins of national statistics on minorities and their efforts during the 1970s to achieve inclusion in the body politic through representation in the federal statistical and administrative reporting systems.

This thesis looks at the role of discrimination and ethnic group identity as explanations of political behaviour of ethnic minorities in Britain. Chapter 2 examines vote choice and partisanship, arguing that a group utility heuristic explains the high level of support for the Labour party among ethnic minorities. I provide individual-level evidence of this heuristic by showing that ethnic minority voters support the Labour party to the extent that they are (i) conscious of the experiences of their ethnic group members with regards to discrimination, and (ii) believe that the Labour party is the best political party to represent their interests. These two attitudes mediate the effects of group-level inequalities. Chapter 3 asks whether Muslims are alienated from mainstream politics by Islamophobia and British military intervention in Muslim countries. I find that perceptions of Islamophobia are linked with greater political alienation, to a greater likelihood of non-electoral participation, but also to a lesser likelihood of voting. Likewise, disapproval of the war in Afghanistan is associated with greater political alienation and a greater likelihood of some types of non-electoral participation. I also provide strong evidence that Muslims in Britain experience more religious discrimination than adherents of other minority religions. Chapter 4 considers the interaction between the extreme right and ethnic minority political attitudes and behaviour. I find evidence that the extreme right British National Party (BNP) increases voting for the Labour party, at the expense of minor parties and abstention. Surprisingly, the BNP effect also benefits the other main parties. Although they do not benefit in increased vote share, Liberal Democrat and Conservative party and leader evaluations are more positive where the BNP stood and performed better in 2010, which I suggest is due to the electoral contrast provided by the BNP. Chapter 5 looks at the mobilisation effect of ethnic minority candidates on ethnic minority voters. I find a positive mobilisation effect of Pakistani and Muslim Labour candidates on Pakistani and Muslim voters, conditional on someone trying to convince the respondent how to vote. I also find a demobilisation effect of Labour Muslim candidates on Sikh voters.

Analizuoti tautinių mažumų švietimą ir ieškoti būdų jį tobulinti verčia spartūs Lietuvos socialinio gyvenimo pokyčiai. Kiekviena tauta turi savo gimtąją klabą, papročius, tradicijas. Šiandieninė Lietuvos švietimo sistema sudaro galimybę tenkinti visų tautybių vaikų poreikius. Lietuvos Respublika garantuoja tautinėms mažumoms teisę mokytis gimtąja kalba. Beveik kiekvienas vaikas per pakankamai ilgą mokyklinio gyvenimo laikotarpį susiduria su didesnėmis ar mažesnėmis problemomis mokykloje. Viena jų - mokymosi sunkumai, pasireiškiantys silpnu mokymusi. Tai reiškinys, su kuriuo susiduria įvairaus amžiaus, lyties, skirtingų socialinių sluoksnių įvairių gabumų mokiniai (M. Barkauskaitė ir kt., 2004). Mokymosi sunkumams pašalinti būtina nustatyti jų priežastis. Kokie mokymosi sunkumai ir jų priežastys kyla tautinių mažumų mokyklų su gimtąja lenkų kalba mokiniams nebuvo tyrinėta, nes tautinių mažumų švietimo problemos Lietuvoje nėra plačiai tyrinėtos (D. Janonienė, D. Survutaitė, 2007). Dėl to atliktas tyrimas, kuriuo siekta atskleisti mokinių, besimokančių gimtąja lenkų kalba, mokymosi sunkumų priežastis. Iškelti uždaviniai: atskleisti mokinių mokykloje patiriamų mokymosi sunkumų tipus; atskleisti mokymosi sunkumų priežastis mokinių požiūriu; atskleisti mokymosi sunkumų priežastis mokytojų požiūriu. Tyrimas atliktas Vilniaus miesto tautinių mažumų (lenkų) bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje. Atvirų klausimų anketinėje apklausoje dalyvavo 335 respondentai: iš jų 35 mokytojai (10,4 proc.) ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]<br>Rapid changes in Lithuanian social life oblige to analyse the education of national minorities and to search for the ways to improve it. Every nation has its mother tongue, customs and traditions. Current Lithuanian system of education meets the requirements of all the minorities. The Republic of Lithuania guarantees national minorities the right to be educated in their mother tongue. Throughout all the years of school life, which is comparing a long period, almost every child faces less or more complicated problems. One of them is learning difficulty which is exemplified in the form of poor learning results. Children of various ages, sexes, social backgrounds or abilities encounter this phenomenon (M. Barkauskaitė and others, 2004). To eliminate learning difficulties it is essential to determine their reasons. The educational problems of national minorities in Lithuania have not been inquired broadly. Thus, it has not been studied what learning difficulties of the students Polish minority schools are and what causes them (D. Janonienė, D. Survutaitė, 2007). The main purpose of this study was to discover the reasons of learning difficulties in schools of Polish national minority. The objectives of the study were to overview the epistemology of learning difficulties; to classify the difficulties students face at school; to present the reasons of learning difficulties according to students and according to teachers; to compare and analyse the reasons named by students and... [to full text]

