As announced in Danish earlier, I've been employed at Mentiqa. It is a school with a mission to assist shortcomings in the education of 'gifted' pupils in danish public school from K to 9th grade. Beginning in 2004, two schools have now opened doors in Copenhagen and Odense. From this summer on, it also opens a school in Hadsten near Århus, where I from now on am employed.
Teaching is no research, as research is an activity residing in the societal science system, whereas teaching resides in the educational system. From this teacher-practitioner viewpoint, a lot of questions arise, both to other educators in gifted education and to scientific research.
Other teachers needs to be asked questions about 'best practice' - or at least 'good practice' in their respective subjects. It's a question formulated along the lines of "How do you do...this or that". But those questions arise only, when students already are included into the specific organisation, the specific school. It is, to follow a von Foersterian discourse, system-internal operations oriented towards maximizing the possibility of succesive operations.
These questions point towards the beginning of inclusion and exclusion. if the criteria of inclusion is the characteristic of being 'gifted', a lot of first order observations needs to be done. When is someone entitled to enter gifted educational institutions, what makes this individual special compared to everyone else not having the characteristic gifted? From what point in the individual development is giftedness identifiable and a differentiation of different forms of giftedness are to be identified and distinguished. But again using von Foerster, the very important step is the shift to second order observation. Who is observing, characterizing, defining definitions and 'setting the discourse'? In this second order observation, other questions arise and the answers frame the original first order answers, that were given. From this new observational point, values, observational concepts and 'blind spots' then define, how I ( and you?) as a practitioner use the scientific knowledge stored in the massive amount of books, recordings and other products.
When the pupils are included, questions about guidance become pressing. Do they need different guidance - or the same? And if they need the same as 'the non-gifted', what do they need? Are the different types of giftedness in the need of different guidances? The exclusion question also needs clarification, as the inclusion-procedure defines 'thought-gifted' becomes 'not-gifted-nevertheless'. When does this happen, how does this change of identification happen and what procedures manage exclusion and re-integration between the not-gifted?
Can research in gifted education from US/UK/NZ/AU be of any use in gifted education in Denmark? If so, how? If not, why?
So what it comes down to is an urgent need of second order observation, which through semantic studies analyses and places 'giftedness' as a social phenomenon in (western?) societal evolution. Such an analysis could answer the question about, what function the theme of giftedness and gifted education gives society. One possible answer, following the sociologist Niklas Luhmanns writings, is to see the emergence of giftedness as an ongoing result of societal change, where heritage becomes indifferent and possible future performances (career) of the individual becomes the crucial point. Giftedness then becomes expectation-points of society, from where to expect extraordinary performances in the future. As extraordinary performances may assist society in it's own further evolution and continuation of existence. If this is the case, identifying and taking care of potential 'gifted' does indeed have it's function in the functional differentiated society. But focusing on some individuals is a risky endeavour, as other individuals performance can more easily be overlooked.
This sketched frame does - for me - deliver the second order oberservational point, from where research on giftedness and gifted education becomes operational (and useful). Nevertheless, I have to perform education, whatever science figures out - or not.
Keywords: gifted, gifted education, Luhmann, observation, second order, von Foerster
