SENGinar: Code Switching and Gifted Students

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY POSTPONED. THE RESCHEDULED DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON.

To stand out, blend in, or disidentify with others: the age-old dilemma of gifted students.

How do many gifted students create safe spaces wherein they feel accepted by other groups of people? According to Tannenbaum (1984), “Some would rather underachieve and be popular than achieve honor status and receive ostracism.” What methods, procedures and approaches do gifted students use to attempt to reach their social goals? This idea has been called the Stigma of Giftedness Paradigm (Coleman, 1984), and has been continuously studied for 40 years and in multiple countries. See Coleman & Cross, 1988, Cross, Coleman & Terrhar-Yonkers, 1991; Cross, Stewart & Colman, 1994). This presentation will connect these studies with the topic of Code Switching and Gifted Students.

Historically, “code switching” is a label that has been given to the strategy of alternating between two…