Demonstrate the ability to quote, paraphrase, summarize, and cite sources correctly. Source
material will be the course readings (Joy Castro’s “Hungry” and “On Being Educated”, Paulo
Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education” and perhaps Richard Rodriguez’s “The
Achievement of Desire”) and an academic source of the student’s selection that will analyze the
issues within the course readings. Students will choose either the first or second prompt to attend
to in their essay development.
Discuss the implications of being a first generation college student. What are the challenges
these students face vis-a-vis identity, culture, family obligations and pressures, feeling “othered”
from fellow students on campus? How might students approach these challenges to move
towards eventual academic and personal success? Utilizing the works of Castro and perhaps
Rodriguez, coupled with an outside academic source, analyze the implications and approaches to
being a first generation college student.
Suggestions for outside reading include essays on first generation student success rates, campus
housing limitations for first generation students, the non-traditional college student in the
classroom, programs designed and implemented to encourage first generation college student
success, inclusivity culture on campus or lack thereof on college campuses.
Demonstrate how problem-posing approaches to education benefit the student and the classroom
environment at large. In other words, why is Freire such a staunch advocate for the
implementation of problem-posing education over the long utilized banking concept? What are
the potential advantages to transitioning away from a banking concept and towards problemposing? In an education system struggling with maintaining student success (such as here in
America) how could problem-posing curriculum lead to advancement in education? Utilizing
Freire’s work coupled with an outside academic source, analyze the problem-posing educational
theory and the implications of such an approach being implemented in the educational
curriculum of struggling systems.
Suggestions for outside reading include essays on Finland’s educational system (currently ranked
the most successful education system of industrialized countries), the Montessori method of
education, which mirrors many of Freire’s tenets, or articles on contemporary career
expectations/what interviewers are looking for in potential hires (the ability to readily problem
solve).