Peace Corps Research Articles

Dimensions of Cosmopolitanism: Patriotism and Disaffection Among U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers

In a globalized world, how do individual people navigate experiences with difference? How do they internalize cosmopolitan values? Using a large mixed-methods data set, this article explores the ways that individuals can be both cosmopolitan and nationalist at the same time. It does so by operationalizing cosmopolitanism, and analyzing how it develops among U.S. Peace Corps volunteers. This article distinguishes two patterns. Patriotic cosmopolitans, although they become sensitive to global context throughout service, come to identify more with U.S. values. They become particularly connected to ideas of freedom, choice, and administrative efficiency, and deeply supportive of the existing institutional and political order. Disaffected cosmopolitans come to see those same values as troublesome considering their identities as global citizens, and dis-identify with the United States because of them. The different types of cosmopolitanisms yield different types of relationships with the state, which express in different patterns of professional engagement and voluntarism.

An Exploration of the Concept and Practice of Co-teaching in Public Secondary School EFL Classes in Benin

Across Asia, in countries such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, the practice of the Co- teaching model within English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms has proved beneficial for both educators and learners. In those countries, having both native and non-native EFL teachers to develop and carry out lesson plans offers a great opportunity to build local teachers’ capacities and promote cultural exchange between teachers and within the classroom. For learners, the co-teaching model gives the possibility to hear pronunciation, as well as tones and rhythm, of a native speaker in English. While researchers have noted the benefits of this strategic approach in both teaching and learning English as a foreign language, in those aforementioned Asian countries, they have failed to specify if the practice can be generalized to other EFL countries around the world. To my knowledge, no research has been conducted on co-teaching in Benin. To fill this gap, this study, through qualitative and quantitative methods, aims to shed light on the prospects and challenges of co-teaching in Beninese secondary schools. As the co-teaching practice in Benin is only done by US Peace Corps TEFL Volunteers, the target population has consisted of thirty of them and forty of their counterparts. Valuable data has been collected through class observations, interviews and questionnaires over a six-month period. The findings have shown that even though there are challenges, the approach of co-teaching used in Benin is beneficial to both the team teachers and their learners. Finally, the study suggests ways to maximize the benefits of co-teaching and a few strategies to cope with challenges.

Davida Coady: humanitarian paediatrician, political activist, and recovering alcoholic

As a paediatrician and then, later in her career, as an addiction treatment specialist, Davida Coady’s mission in life was to do “the greatest good for the greatest number of...

Ecological consulting as a career option

Ecological consulting as a career option

The Suns in Our Daughters.

A personal narrative is provided in which the author reflects on her experience in teaching science to girls while in the U.S. Peace Corps in Guinea, including the challenges women face in Guinea from male dominance, metaphors in science and the potential of undereducated girls.

International service and cross-cultural engagement: Preserving and documenting the Peace Corps experience

After 56 years in operation and 500,000 or so service years offered collectively by 230,000 Peace Corps volunteers, there are many stories to tell and much data to record about Peace Corps. Who is collecting those stories and recording that data? Who is documenting the cross-cultural interactions among Peace Corps Volunteers and the communities they serve? And who is assessing the impact of those grassroots encounters?

George Moss Collection Donated to Monmouth University

In December 2017, the family of noted Monmouth County historian George H. Moss, Jr., donated materials he had collected to Monmouth University, a private, comprehensive 4-year institution in West Long Branch, NJ, located about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. With a 2016 enrollment of 6,371, the University offers undergraduate and graduate programs across all traditional disciplines as well as a Doctorate in Nursing Practice and an Ed.D program. Monmouth University is a Grammy Museum affiliate, offers a Peace Corps Prep program that is unique in New Jersey, and is the home to the Monmouth Polling Institute.

Reflections on My Lifetime Teacher: Dr. Willem J. Kolff.

Reflections on My Lifetime Teacher: Dr. Willem J. Kolff.

