The phenomenon of social coping among students with gifts and talents (SWGT) is not well understood. In interviews with elementary-, middle-, and high-school aged SWGT (N = 90; 50% female) from the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Ireland, and France, the universality of awareness of visibility of their exceptional abilities, high expectations and pressure to achieve from adults and peers, and peer jealousy and rejection, was confirmed. In all countries, SWGT were concerned about peers' upward social comparison and the effects of their outperformance on peers' feelings. SWGT attempted to hide their abilities or conform to peers' behaviors. Prosocial helping behaviors were found among SWGT in nearly all age groups and a focus on the self was a useful coping strategy to students in all countries except France. Parallels are drawn between these findings and Goffman's (1963) stigma theory.

Drawing on a variety of research domains and traditions, this article presents a contemporary and evidence-led model for understanding the development of gifts and talents. In so doing and arguing largely -but not exclusively -from within the stance of social-constructivism, it is suggested that accounts of gift-development that emphasise the role of innate capacities lead frequently to tired debates around identification, labelling and resourcing, and away from the more vital discourses around gifted provision and gift-creation. The implications for classroom practice deriving from traditional and emerging ontological and epistemological conceptualisations of giftedness are presented.

No abstract

No abstract

Coo p e r a tio n, c o nflic t a n d c o n t r ol: p a r e n t-t e a c h e r r el a tio n s hi p s in a n E n glis h s e c o n d a ry s c h o ol. E d u c a tio n al R evi ew, 7 0 (4). p p. 5 1 0-5 2 6. Do w nlo a d e d fro m: h t t p://i n si g h t. c u m b ri a. a c. u k/i d/ e p ri n t/ 3 5 0 1/ U s a g e o f a n y i t e m s f r o m t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f C u m b r i a' s i n s t i t u t i o n a l r e p o s i t o r y 'I n s i g h t' m u s t c o n f o r m t o t h e f o l l o w i n g f a i r u s a g e g u i d e l i n e s .