African American Persisters: Business School Climate and Interactions With Faculty at a Predominantly White Institution

• In Event: Student-Faculty Engagement and Interactions

Abstract

In higher education, African American students are highly concentrated in lower-paying college majors and are underrepresented in high-paying majors, including business. With the scarcity of research on African American students in a business discipline, there remains the necessity of understanding the academic success and persistence issues they encounter. Gaining a better understanding of their experiences and perceptions is vitally important for institutional agents and scholars.

Using a phenomenological research method, the researcher listened to the stories of ten African American students in the business school at Southeastern University (SEU), while focusing on their experiences and perceptions of interactions with business faculty members. In addition, the researcher aimed to identify how these interactions impact academic success and persistence to graduation.

Authors

• Monica E. Allen, Grand Valley State University

• Sandra L. Dika, University of North Carolina - Charlotte