The creation of a postcolonial subject: The Chicago and Ateneo de Manila schools and the Peace Corps in the Philippines, 1960-1970.

In the 1950s and 1960s scholars from the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila created social scientific knowledge that helped establish the Peace Corps as a Cold War institution in the Philippines. Central were the social scientists at the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila University who established a knowable postcolonial subject: "the Filipino," which resulted from their research on Philippine values. In this context, the Ateneo/Chicago social scientists developed the "SIR," the "smooth interpersonal relation" model that entails the notion that Filipinos and Filipinas particularly valued this nonconfrontational skill set among people. The SIR model was taught by social science experts to early Peace Corps volunteers as they prepared for their assignments in the Philippines. The article shows how the SIR model could cause distress and confusion as it was applied by Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines.

2018 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize Winner: This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm by Ted Genoways

2018 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize WinnerThis Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm by Ted Genoways David Loope The winning author, Ted Genoways, lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with his wife, Mary Anne Andrei, and their son, Jack. The son of Hugh Genoways, a former director of the University of Nebraska State Museum, Ted has long Great Plains roots in Bayard, a small town in Nebraska's Panhandle. Before receiving this award, Genoways won a National Press Club Award and the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. This Blessed Earth is Ted's third book and follows The Chain (2014), an exposé of the hard truths of the meatpacking industry in Fremont, Nebraska, and Austin, Minnesota. We all know that farming is a risky business: local weather and global markets are always in flux; expensive equipment can fail at any time. Farmers in the Great Plains make high-stakes decisions at a near-dizzying rate: what, where, and how to plant; when to harvest; when to sell; who to hire and who to let go. These decisions are made in the context of equipment debt, pivot debt, land debt, and the vagaries of crop insurance. This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm follows the Hammond family of York County, Nebraska, through a year starting in June 2014. In October 2014 untimely rains force them to store the beans they had hoped to harvest and sell early before a burgeoning harvest would likely cause prices to drop. In May 2014 they learn that, due to forecasted corn surpluses, Pioneer may not need them to grow as much seed corn as last year. Later, they find out that they must renew their efforts to stave off a menacing transcontinental pipeline. Opportunity, romance, tragedy, and contingency play big roles in every family history, but with farming, all this drama can take place on a single set. On that set, succession—how will the farm be passed to the next generation?—generates by far the most drama. Rick Hammond, born and raised on a small cattle ranch in arid western Nebraska, met Heidi Harrington at the agricultural college in his hometown; they married after Rick's stint in the Peace Corps. Heidi was from eastern Nebraska, near the eastern edge of the High Plains Aquifer—some of the best farmland in the state. She was one of five sisters—the fifth generation of a family that had worked Centennial Hill Farm since it was homesteaded in 1874. Although divided equally among four of the sisters, the farm was then run—with considerable discord—as a single operation. In 2006, Rick and Heidi's daughter Meghan's high-school sweetheart was killed by a roadside bomb while serving with the US Marine Corps in Iraq. Meghan, then a student in Omaha, [End Page v] decided to return to the farm. She became the glue that held her hardworking family together, and eventually met and married Kyle Galloway—a quiet, competent man with the right skills and temperament to further secure the farm's future. Within the main narrative, Genoways skillfully intersperses an education on many subjects: the origin of hybrid corn, the evolution (and recycling) of tractors, and the coming of center-pivot irrigation to the Great Plains. Genoways was able to finally get me—a geologist focused on the carbon cycle and climate change—interested in soybeans after living in Nebraska for thirty-seven years. It turns out that in the mid-1930s, Henry Ford started to worry about the growing scarcity of world oil reserves. He wanted to keep farmers hooked on the tractors he built, so he financed research into the use of soybeans as biofuel. He invested $5 million in a soybean mill. Fortune magazine declared him "as much concerned with the soya bean as he is with the V-8 engine." Time called him "the bean's best friend." The 1938 discovery of the 75-billion-barrel Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia pulled the plug on soybeans as a biofuel, but, luckily, livestock feeders had just discovered that these oil-rich beans were just the...

