There is a general agreement on the need to use multiple criteria to identify gifted students (Baldwin, 2005; Erwin & Worrell, 2012; Hernández-Torrano, Prieto, Ferrándiz, Bermejo, & Sáinz, 2013). Among these criteria, teacher nominations are frequently used as a formal part of the identification process or to create a screening pool of students to be further evaluated by means of IQ tests or other performance-based tests. However, the role of teachers in the identification of gifted students has also been widely questioned. A major concern in this regard is that some characteristics of students may significantly influence teachers when nominating students to participate in gifted programs or to receive special services (e.g., Bianco, Harris, Garrison-Wade, & Leech, 2011; McBee, 2006).

Overall, there is empirical evidence that gender has a significant influence on teachers’ nominations of gifted children and adolescence. In particular, teachers tend to nominate boys more often than girls for gifted programs and schools (Bianco et al., 2011; Endepohls-Ulpe & Ruf, 2006; Lee 2002). Teachers also seem to have difficulty recognizing the attributes, characteristics and talents of culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse groups and tend to nominate more frequently students who belong to the cultural, linguistic and ethnic dominant group (e.g., McBee, 2006; Moon & Brighton, 2008). In addition, the research literature shows that the students’ low socioeconomic background influences to a certain degree teachers’ attitudes and decisions to nominate students for gifted programs (Carman, 2011; Elhoweris, 2008; Frasier et al., 1995; Moon and Brighton, 2008).

The present study assumes that the term giftedness is a concept socially constructed by humans to describe certain individuals who have the potential to or actually outperform in some domains that are highly valued by their cultural group, and therefore, what constitutes giftedness may vary by society (Pfeiffer, 2012, p. 4).

Thus, despite the relative large body of research in western countries on teacher conceptions of giftedness and the characteristics that teachers think “make a child gifted", little is known about this topic in other regions of the world. A growing number of studies have examined the conceptions that Asian people hold about giftedness during the last decade. Most of these studies have focused on peoples from East Asian countries such as China (Chan, 2002, 2008, 2009), Japan (Matsumura, 2007; Shibata & Forbes, 2009), and Korea (Kim, Shim, & Hull, 2009; Lee, Cramond, & Lee, 2004; Yang, Gentry, & Choi, 2012). Also some researchers have explored this issue in Southern Asia (e.g., Sharma, 2012) and Southeastern Asia (Anuruthwong, 2007; Neirat & Teo, 2013; Phillipson, 2007; Wong-Fernandez & Bustos-Orosa, 2007) regions. However, no studies on the conceptions of giftedness in Central Asia have been conducted to date.

Conceptions of giftedness in Central Asian countries (i.e., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) are relevant internationally due their geostrategic location and the political and social changes occurring since their independence from the Soviet Union. The case of Kazakhstan is particularly relevant for several reasons. First, Kazakhstan is the largest economy in the region. Second, the country is currently involved in a deep process of modernization of its education system to satisfy the demands of a knowledge-based economy combining the advantages of the national education system and the best of international research and education practices. And third, Kazakhstan has placed gifted education as a vehicle for improving the competitiveness of education, developing national human capital, and reforming society (see Yakavets, 2013).

This experimental research study aimed to identify whether certain demographic characteristics of students (i.e., gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) influence teachers in referring secondary education students for gifted programs and schools in Kazakhstan.

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