Faye Allard may be from London, but her British accent gives her an unusual advantage in West Philadelphia.
Yesterday night, Allard gave a talk about her dissertation, titled "Mind the Gap," as part of the Philomathean Society's weekly lecture series.
For her recent in-depth study on the disparity between black male and female academic achievement in Philadelphia, Allard spent the majority of a year with students in West Philadelphia, following them from their classes to their neighborhoods, and even on excursions to the mall.
While such an immersion might have been difficult for others of her profession, her accent helped her to settle in more seamlessly.
"My accent trumped my whiteness," she said.
Allard is an ethnographer, which is essentially an anthropologist specializing in culture. Recently, she did an in-depth study on the
Of her work in analzying gender disparity, she said, "It all started when I attended the high-school graduation. I thought to myself, 'Where are the boys?'" The graduates, she explained, were overwhelmingly female.
According to Allard, the chances of a West Philadelphia high-school student graduating high school in four years is just under 50 percent, and African American males make up a large majority of the other 50 percent who do not graduate.
Through her research, Allard formed a hypothesis that may explain the main causes for such gender disparity.
While many African American girls are introduced to supportive social networks by their mothers, African American males' main influences are often their peers.
"When I talked to mothers, they would say, 'My son's a man, he'll survive,'" she said.
Allard said to change the circumstances, the government needs to end the disparity in funding between public schools in neighborhoods with different levels of financial income. She added that "there needs to be more stable, service-based jobs for young black men."
"This lecture stood out in our series because it grapples with issues around us," said former Daily Pennsylvanian reporter Kojo Minta, a College senior and Second Censor of the Philomathean Society. He explained that the research directly challenges incidents such as the arrests made earlier this week outside Strikes.
Blanchard Diavua, a College senior and director of Penn's Community School Student Partnerships, said, "Penn students need to work in Philadelphia schools and engage with the kids - while they can't change the dropout rate on their own, they can inspire a few students to exceed expectations."