In her novel Arabian Jazz, Diana Abu-Jaber attempts to explore the Arab American identity as something new; as an identity that exists related to, but ultimately separate from, the Arab and American identities from which it was originally created. This thesis discusses the emergence of the depiction of the Arab American female identity in the novel, examining how the characters explore issues of race, class, imperialism, and sex within both the Arab and the American cultures as those issues shape female identity. The thesis also presents a rhetorical analysis of the speeches that allow the characters a voice with respect to how identity is shaped and reshaped throughout the novel.

Cultural anthropology as a scientific field studying diverse cultures has been incorporated into the field of nursery and it helps medical professionals to acquire specific cultural information enabling them to provide appropriate, efficient, individually-based care, support in health as well as in illness to the individuals and communities from a different cultural environment. The Czech Republic carried out investigation of diverse ethnic groups but did not implement investigation of the specific needs of the Polish minority group. The objective was focusing on mapping the approach of the Polish nationals to their health, on identification of their lifestyle, their approach to prevention, their attitude to home care and the specifics in the approach to dying. Hypotheses: H1 Statistically, the Polish minority group population with higher education shows better results in their approach to their health than the Polish minority group population with elementary education. H2 Younger women of the Polish minority group population with elementary education are more prone to agree with the statement on importance of attending preventive examinations by gynecologist than older women. H3 Based on the statistical assessment the Polish minority group population with higher education gives higher preferences for preparation of meals and catering based on both cuisines (Czech and Polish) than with elementary education. H4 Men of the Polish minority group population occasionally consuming alcohol are statistically significantly prevailing over women of the Polish minority group population occasionally consuming alcohol. H5 The older Polish minority group population has higher frequency of activities with the family than the younger Polish minority group population. H6 The confession of faith of the Polish minority group population significantly affects their approach to abortion compared to the nonbelieving population. H7 Older women of the Polish minority group population give more frequent preference to home care services than men of the Polish minority group population. H8 Women of the Polish minority group population more frequently require attendance of family members when dying than men. Methodology: The research part of the work was carried out by the method of quantitative research investigation. The selected set consisted of 277 persons. The results: 94,90 % of the respondents agree that they take care of their health. However, H1 regarding approach to health was not confirmed. By comparing the results of the investigation we found out that more than 75 % of the respondents take proper prevention in all cases. H2 focusing on prevention was confirmed. The level of consummation of vegetable and fruit in case of the Polish national minority group is higher than the level of the Czech population. H3 was confirmed by testing. H4 connected with consummation of alcohol was not confirmed. This was confirmed in the research investigation; however, H5 was not confirmed. The result of 88.40 % respondents who confessed their faith has not impacted the result of H6 which was not confirmed. The objective of the work included also identification of the attitude and experience with home care agency which was indicated by 46.60 % respondents. H7 was not confirmed. We were surprised by the identified attitude of the respondents to their faith in live after death, to attendance of family members or a priest in case of dying when in all cases more than 20% respondents responded that they did not know. H8 was not confirmed by testing. Conclusion: The thesis gives a summary of information on the Polish national minority group living in the Těšín region of Silesia. The final thesis outlines a proposal for a Standard of nursery care of the Polish national minority group. The results of the research investigation will be also presented at conferences. This thesis may be used by students of the nursery field as a teaching material.

