Literature Review #3

(1) Visual

 

(2) Citation            

• Savitz-Romer, Mandy, and Suzanne M. Bouffard. Ready, Willing, and Able : A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Education Press, 2012. Print.

(3) Summary

•  The book explores the entire college process of first-generation students. It offers information from an educational psychology point-of-view. The authors studied how such students measure their own potential to succeed in college. As well, they studied how peer and adult relationships can bolster college success.

(4) Author(s)

• Mandy Savitz-Romer Faculty Member and Director of the Prevention Science and Practice Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

• Suzanne Bouffard Researcher and Writer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

(5) Key terms

•  developmental perspective- focus on individual struggles and opportunities and their effects on the subject
• college success- completion of a degree [it is important to define what "success" is, in terms of education]

(6) Quotes

• "[Ronaldo] summed up his experience by saying that people in the [six-week campus live-in] program 'didn't see me,' by which he meant that they didn't see him as he saw himself--as a responsible person headed for a bright future," (1).
• "...first-generation college students need as much support as possible to help them overcome the many challenges they face, which often include the stresses associated with low family income and under-sourced communities, limited access to high-quality educational resources, and structural and social barriers like racism and classism, (4).
• "College access initiatives rely on youth having already developed the personal resources, such as motivation and a college-going identity, that will enable them to benefit from other programmatic resource," (4).

(7) Value

• The book is helpful in a sense that it provides a different, more developmental-psychology perspective on first-generation students. It shares individual case stories that elaborate general challenges of these students. The authors also highlight how discrimination may influence the choices such students make when deciding their future career goals. The discrimination from others ultimately shape how these students motivate themselves. The book complements my search for unique aspects that influence first-generation students.