How are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Gifted Students Identified and Supported in the Classroom

Introduction

Being culturally or linguistically diverse does not disqualify a child from being gifted. However, it makes the giftedness of the child harder to identify, more so when the culturally or linguistically gifted child happens to be within the minority in the classroom, in the community within which the school is based. The diversity will, therefore, affect the process of identification of giftedness and the process of support (Kautz, 2017). Unless a special process is developed and used to identify and support culturally and linguistically diverse students, they run the risk of not being noticed as gifted and thus lose the potential they hold. This loss of potential would not only be a loss to the children themselves as well as a manifest social injustice, but also a loss to the community who would miss out on the specific contribution that these children would make in the society (Santamaria, 2009). 

The identification of gifted children in the classroom can be defined as the process that has been put in place to figure out which of the children in a specific classroom are gifted. Normally, the identification process will differ exponentially from classroom to classroom based on a variety of bearing factors. The first important factor is the system that has been put in place to enable the identification (Wright, Ford, &Young, 2017). Examples include standardized testing or teacher observation. The second bearing factor is the teacher doing the identification, mainly due to personal biases. The other bearing factor is whether or not students want to be identified as gifted. Cultural diversity is an important variable in education that can be defined as students who, based on a variety of social factors, differ from the rest of the class. Among the factors of cultural diversity include race, economic status, or ethnicity (Scott, Hauerwas, & Brown, 2014). Linguistically diverse often refers to the child’s proficiency in English, which is the standard language of use in American schools (Goings & Ford, 2018). 

Identification and support of culturally and linguistically diverse students can be divided into three main processes. The first process is the creation of the right environment of the giftedness of the student to manifest so it can be identified. The creation of the right environment falls within the purview of support (Stronge, 2018). The second main process is the actual identification of the students which relates to how the teachers or administrators pick out the students that are gifted from the rest of the students. Finally, there is the support given to the students who are identified as gifted to assist them in attaining their full potential (Stephens, 2018). Since cultural and linguistic diversities vary exponentially, several ways have been developed for the identification and support of culturally and linguistically diverse students in American schools as this research paper canvasses. 

Literature Review

Why Identification of Gifted Children is Important 

A gifted child who is either culturally or linguistically diverse may not be easily noticed as gifted, even when the child is highly gifted, according to Harris, Plucker, Rapp, and Martínez (2009). It is on this basis that a normal routine for the identification of diverse children will be detrimental to diverse students unless active measures are taken to mitigate on or minimize the impact of the diversity. A good example of diverse students is immigrant students from Mexico. The language commonly used in Mexico is Spanish, which is different from English. Contemporaneously, the impact of language difference is exacerbated by being in a foreign country, being treated as an immigrant, and struggling to adjust to the different culture in the USA (Harris et al., (2009). 

The research by Harris et al. (2009) was based on a school in an unnamed school district where elementary school students from Mexico are a small majority. It was a qualitative research design, based on a structured formal interview. On a voluntary basis, parents and children who had Mexican background were interviewed by bilingual members of the research team. Between 60 and 70 participants availed themselves for the interview but only 39 actively participated (Harris et al., 2009). The research findings were more about what the participants felt about the process than about the process itself. Further, the number of participants was exponentially low, thus limiting the credibility and reliability of the results. 

Support for the Manifestation of Giftedness 

Olszewski-Kubilius et al. (2017) make an argument for the implementation for a kind of stimulus program to enable the manifestation of giftedness among culturally and linguistically diverse students. According to the research reported in the article, the gifted diverse student in a classroom will perform at per with the average non-diverse student. Therefore, when the gifted students are being identified, even a fair and balanced selection process will place the diverse students at a disadvantage. To bridge this disadvantage, the instant article evaluated the use of the innovative Project Excite, which is designed to assist colored students to perform better in STEM subjects. The project was meant to give further training and support for poor, colored, and immigrant students. According to the research, the giftedness of the students who underwent the Project Excite manifested itself at par with that of the non-diverse students making it easier to identify and support the gifted diverse students. 