This thesis deals with a Polish national group in Germany, Polonia, comprising about 2 million Poles and Germans with Polish origin. Polonia has a very well-developed organizational structure in Germany that takes care of Polish culture, language and traditions, as well as stands up for its rights listed in the Polish-German Treaty from the Polish-German Treaty of Good Neighborhood and Friendly Cooperation of 1991. Periodical roundtables and conferences that are crucial for the Polish-German dialogue show problems that the Polish group faces. There are asymmetries in the fulfilment of the Polish-German treaty of 1991, which guarantee the same rights for the Polish group in Germany as for the German minority in Poland: whereas the latter is officially recognized as a national minority in Poland, the former has not been awarded the minority status. Furthermore, there is a lack of funding in the case of Polonia, which prevents the effective functioning of Polish organizations, and the unsatisfactory level of teaching Polish at public schools. Author of the thesis comes to the conclusion that although the Polish national group is not a de jure recognized national minority, it de facto has the rights that are commonly attributed to a national minority. Moreover, the analysis showed that the Poles are...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2007.<br>Advisor: E. Ashby Plant, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 26, 2007). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 50 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This diploma thesis deals with the political participation of national minorities in the Czech Republic. The main aim of this thesis is to find out what the possibilities of national minorities are to enter the political process in order to articulate their specific minority interests and how effective these possibilities are from their perspective. The emphasis is placed on ethnic political parties, minority interest groups, advisory bodies such as the Government Council for National Minorities and committees for national minorities at all political levels. At the same time, these selected minority institutions and bodies are also examined at the international level, which makes it possible to gain an overview of the attitudes of some states to national minority policy and their comparison, or even inspiration for the Czech Republic. The analysis was carried out on a group of five national minorities: German, Polish, Roma, Slovak and Vietnamese. The author also tried to find out how these selected national minorities are politically active, what factors influence their political participation and what is the interest in the issue of national minorities among the majority political parties. The author chose a qualitative research method for the research project and the technique of...

AbstractThe presence of China in the OSCE region is becoming resilient, particularly after Beijing began providing infrastructural loans to OSCE states. The size of the issued infrastructural loans in less developed economies is disproportionate to national economies, resulting in the borrowing countries becoming incapable of paying back the loans. In this chapter, I argue that China’s practices of infrastructural loans and China’s overall standing on minority issues and democratization contradicts the OSCE core principles and undermines OSCE integrity. To illustrate this, I use, first, the example of the promotion of non-democratic practices through non-transparent procurement, surveillance of civilians, and supply of police hardware for suppression and control of political dissidents (based on evidence from Eastern and Central Europe, and Central Asia) and, for the second example, I illustrate the violation of minority rights in re-education camps in the Xinjiang region (based on political and civic reaction from Central Asia), which Chinese authorities call “Vocational Education and Training Centers.” The first example helps to analyze how Chinese foreign loans contradict the democratic commitments of the borrowing countries. Chinese infrastructural loans promote non-democratic practices in borrowing countries through unfair, non-transparent procurement in infrastructural development projects. The Chinese side also provides surveillance systems and anti-protest police vehicles and ammunition which help to undermine individual rights and freedoms. The second example helps to analyze the reaction of Central Asian Muslim countries toward China’s treatment of kin-groups, namely the lack of critical reaction of CA states despite their OSCE-membership and commitment toward promotion of individual rights and freedoms (including freedom of faith). China has been providing infrastructural loans to most OSCE member states over the past two decades; and these member states have not officially responded to Chinese treatment of their own kin-groups, such as Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uyghur minorities—according to the OSCE core principles on minority rights. The OSCE core principles are categorized under the “human dimension” to ensure OSCE states’ “respect for individual rights and fundamental freedoms” and their commitment to “abide by the rule of law; promote principles of democracy; strengthen and protect democratic institutions” Yamamoto (2015). Most likely if there were no infrastructural loans from China, the OSCE countries under analysis would respond to Chinese domestic policy toward ethnic minorities critically. Most likely, by providing surveillance and police machinery, China tends to support the existing political regimes in borrowing countries and, by its non-transparent procurement, it does not encourage enforcement of laws.

AbstractOver the last two decades, the Polish education system has been reformed several times, with the comprehensive structural reform in 1999, curriculum and evaluation reform in 2007, and early education reform introduced gradually until 2014. Student outcomes, as documented by PISA, but also other international assessments, largely improved over the last 20 years. Poland moved from below the OECD average to a group of top-performing countries in Europe. This chapter describes the reforms and research on their effects. It also discusses how it was possible to find political support for the reversal of changes that seemed to be highly successful. It provides three lessons from the Polish experience. First, the evidence should be widely disseminated among all stakeholders to sustain reforms. Second, the sole reliance on international studies is not sufficient. Additional investment into secondary analyses and national studies is necessary to develop evidence for better-informed political discussions. Third, some positive changes are more difficult to reverse. In Poland, increased school autonomy, but also external examinations, broader access to preschool and higher education, are among the changes that the new government could not alter.

