Gifted Education for Infants and Toddlers in Aotearoa New Zealand
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Gifted education for infants and toddlers in Aotearoa New Zealand: An insight into exemplary practice _______________________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the University of Canterbury by Andrea M. Delaune University of Canterbury 2015 _____________________________________________ Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements .................................................................................. 2 Chapter One: Background and Outline of the Topic ......................... 3 Introduction .......................................................................................... 3 Main Research Question ..................................................................... 7 The subsidiary questions for the research study. .......................... 7 Research aims and objectives. ...................................................... 8 Proposed outcomes of the research. .............................................. 8 Personal Interest................................................................................... 9 Contextual Setting for the Study ....................................................... 12 Early childhood education provision in Aotearoa New Zealand. ....................................................................................... 12 Conceptions of giftedness informing educational practice and policy for gifted children in Aotearoa New Zealand. ................. 39 Conclusion and Outline of Chapters ................................................. 48 Conclusion ................................................................................... 48 Outline of chapters ...................................................................... 50 Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework ............................................... 51 Introduction ........................................................................................ 51 The Concept of Giftedness: Framed and Reframed ......................... 51 Modernism and giftedness. ......................................................... 52 Postmodernism, anti-structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, and giftedness. ................................................... 56 Giftedness and Power/Knowledge .................................................... 62 Foucault’s power/knowledge. ..................................................... 62 Foucault’s governmentality, political economy, and the neoliberal discourse. .................................................................... 65 Discourses surrounding childhood, the infant, and the toddler. 67 Discourses surrounding giftedness. ............................................ 72 Contesting discourses: Competing conceptualisations of giftedness and the infant and toddler. ......................................... 81 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 85 Chapter Three: Literature Review ...................................................... 86 Introduction ........................................................................................ 86 How the literature was sourced. .................................................. 86 Consideration of the theoretical frames of the research reviewed. ...................................................................................... 87 Presentation of the review. .......................................................... 88 Foucauldian Analyses of Giftedness and Gifted education ............. 88 Dominant discursive images of giftedness and the gifted child. 88 A gifted label. .............................................................................. 92 Literature Grounded in Other Research Paradigms .......................... 94 Dominant discursive images of giftedness and the gifted child. 95 A gifted ‘label’. ........................................................................... 98 Contesting discursive images. ................................................... 102 Promoting alternate discourse. .................................................. 105 Negotiating alternate subject positions within dominant discourse. ................................................................................... 107 Problems with governmentality of gifted education. ............... 111 Discursive images of the ‘expert’. ............................................ 112 A special needs discourse.......................................................... 115 Conclusion ....................................................................................... 116 Chapter Four: Methodology .............................................................. 119 Introduction ...................................................................................... 119 Theoretical and paradigmatical underpinnings of the research ...... 119 Validity of the design. ............................................................... 120 Theoretical underpinnings for the selection of teacher participants................................................................................. 121 Ethical Considerations ..................................................................... 123 Informed consent. ...................................................................... 124 Confidentiality/Anonymity. ...................................................... 126 Conflicts of interest. .................................................................. 127 Reporting and right of withdrawal. ........................................... 128 Modes of Inquiry ............................................................................. 129 Community questionnaire and nomination form. .................... 129 Teacher participant questionnaire. ............................................ 134 Teacher participant interviews. ................................................. 135 Participants ....................................................................................... 136 Community respondents: Online survey. ................................. 136 Teacher participants. ................................................................. 137 Analysis............................................................................................ 139 Conclusion ....................................................................................... 141 Chapter Five: Findings and Analysis 1: Discursive images of giftedness ............................................................................................... 143 Introduction ...................................................................................... 143 There is No Giftedness, All Children are ‘Confident and Competent’ ...................................................................................... 144 Tensions With the Term ‘Gifted’ .................................................... 150 Giftedness as a Label ....................................................................... 157 Giftedness as a ‘Special Need’ ........................................................ 161 Summary .......................................................................................... 169 Chapter Six: Findings and Analysis 2: A Developmental Discourse ............................................................................................... 170 Introduction ...................................................................................... 170 Contesting the Developmental Discourse ....................................... 172 Utilising Developmental Discourse to Inform Giftedness ............. 183 Contesting Comparative Development: Promoting Individuality . 187 Summary .......................................................................................... 191 Chapter Seven: Findings and Analysis 3: An Expert Discourse ... 193 Introduction ...................................................................................... 193 The Participants’ Subject Positions as an Expert ........................... 193 Rejecting being positioned as an ‘expert’. ................................ 193 ‘Expertise’ and qualifications. .................................................. 196 The participants’ subject position as an ‘expert’ and a common conception of giftedness. ........................................... 199 Qualifications, Authority and Legitimate Knowledge ................... 203 The identification of giftedness. ............................................... 203 Authority of qualified teachers. ................................................ 208 Summary .......................................................................................... 212 Chapter Eight: Findings and Analysis 4: An Economic Discourse and a Neoliberal Approach to Governance of Education .............................................................................................. 214 Introduction ...................................................................................... 214 Early Childhood Education as Privatised Social Policy: Resourcing Education for Gifted Infants and Toddlers .................. 216 Early Childhood Education as Privatised Social Policy: Teacher Qualifications and Ratios .................................................. 226 Qualifications of a teacher working with gifted infants and toddlers. ....................................................................................