Bill Clifton: America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the World by Bill C. Malone

Reviewed by: Bill Clifton: America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the Worldby Bill C. Malone Kevin E. Mooney Bill Clifton: America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the Worldby Bill C. Malone. Music in American Life. ( Urbana and other cities: University of Illinois Press, 2016. Pp. xiv, 156. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-252-08200-9; cloth, $95.00, ISBN 978-0-252-04053-5.) Musician, promoter, and song collector of bluegrass and old-time music, Bill Clifton is worthy of a biography by Bill C. Malone. Whether documenting Clifton's recordings, live performances, promotion of country music in England, or connection to the web of influences that make up the tapestry of the history of bluegrass and old-time music, Malone's Bill Clifton: America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the Worlddelivers. Writing a biography and documenting a person's life and work are arguably meaningless without tracing the veins of his or her influence on others and history writ large. Malone's Bill Cliftonexemplifies the rich history that a well-researched biography makes possible. Bluegrass fans will welcome Malone's accessible writing style, and scholars will appreciate his informative footnotes, which direct the reader to seminal publications on supplemental background [End Page 224]information as well as to unpublished writings, interviews, archives, and other sources that could be of use in future studies. In addition to an annotated discography, Malone's book benefits from its many photos depicting Clifton, his family, and his musical associates. Bill Clifton "wasn't your typical 'hillbilly'" (p. 2). William Augustus Marburg was born in Riderwood, Maryland, an affluent Baltimore suburb, on April 5, 1931. In the first chapter of this chronological biography, Malone surveys Clifton's early musical influences. Clifton listened to 1940s radio broadcasts such as the Old Dominion Barn Dance, where he heard and became a lifelong fan of legendary performers like the Carter Family—Clifton would later interpret and promote the Carter Family's music. Clifton had a financially privileged upbringing. In addition to forging a "successful and influential music career," he was a stockbroker, a U.S. marine, and a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines (p. 4). After establishing a professional music career in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s, recording for Mercury and Starday in Nashville, Tennessee (covered in Malone's second chapter), Clifton packed up his growing family and moved to England in 1963. Malone's subtitle is "America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the World," and Clifton's role in the promotion of bluegrass and old-time music in Europe is just left of front and center in Malone's book. In chapter 3, "Taking Old-Time Music to England, 1963–1970," Malone provides a brief background of American country music in England, citing and building on unpublished essays by figures such as music historian Tony Russell and British music promoter and journalist John Atkins. After a challenging period in the Peace Corps, Clifton moved his family back to England in 1970, expecting to continue with his career from where he left it. The folk scene had changed, however, and Clifton found it difficult to find acceptance. In his fourth and final chapter, Malone discusses how Clifton's renewed, full-time commitment to music ultimately took him to other parts of the world, including British East Africa, Holland, Hamburg, and Berlin, Germany and finally back to the United States, where he continued to perform at festivals and record until his near-complete retirement in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Malone concludes his biography by declaring, "We all are beneficiaries of [Clifton's] lifetime of devotion to the music he loved" (p. 126). Anyone interested in the history of bluegrass, old-time, and country music will benefit from Bill Malone's scholarship and will not be disappointed with his biography of Bill Clifton. Kevin E. Mooney Texas State University Copyright © 2018 The Southern Historical Association

