The Extent, Nature and Effectiveness of Planned Approaches in ...

7. Measures to ensure identification of and provisions for potentially under-represented groupsof gifted and talented students;8. Evaluation methods and procedures; and9. Advice for schools.The lead interviewer conducted the initial analysis, linking the transcribed text to codes for each ofthese pre-ordinate themes, and then to emerging sub-themes. These were checked by and discussedwith the second research team member. To preserve the anonymity of each school, though eachschool’s profile and journey are presented individually, the themes arising from the ten case studieswere then merged across the pre-ordinate themes, with emergent themes determined as those repeatedwithin or across interviews. The participating schools were asked to check the profiles and journeysfor accuracy.Limitations. It is important that the results of the case studies be read against the backdrop of potentiallimitations. Firstly, the timeframe and resources allocated for this research project limited the sampleto ten schools across the country. Therefore, it is difficult, in fact inadvisable, to generalise thefindings to other schools in New Zealand. The time and resource constraints also limited the study inits methodology, and therefore only descriptive data are reported. This is not a study of theeffectiveness of these provisions, nor of the ten participating schools; rather, it is hoped that theexperiences of these schools will be of benefit and value to other schools in New Zealand. Secondly,though every effort was made to include a range of different schools, with a variety of provisions forgifted and talented students, these decisions were made based primarily upon self-reported responsesto a close-ended questionnaire. Therefore, as the results will demonstrate, whilst many of the schoolsreported comprehensive schoolwide identification and programmes, in reality a different picturesometimes emerged. Again, the purpose in these case studies is to provide insight into the ‘promising’ways in which New Zealand schools might identify and provide for gifted and talented students, not toplace these schools on a pillar as exemplary or the best. Finally, while every effort has been made toensure that the analysis was objective and the results presented are valid, the potential limitations ofqualitative methodologies apply to this research.Case Study FindingsThis section reports the findings of the case study investigations. It begins by outlining the sample ofschools to provide an understanding of the nature of each school and its identification and provisions.A profile of each school and description of the school’s development and implementation is provided.This is followed by discussion of the pre-ordinate and emerging themes.THE CASE STUDY SCHOOLSTo preserve the anonymity of the schools, each school is coded A to J. The demographic informationabout each of the ten schools is shown in Table 35. As it shows, the sample included three full primaryschools, four contributing primary schools, one intermediate school, and two secondary schools. Theseschools were located in the Auckland (1), Bay of Plenty (3), Canterbury (1), Gisborne (1),Marlborough (1), Northland (1), and Wellington (2) regions. They represent a range of deciles,although no decile 1 or 2 schools were available; cultural and ethnic make-up; sizes; and promisingpractices. None of the ten case study schools are categorised by the Ministry of Education as ruralschools.201