Intersections of Social Justice and Giftedness in Education

There is significant concern that gifted education represents an injustice, which reduces support for gifted students. This study investigated the intersection between giftedness and social justice, within mathematics education. Two research methods were used: (1) mapping dissertations and theses in Brazil, analyzed with Discursive Textual Analysis, and (2) a questionnaire exploring the beliefs and attitudes of mathematics teachers regarding giftedness and pedagogical approaches for gifted students. It revealed that teachers are indeed very concerned about justice; however, justice is little explored in the literature involving giftedness and math education. Although teachers provide differentiation for students with other special needs, few make adjustments and provide enrichment or differentiation for gifted students. Furthermore, there is a large discrepancy between the percentage of gifted people teachers believe exist and the percentage of gifted students they have taught, which suggests a bias in the way teachers view gifted students and giftedness.