Respect for ethnic and religious minorities is widely considered essential for creation of a stable democracy. In the context of Myanmar’s transition, this chapter assesses group relations, investigates majority and minority perceptions of other groups, evaluates constitutional provisions on equality and government policy on citizenship and interfaith marriage, assesses tolerance of four political, religious, ethnic, and national groups, and looks at the roots of intolerance towards the Rohingya. It triangulates the authors’ interviews with members of ethnic minorities and politicians, surveys, and survey experiments, with secondary survey data and historical resources. It reveals generally positive group relations, which are however clouded by xenophobic and Islamophobic tendencies and outright rejection of the Rohingya.

Russia is a multi-ethnic country with more than two hundred different ‘officially recognized’ ethnic groups. Of these, twenty-seven have been given administrative recognition in the form of national republics, which together with non-ethnically based oblasts and krais (regions and territories) make up the Russian Federation. The Great Russians are numerically the most dominant group accounting for 80 per cent of the population. Next come the Tatars at 5.5 million, or 4 per cent of the total, and then Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashes, Chechens, Armenians, and other much less numerous groups. Soviet nationality policy did much to preserve ethnic identities in Russia, even though these were supposed to be transcended by a higher ‘Soviet socialist’ identity. When the USSR collapsed it did so along ethnic lines, and the post-Soviet Russian government was forced to accept ethnoterritorialism as an organizing principle of the new federal state (Smith, 1990, 1999). The major nationalities are not spatially discrete; many members of the most numerous nationalities live outside their republic and in only a minority of the national republics is the titular ethnic group the majority population. However, at lower scales, the picture is different and spatial segregation along ethnic lines can be marked, especially in rural areas. The southern steppe, describing an arc stretching from the Ukrainian border in the west to the regions beyond the River Volga in the east is, in fact, a veritable ethnic mosaic. Travellers who visited the southern and eastern steppe of European Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries commented upon the variety of national and religious groups of different descent settled in the area. Apart from the Russians who had come south during the protracted conquest of the steppe, people were to be found there of German, Swedish, Armenian, Bulgarian, Serbian,Walachian, Moldavian, Polish, Jewish, and Greek origin together with the descendants of the traditional steppe dwellers, the Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashes, Kirghiz, Kalmyks, and Mordvinians. The ethnic diversity of the settlers in the steppe was matched by the diversity of their cultural mores and religions.

Local enforcement of federal immigration policy is a new frontier for the use of extensive surveillance and monitoring, key tools of the criminal justice system. These tactics are deployed to target undocumented immigrants with a criminal background, but they impact a much wider set of individuals. Chapter 2 thus demonstrates the widespread impacts of punitive immigration policy on non-criminal, non-immigrant Latinos. Two datasets inform the quantitative analysis. The first is the 2015 Latino National Health and Immigration Survey (LNHIS 2015), and the second is the Pew Hispanic Center 2008 National Survey of Latinos (NSL 2008). Turning the focus to Latinos uncovers the efficiency with which criminal justice policy can be deployed against the nation’s largest minority group, demonstrates the power of familial ties to mobilize, and highlights that the racially targeted nature of the carceral state itself creates a collective fund for political action.

This chapter addresses a number of overarching issues and themes that have affected the position of Gaelic throughout the modern period. It begins with a discussion of the aims and assumptions of state language policy in Scotland and the wider United Kingdom, and then outlines the principal stages in the development of Gaelic policy. It goes on to consider the relationship between Gaelic and national and group identities in Scotland, considering the varying ways in which it has been framed and interpreted as a national, regional or ethnic minority language. It considers competing ideological interpretations of the value of Gaelic; since the 18th century, Gaelic has been simultaneously valorised and denigrated. It addresses the role of the Scots language in Scotland, which has formed an important backdrop to Gaelic policy even if organising and provision for Scots has been limited. Finally, the chapter gives an overview of he characteristics of Gaelic organisations; generally they have been moderate rather than militant in approach, concerned about limited support in the Gaelic community and the potential for backlash from the Anglophone majority.

