First published in 1985, this book explores the ‘lived culture’ of urban black students in a community college located in a large northeastern city in the United States.

The author immersed herself in the institution she was studying for a full academic year, exploring both the direct experiences of education, and the way these experiences were worked over and through the praxis of cultural discourse. She examines in detail the messages of the school, including the ‘hidden curriculum’ and faculty perspectives, as well as the way these messages are transformed at a cultural level. The resulting work provides a major contribution to a number of debates on education and cultural and economic reproduction, as well as a leap forward in our understanding of the role schooling plays in the re-creation of race and class antagonisms.

This work will be of great interest to anyone working with minorities, particularly in the context of education.