ERIC Number: EJ1024435
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-3193
EISSN: N/A
The Needs of the Highly Able and the Needs of Society: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Talent Differentiation and Its Significance to Gifted Education and Issues of Societal Inequality
Persson, Roland S.
Roeper Review, v36 n1 p43-59 2014
Does gifted education affect societal inequality, and does societal inequality suppress and/or distort the development of high ability? Drawing from several academic disciplines and current political discourse, a differentiated use of terms used to describe the highly able is explored in this article. A social evolutionary framework is proposed as an explanation for such differentiation, which also sheds light on the questions of inequality, suppression, and distortion in relation to high ability. It is suggested that this differentiated use is prompted and defined by societal function rather than by current theories of high ability. The result of employing a social evolutionary perspective is that high ability as giftedness becomes largely dysfunctional and unwanted, whereas high ability as talent becomes more utilitarian and much in demand. The article concludes with a brief discussion about the possible future of gifted education in this light.
Descriptors: Academically Gifted, Social Bias, Talent Development, Social Influences, Social Attitudes, Equal Education, Student Needs, Employment Qualifications, Leadership, Business, Commercialization, Political Issues, Educational Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A