Gifts Rescinded: The Impact of Losing the Gifted Label due to Relocation

Abstract High student mobility in some populations, coupled with an ever evolving and inconsistent conception of giftedness, has led to increasing numbers of students being labeled gifted in one location only to have that label taken away in another. This work examines the impact of gaining and losing the gifted label due to relocation on students’ understanding of the their own identify as related to their understanding of their own intelligence, social interactions, and the development of their academic self-concept. The study was conducted as a collective of qualitative case studies utilizing narrative inquiry to elicit the participants lived experiences as students whose gifted status was rescinded due to a parent’s military relocation. The data collected was analyzed using a thematic analysis method, as the analysis structured around the intersections of Foucault’s (1988) technologies as a theoretical framework. This study shows that students believe they can earn the gifted label through hard work and effort, that social connections are built and maintained around the shared interests and values encouraged by the gifted label, and that academic performance is more strongly influenced by instruction and other school factors than gifted identification. The implications of these finding reveal the ways in which students work to exert power or control over the bestowment of the gifted label, power or control over the composition of social peer groups, and acknowledgement of whether the gifted label affords them educational opportunities.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Hilt, Robyn

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mann, Bryan

• Gifted education
• Education policy
• Foucault
• labeling
• military student
• mobility

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:18187

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39061