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

Barriers to identifying and providing for gifted and talented students from under-representedgroups. A number of barriers were mentioned and these were in relation to Mäori students,underachievers, secondary students, and students who speak English as a second language. Thoseassociated with identification of Mäori students were a lack of teacher knowledge about Mäoriconcepts and indicators of giftedness; and language, cultural and other traits and behaviours thatpotentially mask a student’s advanced abilities. Specifically mentioned were: whakamä amongstMäori; limited ability to read, write and speak in English amongst Mäori students who had transferredto mainstream schools from kura kaupapa Mäori; and Mäori students playing “the dumb down game”because they did not wish to stand out.The identification of underachieving students, and specifically boys, was also a concern. Schoolsshared concerns regarding underachieving boys “performing down” to media expectations; poor timemanagementskills and the affects of “testosterone” on adolescent, underachieving boys; and giftedsecondary school students with poor work habits and irregular attendance. Also discussed was:the student who daydreams, the able student who is a real nuisance, the students who haveemotional problems but are bright.Other students who posed problems to identification were those from socio-economicallydisadvantaged groups who it was perceived had low parental expectations and lack of role models andopportunities; secondary students falling to sleep in class as a result of having “full time” out-ofschooljobs; and students who were shy, timid and had limited English proficiency, especially those ofIndian and Asian descent.Some of the previously mentioned barriers relating to identification were also barriers when it came toproviding for gifted and talented under-represented students. In addition, teachers mentioned a lack ofschool and community personnel suitably qualified to teach te reo Mäori and kapahaka and a lack offunding to employ these people if they could be found. One coordinator explained how her school hademployed a person fluent in te reo Mäori as a teacher aide to work with 17 children. They had alsoemployed someone part-time to teach kapahaka. However both these people had left when they gainedbetter paid, full-time jobs:So one of the biggest barriers for us is being able to afford to pay somebody what theydeserve to be paid to keep them here.Two further barriers were mentioned. The first was the existence of both gifted and bilingual classes inthe same school which forced gifted Mäori children to choose between te reo Mäori and enrichment.The second was parental resistance. A teacher explained how a Mäori parent had not accepted thattheir child was gifted and had objected to the child receiving off-site gifted provisions.‘Unstated’ barriers. In the previous section all the barriers identified in the in-depth and focus groupinterviews have been outlined. However, an analysis of the data reveals a number of ‘unstated’barriers. The first barrier is narrow teacher expectation in respect to gifted and talented Mäori students.A number of teachers expected that Mäori students would excel in areas such as kapahaka but did notexpect to find any academically or intellectually gifted Mäori children. A typical comment was:If we went down the old track in gifted education and go for a bunch of IQ tests, chances ofbeing able to have cultural representation is slim.It is evident from some teachers’ comments that cultural stereotyping has implications for theirschool’s gifted and talented provisions. It was specifically stated in two schools that gifted andtalented Mäori students were being well provided for because the school had kapahaka groups andenrichment music classes, while one principal noted:246