1st Edition

The Agony of Education Black Students at a White University

    The Agony of Education is about the life experience of African American students attending a historically white university. Based on seventy-seven interviews conducted with black students and parents concerning their experiences with one state university, as well as published and unpublished studies of the black experience at state universities at large, this study captures the painful choices and agonizing dilemmas at the heart of the decisions African Americans must make about higher education.

    1. Black Students at Predominately White College and Universities: The Rhetoric and the Reality; 2. Educational Choices and a University's Reputation: The Importance of Collective Morality; 3. Confronting White Students: The Whiteness of University Spaces; 4. Contending with White Instructors: You Can Feel When Someone Wants You Somewhere; 5. Administrative Barriers to Student Progress: Blocked at Each Turn; 6. Issues of Recruitment and Retention: If They Do Anything, It's to Encourage You to Leave; 7. Racism in Higher Education: The Need for Change

    Biography

    Sociology at the University of Florida. Hernán Vera is Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida. Feagin and Vera are the coauthors of White Racism. Ikitah O. Imani is Assistant Professor of Sociology at James Madison University.

    "The Agony of Education is one of the rare and urgently needed volumes that sets out to examine some of the very arduous and complex questions..." -- Critical Sociology
    "This book deserves our praise as being a brilliant piece of sociological research." -- Social Forces
    "Indeed the book provides what some may characterize as a stinging account of the experiences of black students at white colleges and universities. However, the authors do not focus solely on only the negative aspects of the collegiate experience for black students but also offer positive accounts of their experiences to provide balance and credibility for the findings." -- Qualitative Studies in Education