4.4.2 Cancelled

The interview study with gifted children and adults from which this paper draws contributed to the critique of gifted education policy for which I received my PhD.

The purpose of the interview study was to supply the gifted perspective missing in the policy formulation process.

The wider study used the process of immanent critique as developed by Habermas and applied to policy critique by Young. The interview study used elements of the grounded theory approach developed by Glaser and Strauss and refined by Strauss and Corbin. I used semi-structured non-directive interview techniques as advocated by Mishler. I interviewed in depth twenty-two adults, eleven females and eleven males, ranging in age from 22 to 86 years, who had attended full-time gifted classes; and eight children attending a full-time gifted class. Adult interviews averaged three hours, children one hour, with subjects raising topics of their own choosing at will.

I am one of only a handful of educational researchers in the world to undertake this type of qualitative retrospective educational study with gifted adults. It yielded rare and detailed insights into the lifelong impacts of various types of education which the adults had experienced: gifted and mainstream.

It gave a great deal of unusual information about the complex interplay of school and home influences on the lives of the gifted subjects.

It identified themes of importance to the gifted, with striking commonality among respondents and particularly strong parallels between adult and child data. One of the most interesting aspects is that many of the issues which were of greatest significance to the gifted respondents have not received the same degree of attention in the literature and in gifted education, with some surprising counter-intuitive findings.

Yet they are themes of universal importance: identity and self-esteem; moral development and maturity; passion and purpose in life; relationships with family and friends; human worth and societal contribution.

Listening to the thoughts and experiences of people who are allowed to raise themes of their own choosing helps us to refocus on the issues which are of greatest importance to them.

This paper focuses on some of the most significant issues raised by both adults and children - the gifted identity, human worth and self-esteem.

Parallels are drawn between the empirically derived categorisations and their interrelationships, and the work of theorists including Habermas, Dewey and MacIntyre.

The universal nature of the themes is compatible with an international focus.

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