Foreword

Michelle Frazier Trotman Scott (Associate Professor of Special Education, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, USA) Dr.

Gifted Children of Color Around the World: Diverse Needs, Exemplary Practices, and Directions for the Future

ISBN: 978-1-78560-119-4, eISBN: 978-1-78560-118-7

ISSN: 2051-2317

Publication date: 8 July 2016

Citation

Trotman Scott, M.F. (2016), "Foreword", Gifted Children of Color Around the World: Diverse Needs, Exemplary Practices, and Directions for the Future (Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education, Vol. 3), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. xiii-xiv. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-231720160000003018

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited


From a critical global perspective, the two editors, Drs. Joy Lawson Davis and James L. Moore III, identified an outstanding cadre of authors for this volume, Gifted Students of Color: Global Issues, Exemplary Practices, and Directions for the Future. The authors presented compelling stories, identified areas of strengths and concerns across international educational systems, and provided research-based suggestions to increase the representation of culturally diverse students in gifted and talented programs. The authors also illustrated some of the many barriers that often limit the participation of different student populations in gifted and talented programs. Generally speaking, the edited volume highlighted both the similarities and differences that school systems face with diversifying gifted and talented programs across the globe.

From various perspectives, it is apparent that many student populations are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs and are not benefiting from the educational opportunities commonly offered through gifted and talented programs. Many of the chapters pinpointed the structural problems commonly found in gifted and talented programs in the United States and abroad, while raising many important social justice questions. Additionally, several of the chapters confronted the dominant narrative that is frequently perpetuated in schools and communities about these students’ capability for gifted and talented services.

As many of us already know, a significant number of educators are not adequately prepared to teach students from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is also important to note that too many of these students are being assessed for gifted and talented services with culturally biased assessments. As a gifted and talented scholar and mother of a gifted and talented daughter, I often think about the students who have been left behind and who are not performing at the level in which they are capable. In the same manner, I think about the students who successfully were admitted to advanced or gifted and talented programs but are not driven to excel, thus underachieving or low achieving, because they do not want to be identified and placed in a learning environment where there is insufficient number of students with similar cultural backgrounds. These students, sometimes, struggle with feelings of loneliness and finding a sense of belonging, when they do not have peers to connect with, have teachers who are culturally competent, and have positive books and curriculum reflective of their social and cultural experience.

This edited volume is a valuable resource for school administrators and teacher preparation professionals. It offers useful information and practical approaches for helping education professionals become more culturally aware and culturally responsive. For example, teachers are able to use this text to become more familiar with strategies that may be used to meet the needs of culturally or racially different students from themselves. The edited volume also offers education professionals the opportunity to expand their knowledge about appropriate culturally relevant assessments, identification practices, and retention strategies in gifted and talented programs. Additionally, it provides pre-service teachers and administrators with important information that could be used once they enter into an academic realm to reduce underrepresentation of diverse students in gifted education programs.

In closing, Drs. Davis and Moore recruited an exceptional group of contributors who effectively present evidence-based strategies and compelling personal narratives that engage the readership on global issues, provide it with a comprehensive description of exemplary practices, and give it concrete directions for the future so that those who love, cherish, value, and support gifted students of color can feel empowered to do so. Therefore, I highly recommend this text to education and non-education communities, who are interested in diversity and inclusion topics in advanced or gifted and talented programs.