Bismarck’s struggle against political Catholicism and dissatisfaction with the supervision of the schools in the Polish-speaking areas of Prussia propelled the school administration on to a new course after 1870. His choice of Adalbert Falk brought to the head of the Ministry of Education on January 22, 1872 a judicial official who was philosophically close to the National Liberal party. During his seven years in office, Falk broke with the practices followed by his predecessors and introduced measures to dissolve the traditional bonds between the church and the school. The objectives of the school reforms were to professionalize school supervision by the appointment of full-time school inspectors in place of the clergy, to weaken the church’s influence in the school system by curtailing its right to direct the instruction of religion, and to merge Catholic and Protestant public schools into interconfessional schools, providing an education that would dissolve religious particularism and cultivate German national consciousness and patriotic feeling. These innovations thrust school politics into the foreground of the Kulturkampf in Prussia. School affairs became a matter of high politics for Bismarck when groups whom he regarded as enemies of the German Empire coalesced into a Catholic political party in 1870. Opposition in the Catholic Rhineland to Prussia’s aggressive war against Austria in 1866 led him to question the political loyalty of the Catholics, and the political behavior of the Catholics after the founding of the North German Confederation confirmed his suspicion. While the Polish faction in the Reichstag of 1867 protested the absorption of Polish Prussia into a German confederation, other Catholic deputies took up the defense of federalism and criticized those articles in Bismarck’s draft of the constitution that created too strong a central government. In the final vote the Catholics formed part of the minority that rejected the constitution. This act reinforced his image of political Catholicism as an intransigent and unpatriotic opposition. The organization of the Center party was a defensive response to the vulnerable position of the Catholic minority in the new empire, which had a political climate of liberal anticlericalism and Protestant nationalist euphoria that seemed to threaten the rights and interests of the Catholic church.

This chapter considers the question of why German culture is responsible for what are probably the most atrocious crimes of the modern age. It suggests that anyone who wants to answer the question as to why so many Germans followed Hitler would do well to distinguish three levels of followers. First, there was a relatively small minority that supported the National Socialist policy of annihilation out of deep conviction. Second, there was a large group that did not approve of mass murder as a political means, but in 1933 was willing to bring to power a government from which every kind of brutality could be expected, so long as it could be hoped that it would make Germany strong again. Third, there was a large number of people who did not vote for Hitler, but nonetheless obeyed him, not only because they did not want to take any risks, but also because they were convinced that they owed obedience to the legal government.

Even with the movement of the states toward standards-based reform, there was no reason to think a similar movement would, or even could, take place at the federal level. The defining characteristic of American education was its decentralization: the Republican Party habitually called for the elimination of the Department of Education, and the Democratic Party confined the federal role to providing aid to disadvantaged students. But over the course of fewer than 20 years, all of this was transformed, culminating in the most far-reaching federal education law in the nation’s history, passed under a Republican president no less. What explains this transformation? Three sets of changes need to be explained: how political actors were realigned, how policies were chosen, and how institutions changed. To begin with the political: How did the Republican Party, which had long been philosophically opposed to a federal role in education and had called for the abolition of the Department of Education as recently as 1996 come to support the biggest nationalization of education in the nation’s history? Why did Congressional Democrats, who in 1991 had strongly opposed a proposal by George H. W. Bush for national standards and testing as unfair to minority students, shift by 2001 to embrace a similar proposal offered by another Republican President, George W. Bush? In short, how did an overwhelming bipartisan political consensus form in favor of policies that had been opposed by large majorities in both parties only 10 years earlier? A second set of questions relates to policy choices. Of all the available policy tools, what explains the choice of standards-based reform as the primary federal response to this perceived crisis? The bipartisan embrace of tough accountability in No Child Left Behind seems particularly hard to account for by conventional interest group explanations, given that teachers unions are consistently rated the strongest players in educational politics and have historically been opposed to greater demands for school or teacher accountability. Why were standards and accountability the chosen policy vehicle, and why did they triumph over interest group opposition?

Multilingualism in urban spaces is mainly studied as an oral practice. Nevertheless, linguistic landscape studies can serve as a good explorative method for studying multilingualism in written practices. Moreover, resent research on linguistic landscapes (Blommaert 2013; Shohamy et. al. 2010; Backhaus 2006) have shed some light on the power relations between different ethnic groups in urban public space. Multilingual practices exist in a certain ideological context, and not only official language policy but speaker linguistic stereotypes and attitudes can influence and modify those practices. Historically, South Korea tended to be oriented towards monolingualism; one nation-one people-one language ideology was domineering public discourse. However, globalization and recent increase in migration resulted in gradual changes in attitudes towards multilingualism (Lo and Kim 2012). The linguistic landscapes of Seoul, on the one hand, reflect these changes, and However, they demonstrates pragmatic inequality of languages other than South Korean in public use. This inequality, though, is represented differently in certain spatial urban contexts. The proposed paper aims at analyzing data on linguistic landscapes of Seoul, South Korea ,with the focus on different contexts of language use and different sets of norms and ideological constructs underlying particular linguistic choices. In my presentation I will examine data from three urban contexts: ‘general’ (typical for most public spaces); ‘foreign-oriented’ (seen in tourist oriented locations such as airport, expensive hotels, or popular historical sites, which dominates the Itaewon district); and ‘ethnic-oriented’ (specific for spaces created by and for ethnic minority groups, such as Mongolian / Central Asian / Russian districts near the Dongdaemun History and Culture Park station). I will show that foreign languages used in public written communication are embedded into different frameworks in these three urban contexts, and that the patterns of their use vary from pragmatically oriented ones to predominately symbolic ones, with English functioning as a substitution for other foreign languages, as an emblem of ‘foreignness.’