From Army service to physician to patient

From Army service to physician to patient William L. Freeman If my experience were a script for Clint Eastwood, the title would be, "The High-5, the Good, & the Bad." I have not experienced what some other vets unfortunately have, " . . . , & the Ugly." After graduating from college and my 2 ½ year stint in the Peace Corps in Colombia, and during the early U.S. buildup in Vietnam, I volunteered for the US Army and the Army's Special Forces ("Green Berets"), received intensive one year training as a Special Forces Independent Duty Medic to function as a physician where there was none, and was in Vietnam for two one-year tours. My four years of service did not result in any need for health care after discharge in December, 1968. My experiences as an Independent Duty Medic in Vietnam did, however, result in a strong desire to be a real physician. After completing the premed science requirements, I was accepted by the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, Seattle, in September 1970, and then UW Family Medicine Residency. Part of that Residency included two months on the Internal Medicine [End Page 90] Service of the Seattle VA Hospital that was affiliated with the UW. The Director of that Service, who was also the Attending Physician with whom we residents met every day, was one of the most humane Attending Physicians I had during my three year Residency. He taught and practiced not only medical science but also compassionate medical caring for the VA's patients. After residency in 1977, I entered the Public Health Service (PHS), specifically the Indian Health Service. PHS is a "Uniformed Service," and thus I was eligible to receive care at military and VA hospitals. Fast forward to 1998. That year I was found to have a slightly elevated PSA test—"Prostate-Specific Antigen," indicating possible prostate cancer—during episodic medical care for other reasons at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda while on temporary duty nearby. I went to the combined university + VA hospital near my permanent duty station in the Southwest. The faculty-doctor had a reassuring patient-doctor manner. The six prostate needle biopsies were done in late July by the Urology Chief Resident there—he had just started his year as Chief Resident. The results included one biopsy lost and the others inconclusive. I asked to be seen by the Prostate Cancer Program at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a program with a superb reputation. The doctor I saw there instilled confidence—and did 13 prostate biopsies with great skill. The biopsies were read by the Walter Reed pathologists; they disagreed among themselves on the interpretation and thus sent the biopsies to the next-door Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the premier pathology institute whose readings were the gold standard in pathology. Final diagnosis: early prostate cancer. I had to decide which possible treatment to do: surgery (prostatectomy to remove the whole prostate); radiation therapy (kill the prostate and its cancer by radiation from outside the body); brachytherapy (insert several radioactive small pellets to kill the prostate and its cancer from the inside); or "watchful waiting" (follow PSA tests, to do an active treatment only if the PSA progressed higher). I, was 57 years old; my wife Carolyn and I decided against "watchful waiting." I visited a physician in charge of each type of active treatment. The first was the head of urological surgery at the same university + VA hospital in the Southwest. He maintained no eye contact with me, staring at my medical chart as he recited his information non-stop for me (i.e., what the prostatectomy would be, its recovery time, and why it would be the best treatment option for me). I did not go back. Instead, regarding the surgical option, I met with the urological surgeon at Walter Reed who had done my 13 biopsies; I then met with the doctor in charge of Radiation Therapy at Walter Reed. Both visits had a more gratifying doctor-patient interaction. A pioneer of brachytherapy treatment for prostate cancer and research about its results had recently moved from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City to...

Citizenship, Politics, Difference: Perspectives from Sub-Saharan Signed Language Communities ed. by Audrey C. Cooper and Khadijat K. Rashid

