CAPABILITIES APPROACH
DISRUPTING GENDERED MINDSETS Why do female students tend to become less vocal as they progress through school despite success? Why do girls often steer clear of certain areas and disciplines? While myriad factors are at work, the key question is: What can schools do to address this disparity and support girls to fulfill their great promise and potential? The answer is — reimagine girls’ education. With the support of a prestigious Edward E. Ford Foundation Education Leadership Grant, Walker’s Capabilities Approach Program seeks to disrupt the gendered mindset into which girls are socialized. The capabilities approach represents the development of a constellation of skills, interwoven and foundational. The goal is functional mastery of each skill with the assumption that all girls can achieve proficiency through support and collaboration. Girls learn resilience, teamwork and the understanding of the role of failure as an intermediate stage of the learning process.
CAPABILITIES • • • • •
Fluencies: digital, financial, and rhetorical Discoveries: sustenance and sustainability International experience and paid internship Agencies: swimming, first aid and self-defense Self-selected capability: a unique fluency, experience, or agency
chosen by each student
Collectively, these capabilities allow for challenge and failure by encouraging girls to be confident and resilient, and to embrace a growth mindset. Digital Fluency
Today, the acquisition of a wide range of digital skills is necessary across all disciplines. As early as 6th grade and up through advanced courses, students are immersed in projects that require coding. Our dean of academic technology and innovation explores with students a range of digital fluency topics including creating your digital footprint, digital citizenship, and differentiated learning styles. One group already well3