This work aims to inspire, ignite and engage school students to consider STEM at university, by collaborating between a university research group and school students. Learning resources will be co-created with students, based on what they have learnt and their new ideas. These resources will be used to teach future students, in a multiplying effect. We specifically target a widening participation school. Numerous engagement techniques have been used to sustain participation whilst teaching online. Breakout rooms have been used extensively, to provide close interactions between researchers and students. Both male and female researchers deliver the project, to provide role models in particular for the girls amongst the students, who are in the minority. Surveys are being employed before, during and after the project to evaluate the evolution of students’ attitudes towards STEM. Given the projected success of this pilot, plans are in place for a national roll-out of virtual co-creation collaborations.

This paper provides a synopsis and characterization of the most important historiographically, politologically, and ethnologically oriented works published in the Czech Republic between 2000 and 2018 on the history and current evolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Czech works on the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be divided into two main groups. The first group includes monographs by historians who were familiar with the reality of Bosnian multiethnicity in the period before the breakup of Yugoslavia and in that context, therefore, continue in their books to support the idea of preserving Bosnia within its existing borders and in the form of a multinational state. The second group comprises books by Czech authors who primarily focus on analysing political events in the contemporary, socalled post-Dayton Bosnia, of which they are highly critical and as a result also highly skeptical when it comes to the prospect of continued coexistence between the nations of Bosnia. During the period in question, several works were published in the Czech Republic dedicated to the history of Czech-Bosnian relations and the synthetical treatment of the history of the Czech national minority living in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This study examines the attitudes and representations of a select group of Hindi mother tongue speakers residing in Kolkata. Hindi is one of the two official languages of India and Hindi mother tongue speakers are the numerically dominant language community in India, as per census. Further, due to historical, political and socio-cultural reasons, enormous importance is attached to the language, to the extent that there is a wide spread misrepresentation of the language as the national language of India. In this way, speakers of Hindi by no means form a minority in Indian contexts. However, as India is an extremely multilingual and diverse country, in many areas of the country other language speakers outnumber Hindi speakers, and in different states other languages have prestige, greater functional value and locally official status as well. Kolkata is one of such places, as the capital of West Bengal, a state where Bengali is the official language, and where Bengali is the most widely spoken mother tongue. Hindi mother tongue speakers, therefore, are not the dominant majority here, however, their language still carries the symbolic load of a representative language of India. In this context, this study examines the opinions and attitudes of a section of long term residents of Kolkata whose mother tongue is Hindi. The data used in this paper is derived from a large scale survey conducted in Kolkata which included 153 Hindi speakers. The objective of the study is to elicit, through a structured interview, their attitudes towards their own language and community, and towards the other languages and communities in Kolkata, and to examine how they represent and construct the various communities in their responses. The study adopts qualitative methods of analysis. The analysis shows that though there is largely an overt representation of harmony, there are indications of how the socio-cultural symbolic values attached to different languages are also extended to its speakers creating subtle social distances among language communities.

