Social Science Consortium Publications (UMKC)
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Items in this collection are the scholarly output of the Social Science Consortium faculty, staff, and students, either alone or as co-authors, and which may or may not have been published in an alternate format.
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Item A 100-Year Historical Study of East High School in Kansas City, Missouri(2023) VanOsdale, Bryan Drake; McCarther, S. MarieEast High School was opened in 1926 to over nine hundred students from the surrounding neighborhoods. At that time, East High School was an all-White suburban school in comparison to its identity today as the most diverse high school in the state with over forty languages and countries represented in its population. During the first decades of its existence, East High School was a model suburban school with a variety of course offerings and a diverse assortment of extracurricular activities. After the 1954 Brown v. Board ruling from the Supreme Court, East remained an all-White school until 1968, when non-White students began to enroll. In comparison, all other high schools east of Troost Avenue had predominantly non-White students. By 1980, the demographics of East High School and the surrounding neighborhoods had changed dramatically from previous decades. In 1998, East was converted to a K-8 elementary school until the 2008–09 school year, when it was opened once again as a high school. Since that re-opening, East has become a “mini United Nations” with a diverse population. It currently serves as the English Language Learner and self-contained special education high school for the Kansas City School District.Item Ushering in the Post-Oil Era: A Functional Finance Approach to Development, Diversification and Sustainability in Saudi Arabia(2023) Azad, Shama; Forstater, Mathew 1961-The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the social, economic and financial structures and the growth potential of Saudi Arabia as a fixed exchange rate country. Saudi Arabia has had its currency pegged to the US dollar since 1986. From a traditional MMT perspective, the country can thus not be defined as monetarily sovereign. Monetarily non-sovereign countries fall on a continuum of sovereignty in accordance with their ability to meet their exchange rate requirements and maintain their peg. In this dissertation, I conduct an inquiry, using the example of Saudi Arabia, of how the framework of Functional Finance, and particularly the use of fiscal policy, can be adapted for non-sovereign countries. Saudi Arabia has been an export-driven economy for many decades and has been largely dependent on its oil sales proceeds. However, with volatility in oil prices and the need to find sustainable energy practices, it has started to diversify its economy and develop other sectors. As the country is not monetarily sovereign and its private sector is still developing, its export revenues have served it well so far. The government has been able to build a substantial stock of foreign exchange reserves that can be used to defend its exchange rate peg and achieve policy goals. Through the dissertation, I study the current framework of the country and review its main challenges and strategies with regards to oil dependence, diversification, employment and revenue streams. All development policies discussed herein are grounded in Modern Money Theory and are aimed to be sustainable, functional and customized to the specific case of Saudi Arabia.Item An Educational History of Immigrant and Refugee Children in Kansas City(2023) Watts, Paula D'Introno; McCarther, S. Marie; Garcelon, Marc, 1958-This is an educational historiography of immigrant and refugee children who resettled with their families in Kansas City, Missouri, after the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. The dissertation concludes with a chapter about the opening of a new school in August 2021 called the Global Academy that was specifically designed to address the needs of this population. Housed in the Woodland School in the Northeast neighborhood of Kansas City, the Global Academy is intentionally designed to ensure the success of immigrant and refugee children, some of whom may be sitting in a classroom for the first time. Bilingual and trilingual teachers and educators work to provide the best education they can while also providing space for students to retain their first language and identity. This dissertation was written by identifying and analyzing primary and secondary sources that present a picture of immigrant and refugee children’s educational experiences. Oral histories are included from administrators and teachers at the school. Oral history narrator accounts of specific experiences working with immigrant and refugee children lend rich details necessary for this educational historiography.Item A Narratological Inquiry into U.S. African Refugee Youths’ Educational Experiences(2023) Bakar, Abdulkadir; Ukpokodu, Omiunota NellyThe arrival of refugees over the past two decades changed the face of classrooms in Kansas City, Missouri, resulting in refugee youth being unprepared for post-secondary opportunities. This critical narrative study aimed to explore the lived experiences of African refugee youth (aged 18 and above) attending public high school in the MidwestUnited States. Based on current and recently arriving African refugee populations, 10 participants originally hailed from Somalia, Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and Burundi. A crystalized theoretical framework of socio-cultural, migratory, and critical race theory guided qualitative narratological data analysis collected via interviews focusing on the participants' educational experiences. Data analysis followed descriptive and interpretive coding to analyze and identify themes, trends, and patterns providing insight into participants’ experiences and how they affected their academic and social endeavors. Findings revealed that participants’ escape, cultural experience, U.S. resettlement, academic shock, intolerance, toil/exertion, challenges, recurrence, defensive mechanism, beneficial encounter, academic effect, and social illumination all influenced their educational experiences. In addition, in-depth theoretical analysis exposed systemic societal racism among every theme, thereby illuminating deep-rootedracism as the primary factor negatively affecting African refugee youths’ U.S. iii educational experiences. These findings help identify strategies and interventions supporting African refugee youth preparing for post-secondary opportunities.Item Three Essays on Monetary Sovereignty(2022) Nguyen, Tru Huy; Fullwiler, Scott T.This dissertation examines the current economic understanding of Monetary Sovereignty through the role of the state’s currency in an economy. It recognizes that, internationally, Monetary Sovereignty is not an equal status among states who issue their own currencies, because cross-border activities yield different circumstances for each state and its own currency. With this view, this dissertation rectifies the role of Monetary Sovereignty in economics with three essays. Essay One redefines Monetary Sovereignty as an accumulated governing capacity of the state to support its own economy using its own currency. This results from a historical and interdisciplinary perspective, supported by a brief review of Korea (1392 – 1910) and South Korea (1961 – 1984). This review also emphasizes the indispensable role of MS to a government. Essay Two proposes a new concept called Foreign Exchange Dependency that assesses the spectrum of Monetary Sovereignty directly. Foreign Exchange Dependency argues that issuing a currency is the prerequisite to entering the spectrum of Monetary Sovereignty, which has not been discussed elsewhere. This arises from a literature survey through legal study, political science, social science, and economics. Essay Three develops a framework for Foreign Exchange Dependency as an operational guide for policymakers who want to improve their own governing capacity to support their own economies. This development entails a plain demonstration using a part of data of Balance-of-Payments from 18 economies that have their own currencies and participate in cross-border activities in various ways. With these new understandings, this dissertation calls for a revision of Monetary Sovereignty in economics that allows individual states to derive adequate strategies for their own economies using the new framework of Monetary Sovereignty.
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