Gifts, talents and meritocracy

Radnor, Hilary; Koshy, Valsa; Taylor, Alexis

doi:10.1080/02680930701269186

Cited by 28 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The reliability of the figures becomes difficult to ascertain when the form may have been completed in a variety of ways. Even when there is a supposedly more systematic approach to identifying this cohort such as the Register in England the gathering of accurate data remains fraught with difficulty (Radnor, Koshy, & Taylor, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pogled onkraj statistike: razlogi za razhajanje med zakonodajo, politiko in prakso v zadovoljevanju potreb visoko sposobnih škotskih učencev

Stack¹,

Sutherland²

2014

psio

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Abstract:The question of how best to identify and provide for gifted students has a long and contentious history internationally. In contrast to other countries where there are specialist programmes and in some cases specialist teachers for gifted pupils, Scotland has chosen to adopt an inclusive approach to provision for these students and has created a legislative and curricular framework that in theory provides a strong structure for meeting their educational and developmental needs. While there are significant benefits to this approach, care must be taken to ensure that within the space between intention and practice the needs of these learners have been explicitly identified, considered and met. Each year the Scottish Government conducts a census to collect data from all publically funded schools in Scotland. In accordance with Scottish legislation as part of this process it gathers data pertaining to pupils identified as requiring additional support for their learning, including highly able pupils. However there are anomalies within this data, for example, there are unusual and unexplained discrepancies between the proportions of pupils identified as being highly able in different geographical contexts. The purpose of the present study was therefore to examine the potential causes for these anomalies and to assess the implications for the identification of, and provision for, highly able pupils in Scotland. Thirteen structured telephone interviews were conducted with Local Education Authority personnel across Scotland. These interviews aimed to get behind the statistics and examine how highly able pupils are identified, and provided for, in practice. Several interesting issues emerged from the interviews that may begin to help to explain the anomalies and to help us better understand everyday practice. The results, while encouraging, suggest that there is a need for teachers, educational psychologists, schools and authorities to ensure that the needs of this group of learners are explicitly considered. Keywords: Scottish Schools Census Data, gifted, education, inclusionPogled onkraj statistike: razlogi za razhajanje med zakonodajo, politiko in prakso v zadovoljevanju potreb visoko sposobnih škotskih učencev Niamh Stack in Margaret Sutherland School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK Povzetek: Razprava o tem, kako najbolje prepoznavati nadarjene učence ter z njimi delati, ima v mednarodnem prostoru dolgo in bogato zgodovino. V nasprotju z državami, v katerih izvajajo posebne programe in imajo tudi posebne učitelje za nadarjene učence, se je Škotska odločila za inkluzivni pristop do obravnave nadarjenih učencev; razvila je zakonski in kurikularni okvir, ki izhaja iz teoretskih spoznanj o izobraževalnih in razvojnih potrebah visoko sposobnih učencev. Kljub splošnim prednostim tega pristopa pa je treba pozornost nameniti temu, da so potrebe teh učencev dejansko prepoznane, obravnavane in uresničene. Škotska vlada zato vsako leto zbere podatke javnih šol. Ti podatki se v skladu z škotsko zakonodajo nanaša...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pogled onkraj statistike: razlogi za razhajanje med zakonodajo, politiko in prakso v zadovoljevanju potreb visoko sposobnih škotskih učencev

Stack¹,

Sutherland²

2014

psio

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“…This can be seen as a case of 'discursive conflation' (Gillies, 2009). By conflating two discourses one serves to mask the other; here, the economic agenda comes in the guise of rhetoric about equality of opportunity and meritocracy (see also Radnor et al, 2007).…”

Section: Promoting Meritocracy and Social Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Deconstructing ‘Aspiration’: UK Policy Debates and European Policy Trends

Spohrer

2011

European Educational Research Journal

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Strategies of 'employability' and 'activation' are increasingly favoured in the European Union policy context. These strategies are aimed at fostering inclusion by stressing the responsibility of the individual to participate in education and employment. Similar tendencies can be observed in the United Kingdom (UK) over the last decade, among them a debate on raising young people's aspirations. The article reports first findings from a research project on the construction of 'aspiration' in and through policy debates in the United Kingdom. Drawing on Michel Foucault's concepts of Archaeology and Genealogy, policy documents were analysed for the discursive strategies they employ. The analysis suggests that the debate on 'aspiration' constructs young people from disadvantaged backgrounds as deficient, conflates economic and social equality discourses and individualises structural problems. These discursive strategies mirror tendencies that can be observed in strategies of activation and employability in the United Kingdom and the European Union. Focusing on 'aspiration' can be regarded as a way to prepare young people for the responsibility to actively pursue labour market participation at an even earlier stage.

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“…From a policy perspective, the selection of and provision for the gifted and talented from the inner-city schools is at the heart of Tony Blair's (then Labour Prime Minister) vision of a meritocratic society (Radnor et al, 2007) which concentrates on the investment in cognitive ability. Many studies in the past decade have highlighted that although there has been an increase in the number of University places in the UK, this increase is mainly due to an increase in the middle classes often 'colonizing' the entry routes (Archer, 2000;Davies, 1995).…”

Section: Perspectives and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunities and Challenges of Working with Gifted and Talented Students in an Urban Context: A University-Based Intervention Program

Casey¹,

Smith²,

Koshy³

2011

Gifted Child Today

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The widespread suppression of talent within areas of relative deprivation, by a variety of social and economic factors, casts a long-term shadow over a nation's development. Our intervention programme, operating within a government educational initiative of the United Kingdom, has enabled us to embark on an expedition of discovery of suppressed talent.During an interview two years after attending a four year-multi-faceted intervention programme, at our University, 18-year old Joseph talked of how he felt about being selected for the programme:'People go on about our school being in a slum area, going nowhere, but to be chosen for a University programme at the age of 12 was inspirational'. In its 7 th year, 300 students have so far completed the programme. After having celebrated its success at a national conference attended by Mrs Sarah Brown (the UK PrimeMinster's wife) and the Schools Minister Lord Andrew Adonis, the programme team shares their experiences in this paper.

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Gifts, talents and meritocracy

Cited by 28 publications

References 9 publications

Pogled onkraj statistike: razlogi za razhajanje med zakonodajo, politiko in prakso v zadovoljevanju potreb visoko sposobnih škotskih učencev

Pogled onkraj statistike: razlogi za razhajanje med zakonodajo, politiko in prakso v zadovoljevanju potreb visoko sposobnih škotskih učencev

Deconstructing ‘Aspiration’: UK Policy Debates and European Policy Trends

Opportunities and Challenges of Working with Gifted and Talented Students in an Urban Context: A University-Based Intervention Program

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