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides the results of the preliminary analysis of the findings of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the social media use, cultural and political awareness, civic engagement, issue prioritization, and social activism of Gen Z students enrolled at four different institutional types located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The aim of this study is to look at the group as a whole as well as compare findings across populations. The institutional types under consideration include a mid-sized majority serving or otherwise referred to as a traditionally white institution (TWI) located in a small coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, a small Historically Black University (HBCU) located in a rural area, a large community college located in a county that is a mixture of rural and suburban and which sits on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and graduating high school students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs in a large urban area. This exploration is purposed to examine the behaviors and expectations of Gen Z students within a representative American region during a time of tremendous turmoil and civil unrest in the United States. Background: Over 74 million strong, Gen Z makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. They already outnumber any current living generation and are the first true digital natives. Born after 1996 and through 2012, they are known for their short attention spans and heightened ability to multi-task. Raised in the age of the smart phone, they have been tethered to digital devices from a young age with most having the preponderance of their childhood milestones commemorated online. Often called Zoomers, they are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation and are on track to be the most well-educated generation in history. Gen Zers in the United States have been found in the research to be progressive and pro-government and viewing increasing racial and ethnic diversity as positive change. Finally, they are less likely to hold xenophobic beliefs such as the notion of American exceptionalism and superiority that have been popular with by prior generations. The United States has been in a period of social and civil unrest in recent years with concerns over systematic racism, rampant inequalities, political polarization, xenophobia, police violence, sexual assault and harassment, and the growing epidemic of gun violence. Anxieties stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues resulting in a powder keg explosion occurring throughout the summer of 2020 and leading well into 2021. As a result, the United States has deteriorated significantly in the Civil Unrest Index falling from 91st to 34th. The vitriol, polarization, protests, murders, and shootings have all occurred during Gen Z’s formative years, and the limited research available indicates that it has shaped their values and political views. Methodology: The Mid-Atlantic region is a portion of the United States that exists as the overlap between the northeastern and southeastern portions of the country. It includes the nation’s capital, as well as large urban centers, small cities, suburbs, and rural enclaves. It is one of the most socially, economically, racially, and culturally diverse parts of the United States and is often referred to as the “typically American region.” An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2021 attending a high school dual enrollment program, a minority serving institution, a majority serving institution, and a community college all located within the larger mid-Atlantic region. The survey included a combination of multiple response, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by several content and methodological experts in order to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. Finally, the survey was pilot tested prior to implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly prior to widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Over 800 individuals completed the survey with just over 700 usable results, after partial completes and the responses of individuals outside of the 18-24 age range were removed. Findings: Participants in this study overwhelmingly were users of social media. In descending order, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Tik Tok were the most popular social media services reported as being used. When volume of use was considered, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter were the most cited with most participants reporting using Instagram and Snapchat multiple times a day. When asked to select which social media service they would use if forced to choose just one, the number one choice was YouTube followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, more than half of participants responded that they have uploaded a video to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Tik Tok. When asked about their familiarity with different technologies, participants overwhelmingly responded that they are “very familiar” with smart phones, searching the Web, social media, and email. About half the respondents said that they were “very familiar” with common computer applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite with another third saying that they were “somewhat familiar.” When asked about Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Course Compass, Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Course Sites, Google Classroom, Mindtap, Schoology, Absorb, D2L, itslearning, Otus, PowerSchool, or WizIQ, only 43% said they were “very familiar” with 31% responding that they were “somewhat familiar.” Finally, about half the students were either “very” or “somewhat” familiar with operating systems such as Windows. A few preferences with respect to technology in the teaching and learning process were explored in the survey. Most students (85%) responded that they want course announcements and reminders sent to their phones, 76% expect their courses to incorporate the use of technology, 71% want their courses to have course websites, and 71% said that they would rather watch a video than read a book chapter. When asked to consider the future, over 81% or respondents reported that technology will play a major role in their future career. Most participants considered themselves “informed” or “well informed” about current events although few considered themselves “very informed” or “well informed” about politics. When asked how they get their news, the most common forum reported for getting news and information about current events and politics was social media with 81% of respondents reporting. Gen Z is known to be an engaged generation and the participants in this study were not an exception. As such, it came as no surprise to discover that, in the past year more than 78% of respondents had educated friends or family about an important social or political issue, about half (48%) had donated to a cause of importance to them, more than a quarter (26%) had participated in a march or rally, and a quarter (26%) had actively boycotted a product or company. Further, about 37% consider themselves to be a social activist with another 41% responding that aren’t sure if they would consider themselves an activist and only 22% saying that they would not consider themselves an activist. When asked what issues were important to them, the most frequently cited were Black Lives Matter (75%), human trafficking (68%), sexual assault/harassment/Me Too (66.49%), gun violence (65.82%), women’s rights (65.15%), climate change (55.4%), immigration reform/deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) (48.8%), and LGBTQ+ rights (47.39%). When the schools were compared, there were only minor differences in social media use with the high school students indicating slightly more use of Tik Tok than the other participants. All groups were virtually equal when it came to how informed they perceived themselves about current events and politics. Consensus among groups existed with respect to how they get their news, and the community college and high school students were slightly more likely to have participated in a march, protest, or rally in the last 12 months than the university students. The community college and high school students were also slightly more likely to consider themselves social activists than the participants from either of the universities. When the importance of the issues was considered, significant differences based on institutional type were noted. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was identified as important by the largest portion of students attending the HBCU followed by the community college students and high school students. Less than half of the students attending the TWI considered BLM an important issue. Human trafficking was cited as important by a higher percentage of students attending the HBCU and urban high school than at the suburban and rural community college or the TWI. Sexual assault was considered important by the majority of students at all the schools with the percentage a bit smaller from the majority serving institution. About two thirds of the students at the high school, community college, and HBCU considered gun violence important versus about half the students at the majority serving institution. Women’s rights were reported as being important by more of the high school and HBCU participants than the community college or TWI. Climate change was considered important by about half the students at all schools with a slightly smaller portion reporting out the HBCU. Immigration reform/DACA was reported as important by half the high school, community college, and HBCU participants with only a third of the students from the majority serving institution citing it as an important issue. With respect to LGBTQ rights approximately half of the high school and community college participants cited it as important, 44.53% of the HBCU students, and only about a quarter of the students attending the majority serving institution. Contribution and Conclusion: This paper provides a timely investigation into the mindset of generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. This insight is useful to educators who should be informed about the generation of students that is currently populating higher education. The findings of this study are consistent with public opinion polls by Pew Research Center. According to the findings, the Gen Z students participating in this study are heavy users of multiple social media, expect technology to be integrated into teaching and learning, anticipate a future career where technology will play an important role, informed about current and political events, use social media as their main source for getting news and information, and fairly engaged in social activism. When institutional type was compared the students from the university with the more affluent and less diverse population were less likely to find social justice issues important than the other groups. Recommendations for Practitioners: During disruptive and contentious times, it is negligent to think that the abounding issues plaguing society are not important to our students. Gauging the issues of importance and levels of civic engagement provides us crucial information towards understanding the attitudes of students. Further, knowing how our students gain information, their social media usage, as well as how informed they are about current events and political issues can be used to more effectively communicate and educate. Recommendations for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. Additionally, in other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Impact on Society: During a highly contentious period replete with a large volume of civil unrest and compounded by a global pandemic, understanding the behaviors and attitudes of students can help us as higher education faculty be more attuned when it comes to the design and delivery of curriculum. Future Research This presentation presents preliminary findings. Data is still being collected and much more extensive statistical analyses will be performed.