Reviewed by: Citizenship, Politics, Difference: Perspectives from Sub-Saharan Signed Language Communities ed. by Audrey C. Cooper and Khadijat K. Rashid Eyasu Hailu (bio) Citizenship, Politics, Difference: Perspectives from Sub-Saharan Signed Language Communities, edited by Audrey C. Cooper and Khadijat K. Rashid (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2015, 272 pp., hardbound, $80.00, ISBN 978-1-56368-634-4) This volume is a collection of diverse contributions on several issues concerning Deaf communities living in sub-Saharan African nations. It comes out of a two-day conference titled "African Lessons on Language and Citizenship: Local Action and Transnational Partnerships," which was held at Gallaudet University in April 2012. This conference was mainly coordinated by the two editors of this volume. The editors were inspired by the positive feedback they received from people asking when they would publish the proceedings and also by those wondering if there would be a "second African languages conference" in the future (xiv). Three years later, the editors took a step to compile this volume, the first of its kind, which is specifically on Deaf communities in African nations. Including the editors, there are 18 contributors in total, hailing from various professions: law, anthropology, African studies, education, linguistics, deaf studies, entrepreneurship development, social work, history and governance, and international development. They are also comprised of different nationalities across the world. In addition to the editors' introduction, the volume broadly categorizes 13 contributions into three sections: Sub-Saharan Signed Languages and Perspectives; Politics and Difference; and Citizenship. This review presents an outline of each contribution. The volume begins with the editors' introduction, which includes a general overview of sub-Saharan African Deaf communities and sign languages. The fact that little has been written on this topic necessitates the compilation of this volume. Concepts of citizenship, politics, [End Page 461] and difference are discussed as a framework of the volume, with examples from the rest of the contributors. With regard to citizenship, the editors consider it an important device to examine agents (such as those in government) so as to create ways of being within certain social-historical constructions (xxi). The fact that sign languages are not officially recognized in sub-Saharan African countries is often challenged by political willingness as in the case witnessed by the World Federation of the Deaf (2009). In line with this, questions of equality and difference are not addressed by many African governments, especially in education. Deaf people were not consulted in the areas of medium of instruction and educational policies. In fact, this inequality is directly reflected in employment policies and nations' developmental agendas. Sam Lutalo-Kiingi and Goedele A. M. De Clerck collaborate to produce an introduction about "Sub-Saharan African Signed Languages and Deaf Communities" for the first section. Under this section there are three topics discussed. The duo presents a summary of each in their introduction. The first chapter is about "Ethics of Researching Signed Languages: The Case of Kenyan Sign Language" by Julie A. Hochgesang. As a former Peace Corps volunteer and a team member of the KSL dictionary preparation team, the author presents her scientific observations and recommendations on ethical issues that need to be considered while doing research and compiling sign language dictionaries. The driving force to conduct research on the Deaf community or compile sign language dictionaries relies heavily on the direct involvement of members of the local Deaf community from the data collection stage through the approval stage. This article shows that the success of the KSL dictionary project was due to the involvement of the Kenyan Deaf community members. She explains that her contribution to the Kenyan Deaf community in the early 2000s bares a fruit to the extent that the Kenyan parliament recognized KSL constitutionally. Furthermore, the author illustrates that although she knows KSL and the culture of the Deaf community in Kenya, she cannot conduct independent research on KSL grammar as it can be considered unethical to work alone. However, this chapter does not state why people choose to not involve members of the Deaf community in their research. [End Page 462] Lutalo-Kiingi and De Clerck again collaborate to write on "Deaf Citizenship and Sign Language Diversity...

Developing English Job Interview Skill by Self-Access Language Learning through Audio Podcast-Based Learning Media

In the era of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Indonesian job seekers must have English competency. Without mastering English language, they will be defeated by foreign ready-to-use job seekers. It can be detected in the job interview that their English competency is low. It is caused by a serious condition that they have no effective time to learn English in formal or non-formal English schools. Hence, an effort to improve their English speaking skill is needed. One of the ways to improve English speaking skill is by Self-Access Language Learning (SALL) through audio podcast-based learning media. By using audio podcast-based learning media, the job seekers can practice their English speaking ability by themselves anytime and anywhere. This research conducted an action research to investigate the improvement of English job interview skill of an interviewee with intermediate level of English, which was focused on the improvement of the interviewee abilities to answer the interviewer’s questions. To assess the quality of the English job interview, the researchers used an interview quality parameter designed by Overseas Programming and Training Support (OPATS) Peace Corps (2005). It is based on the assessment of function and content. The result shows that after two treatments, the job seeker (interviewee) improves her English job interview skill. The improvement can be seen from the changes according to the functional ability; it is shown from the change of answer style from descriptive into narrative way and the changes according to the content; it is shown from the change of answer content from daily routine into professional rational. Therefore, the researchers recommend the Indonesian job seekers to use audio podcast-based learning media by SALL to develop their English job interview skill.

