First Generation Students

THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM: FIRST GENERATION STUDENTS AT LEGACY UNIVERSITIES

Author: Rachel Gable

Publisher: Princeton University Press

ISBN-13:  9780691216614

College has long been viewed as an opportunity for advancement and mobility for talented students regardless of background. Yet for first generation students, elite universities can often seem like bastions of privilege, with unspoken academic norms and social rules. The Hidden Curriculum draws on more than one hundred in-depth interviews with students at Harvard and Georgetown to offer vital lessons about the challenges of being the first in the family to go to college, while also providing invaluable insights into the hurdles that all undergraduates face.

ON THE BORDERS OF THE ACADEMY: CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES FOR FIRST-GENERATION GRADUATE STUDENTS AND FACULTY

Editor: Alecea Ritter Standlee

Publisher:  Syracuse University Press

ISBN-13: 9780977784783

One of the most significant achievements in US higher education during the latter half of the twentieth century was the increasing access enjoyed by historically marginalized populations, including women, people of color, and the poor and working class. With this achievement, however, has come a growing population of first generation students, including first-generation graduate students and faculty members, who struggle at times to navigate unfamiliar territory. This book offers insight into the challenges of first-generation status, as well as practical tools for navigating the halls of the academy for both academics and their institutional allies.

ON SOCIAL MOBILITY: A BRIEF HISTORY OF FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS@MICHIGAN: 2007 TO 2019

Author: Dwight Lang

Publisher: Michigan Publishing Services

ISBN-13: 9781607855194

Lang describes how working and lower class students openly acknowledge and struggle with challenging experiences on a predominantly middle and upper middle class campus. We appreciate how first generation students are risk takers, boundary crossers, and successful social class immigrants. Resourceful first-gen efforts become the basis of connection and community as students begin their social mobility journeys. Over time a public story emerges: stories making the invisible visible; stories of courage and persistence; stories of structural changes; a thoughtful student movement that is hard to ignore. We come to better understand the power of shared determination.

AT THE INTERSECTION: UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS

Editors: Robert Longwell-Grice and Hope Longwell-Grice

Publisher: Stylus Publishing

ISBN-13: 9781642670615

The experiences of first-generation college students are not monolithic. This book is intended to challenge the reader to explore what it means to be a first-generation college student in higher education. Designed for use in classrooms and for use by the higher education practitioner on a college campus today, At the Intersection will be of value to the reader throughout their professional career. The book is divided into four parts with chapters of research and theory interspersed with thought pieces which provide personal stories to integrate the research and theory into lived experience.
 

Wellbeing and Learning from West Virginia University Press

MINDING BODIES, HOW PHYSICAL SPACE, SENSATION, AND MOVEMENT AFFECT LEARNING

Author: Susan Hrach

Publisher: West Virginia University Press

ISBN-13: 9781949199987 

Starting from new research on the body, Minding Bodies aims to help instructors improve their students’ knowledge and skills through physical movement, attention to the spatial environment, and sensitivity to humans as more than “brains on sticks.”

Minding Bodies draws from a wide range of body/mind research in cognitive psychology, kinesiology, and phenomenology to bring a holistic perspective to teaching and learning. The embodied learning approaches described by Susan Hrach are inclusive, low-tech, low-cost strategies that deepen the development of disciplinary knowledge and skills.

IMPROVING LEARNING AND MENTAL HEALTH IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM

Authors: Robert Eaton, Steven V. Hunsaker, and Bonnie Moon

Publisher: West Virginia University Press 

ISBN-13: 9781952271809

Mental health challenges on college campuses were a huge problem before COVID-19, and now they are even more pronounced. But while much has been written about higher education’s mental health crisis, very little research focuses on the role played by those on campus whose influence on student well-being may well be greatest: teachers. Drawing from interviews with students and the scholarship of teaching and learning, this book helps correct the oversight, examining how faculty can combat student stress through adjustments to the work they already do as teachers.

HOW HUMANS LEARN

Author: Joshua R. Eyler

Publisher: West Virginia University Press

ISBN-13: 9781946684653

Even on good days, teaching is a challenging profession. One way to make the job of college instructors easier, however, is to know more about the ways students learn. How Humans Learn aims to do just that by peering behind the curtain and surveying research in fields as diverse as developmental psychology, anthropology, and cognitive neuroscience for insight into the science behind learning. Joshua R. Eyler identifies five broad themes running through recent scientific inquiry—curiosity, sociality, emotion, authenticity, and failure—devoting a chapter to each and providing practical takeaways for busy teachers.

THE SPARK OF LEARNING

Author: Sarah Rose Cavanagh

Publisher: West Virginia University Press

ISBN-13: 9781943665334

Historically we have constructed our classrooms with the assumption that learning is a dry, staid affair best conducted in quiet tones and ruled by an unemotional consideration of the facts. The field of education, however, is beginning to awaken to the potential power of emotions to fuel learning, informed by contributions from psychology and neuroscience. Sarah Rose Cavanagh argues that if you want to capture your students' attention, harness their working memory, bolster their long-term retention, and enhance their motivation, you should consider the emotional impact of your teaching style and course design.