The summative external evaluation report described the program's impact on faculty and students participating in recitation sessions and active teaching professional development sessions over two years. Student persistence and retention in engineering courses continue to be a challenge in undergraduate education, especially for students underrepresented in engineering disciplines. The program's goal was to use peer-facilitated instruction in core engineering courses known to have high attrition rates to retain underrepresented students, especially women, in engineering to diversify and broaden engineering participation. Knowledge generated around using peer-facilitated instruction at two-year colleges can improve underrepresented students' success and participation in engineering across a broad range of institutions. Students in the program participated in peer-facilitated recitation sessions linked to fundamental engineering courses, such as engineering analysis, statics, and dynamics. These courses have the highest failure rate among women and underrepresented minority students. As a mixed-methods evaluation study, student engagement was measured as students' comfort with asking questions, collaboration with peers, and applying mathematics concepts. SPSS was used to analyze pre-and post-surveys for statistical significance. Qualitative data were collected through classroom observations and focus group sessions with recitation leaders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with faculty members and students to understand their experiences in the program. Findings revealed that women students had marginalization and intimidation perceptions primarily from courses with significantly more men than women. However, they shared numerous strategies that could support them towards success through the engineering pathway. Women and underrepresented students perceived that they did not have a network of peers and faculty as role models to identify within engineering disciplines. The recitation sessions had a positive social impact on Hispanic women. As opportunities to collaborate increased, Hispanic womens' social engagement was expected to increase. This social engagement level has already been predicted to increase women students' persistence and retention in engineering and result in them not leaving the engineering pathway. An analysis of quantitative survey data from students in the three engineering courses revealed a significant effect of race and ethnicity for comfort in asking questions in class, collaborating with peers outside the classroom, and applying mathematical concepts. Further examination of this effect for comfort with asking questions in class revealed that comfort asking questions was driven by one or two extreme post-test scores of Asian students. A follow-up ANOVA for this item revealed that Asian women reported feeling excluded in the classroom. However, it was difficult to determine whether these differences are stable given the small sample size for students identifying as Asian. Furthermore, gender differences were significant for comfort in communicating with professors and peers. Overall, women reported less comfort communicating with their professors than men. Results from student metrics will inform faculty professional development efforts to increase faculty support and maximize student engagement, persistence, and retention in engineering courses at community colleges. Summative results from this project could inform the national STEM community about recitation support to further improve undergraduate engineering learning and educational research.