Leveraging the Global Health Service Partnership Model for Workforce Development in Global Radiation Oncology.

A major contributor to the disparity in cancer outcome across the globe is the limited health care access in low- and middle-income countries that results from the shortfall in human resources for health (HRH), fomented by the limited training and leadership capacity of low-resource countries. In 2012, Seed Global Health teamed up with the Peace Corps to create the Global Health Service Partnership, an initiative that has introduced a novel model for tackling the HRH crises in developing regions of the world. The Global Health Service Partnership has made global health impacts in leveraging partnerships for HRH development, faculty activities and output, scholarship engagement, adding value to the learning environment, health workforce empowerment, and infrastructure development.

English educational implication and socio-educational influence of the Peace Corps: Mainly based on official government documents

English educational implication and socio-educational influence of the Peace Corps: Mainly based on official government documents

Efektivitas Bantuan Pembangunan Peace Corps Amerika Serikat Di Indonesia

The focus of this research is to explain the U.S. Peace Corps’ aid effectiveness in assisting Indonesia from year 2010 to 2017. This research utilizes the five principles and twelve indicators of Paris Declaration as tools to explain the aid effectiveness. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and uses interviews and observation as primary resources, also using books and articles as secondary resources. The result of this research shows that principles of Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in Peace Corps Indonesia is almost effective in Local Alignment Principle, Harmonization Principle, and Mutual Accountability Principle. In addition to Policy Ownership Principle, English learning is not yet considered as a priority. Moreover, there are some differences in development plan and real activities that makes it become unoperational strategy. In Managing for Result Principle, since 2010, the amount of students, teachers and communities whose interact with the volunteer of Peace Corps keep increasing but there is no official framework that shows development result oriented. Keywords: Peace Corps, Peace Corps Indonesia, foreign aid, United States, Bappenas

Supporting new science teachers in pursuing socially just science education

This forum explores contradictions that arose within the partnership between Teach for America (TFA) and a university teacher education program. TFA is an alternate route teacher preparation program that places individuals into K-12 classrooms in low-income school districts after participating in an intense summer training program and provides them with ongoing support. This forum is a conversation about the challenges we faced as new science teachers in the TFA program and in the Peace Corps program. We both entered the teaching field with science degrees and very little formal education in science education. In these programs we worked in a community very different from the one we had experienced as students. These experiences allow us to address many of the issues that were discussed in the original paper, namely teaching in an unfamiliar community amid challenges that many teachers face in the first few years of teaching. We consider how these challenges may be amplified for teachers who come to teaching through an alternate route and may not have as much pedagogical training as a more traditional teacher education program provides. The forum expands on the ideas presented in the original paper to consider the importance of perspectives on socially just science education. There is often a disconnect between what is taught in teacher education programs and what teachers actually experience in urban classrooms and this can be amplified when the training received through alternate route provides a different framework as well. This forum urges universities and alternate route programs to continue to find ways to authentically partner using practical strategies that bring together the philosophies and goals of all stakeholders in order to better prepare teachers to partner with their students to achieve their science learning goals.

Re-thinking English literacy development in Tonga: A case study, 2012–2017

This article presents a case study of a five-year English-literacy project carried out in primary and middle schools in the Pacific island nation of Tonga from 2012 to 2017. It summarizes why and how the project was begun; the activities carried out by Peace Corps Volunteers and Tongan partners; its objectives; and the products, procedures, and lessons that this international collaboration generated. The project aimed at building Tongan educators’ capacities to create, use, and sustain “child-centered” (or “student-centered”) instructional and assessment practices; use books, libraries, and technologies to support literacy development; strengthen family and community support for children’s learning and literacy development; and increase access by young children and in-school and out-of-school youth and adults to literacy development opportunities. The article concludes with recommendations for actions that policymakers, practitioners, and parents might take to build a more effective literacy development system in their nations.

Gifts from Our Elders: African Artsand Visionary Art History

Gifts from Our Elders: African Arts<i>and Visionary Art History</i>