Session Information
23 SES 07 B, Policies & Politics of Exclusion and Inclusion (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 23 SES 08 B
Contribution
Reforms in education policies are widely aimed at inclusion of different groups, at raising standards generally, but also at catering for the needs of those considered particularly talented. In Denmark the latter has come about as an explicit policy objective since 2011, when a government-requested report on talent development in the educational system was published. Its recommendations include an enhancement of teachers’ competences in terms of ‘upward differentiation’ and that teachers should work actively to ‘spot and develop students with special learning potentials’ (Ministry of Education, 2011).
This can be seen in relation to political interest in attending to excellence in education on a global scale (OECD, 2009). In some ways related to this trend, the area of excellence, elites, and privilege, has also appeared as a new, or re-emerging, research agenda (van Zanten, 2015; Maxwell, 2015; Ball, 2015).
While some countries (such as the U.S. and Australia) have had special policies and provisions aimed at the so-called gifted and talented for years, this is a more recent phenomenon in European countries in which there are strong traditions for a comprehensive school. But since the turn of the century there has been an increased educational focus on the segregation of supposed, higher ability students, which is seen in for instance the setting up of programs for the ‘gifted and talented’ to attend summer schools, take more extra-curricular activities and study for ‘world class tests’ (Tomlinson, 2005, p. 125). It is alleged that if Europe’s economic lead, with its associated prosperity, is to be maintained, this should come about by the fostering of top talent (De Boer et al. 2013). Large-scale testing and international comparison of educational performance are manifestation of this political interest in excellence; setting up special programs for the gifted and talented is another. It is the latter that is the focus of this paper.
Explanations for moving from egalitarian projects of schooling towards more elite oriented strategies seem to be centred on an increasingly hegemonic view that in a world of global economic competitiveness every national economy needs high levels of knowledge and skills, with access to these being rationed to those regarded as best able to benefit (Tomlinson, 2008). Embracing the culture of the new capitalism, there is an individualizing of success and failure and claims that successful economies can only function if higher ability, gifted and talented persons are identified and differentially educated (Sennett, 2006). There is an attempt to construct a group – the so-called ‘gifted and talented’ – as someone outstanding who is not fitting in (e.g. Merrotsy, 2015). The phenomenon has also been seen as an adherence to IQism’s ideas about fixed intelligence, and as an attempt of identifying an intellectual elite and making educational provision for them (Ball, 2008).
In our paper we explore the underlying assumptions about excellence in education as expressed in policy documents and curricular provisions focused on the ‘gifted and talented’. The focusing on such policies has two aims; the first aim is to understand what term of educational excellence this policy implies, and the second aim is to analyse the target group of ‘gifted and talented’ – what means of identification and development are involved? And, in relation to elite and privilege, who are they?
Departing in a global orientation towards excellence in education, national practices of ‘gifted and talented’ policies also remain national and localised, reflecting and affecting differing dispositions (Lingard et al, 2005). Thus the analysis is drawing on the relational approach of Bourdieu and on extended versions of Bourdieu’s concepts of field (ibid.) and capital (Lareau, 2011).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ball, S. J. (2008). The Education Debate. Bristol: the Policy Press. Ball, S. J. (2015). Elites, Education, and Identity: An Emerging Research Agenda. In: van Zanten and Ball, S. J. with Darchy-Koechlin, B. (ed.). World Yearbook of Education 2015. London and New York: Routledge, De Boer, G. C., Minnaert, A. E. M. G. and Kampphof, G. (2013). Gifted Education in the Netherlands. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 36 (1), 133-150. Lareau, A. (2000). Home Advantage. 2nd edition, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Lingard, B., Rawolle, S. and Taylor, S. (2005).Globalising policy sociology in education: working with Bourdieu. Journal of Education Policy, vol. 20, no. 6, Nov. 2005, 759-777. Maxwell, C. (2015). Elites: Some Questions for a New Research Agenda. In: van Zanten and Ball, S. J. with Darchy-Koechlin, B. (ed.). World Yearbook of Education 2015. London and New York: Routledge, 15-28. Merrotsy, P. (2015). Supporting outstanding learners. In: Education for Inclusion and Diversity 5, ed. A. Ashman. Melbourne: Pearson Australia, 233-264. Ministry of Education (2011, April). Talentudvikling, evaluering og strategi [Talent development, evaluation, and strategy]. Copenhagen: Committee on Talent Development in Danish Education. Nissen, P., Kyed, O., & Baltzer, K. (2011). Talent i skolen – identifikation, undervisning og udvikling [Talent in school – identification, education, and development]. Frederikshavn: Dafolo. OECD (2009).Education at a glance. OECD Indicators. www.oecd.org/edu/eag2009 Rasmussen, A. and Moos, L. (2014). A school for less than all in Denmark. In: U. Blossing, G. Imsen and L. Moos (eds.). The Nordic Education Model. ‘A School for All’ Encounters Neo-Liberal Policy. Springer Schience + Business Media Dordrecht 2014, 57-75. Rizvi, F. and Lingard, B. (2010). Globalising Education Policy. London and New York: Routledge. Sennett, R. (2006).Den ny kapitalismes kultur [The Culture of the New Capitalism]. Viborg: Forlaget Hovedland. Tomlinson, S. (2005). Education in a post-welfare society. Second ed. Open University Press. Tomlinson, S. (2008). Gifted, talented and high ability: selection for education in a one-dimensional world. Oxford Review of Education, vol. 34, nor. 1, February 2008, 59-74. Van Zanten, A. (2015). Educating Elites: The Changing Dynamics and Meanings of Privilege and Power. In: van Zanten and Ball, S. J. with Darchy-Koechlin, B. (ed.). World Yearbook of Education 2015. London and New York: Routledge, 3-12.
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