The research was based on a qualitative study based on the standardized test results of students in the Program Excite and their peers from the same institution. The researchers selected three groups, one based on Project Excite students, the second on colored and economically challenged students, and the third on affluent and white students then compared their respective results (Olszewski-Kubilius et al., 2017). The research was thus limited by a variety of secondary variable but enabled an understanding of overall trends. Limiting the research to only one year, however, did affect its overall credibility and reliability. 

The motivation for Children to be Identified as Gifted 

According to a research study reported in Pugh (2017), motivation is a critical bearing factor in the process of identification and support of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Many of the gifted student's programs for older students are based on an application-based process where students have to apply to be considered as gifted. Therefore, students who do not feel competent may not apply. Further, those students who feel that the process may not be fair enough will also not apply. African American students need the motivation to apply for gifted students program or to undergo the program (Pugh, 2017). Further, when the programs are based on processes such as a standardized test, they need some assistance when they are sitting the tests to overcome the handicap created by their diversity. 

The primary research was a combination of qualitative and quantitative research carried out over the course of three years, between 2013 and 2016, within an unnamed school district. The school district, however, has a majority colored student population with over 40% of the students being African Americans (Pugh, 2017). The researcher interviewed both students and their teachers, based in a formal standardized survey for the qualitative part of the research. The quantitative part of the research was based on the actual statistics of the total number of students in the district against those who attended the advanced placement programs. Based on a careful analysis of the research process, the analysis of results and the conclusion, it is evident that the research process made the results both credible and reliable. 

The study by Micko (2016) reflects why Indian American gifted students are more eligible for gifted programs than other culturally or linguistically diverse students. Despite the fact that Indian-Americans are diverse, they are more likely to be identified as gifted, not because different rules are applied to them by teachers but because of their own motivation as students and desire to be included in the program. The normal process of identification of gifted students require the diverse students to put in more effort to qualify. According to Micko (2016), despite the language and cultural differences that Indian-American students face, they are driven to put more effort by positive motivation and pressure from their parents, and the drive to earn the prestige of being considered gifted. Based on this research, even if the rules and systems are not adjusted to accommodate diverse students, if they get the right support to increase their motivation, they can still be identified if they are gifted. 

The researchers picked five Indian families and undertook an intense qualitative research on them. The research included informal surveys on the members of the families and also a comprehensive study on the families themselves (Micko, 2016). As the research was about family perception, the approach to the research was accurate but the limited number of families to only four, limitted the scope and by extension the credibility of the results. 

Adjusting the System to give an Edge to Diverse Students 

A research reported by Grissom and Redding (2015) however shows that the system for the selection of gifted students is still an important bearing factor for the identification and support of culturally and linguistically diverse gifted students in a classroom. According to the research, teacher discretion plays a critical role in who gets identified as gifted. Therefore, the training, abilities or biases of a teacher are critical bearing factors on whether a diverse student ends up being selected as gifted or not. Bias was noted by the researchers as an important bearing factor, meaning that in most identification processes, systems have not been put in place to mitigate the inference of personal bias by the selecting officer, mainly the teacher. 

The research was based on a quantitative study involving the evaluation of 21,260 kindergarteners in the year 1999. The study involved an evaluation of the characteristics of the teachers on the one hand and the characteristics of the students on the other. Two sets of data would be evaluated, one to determine the nature of professionals undertaking the selection with the other identifying the quantitative trends of students who are selected as gifted. A complex study formula was used to evaluate all the other factors hence enabling the ability to limit the research to the racial profile of the teacher versus that of the students. The extremely large sample and exponentially complex evaluation measures make it difficult to evaluate how the researchers came up with their conclusion. 

Discussion

Schooling is a cultural issue with different people having a varied opinion about the entire concept of formal education (Banks & Banks, 2010). Some people consider education as an important means to their future careers and vocations while others endure education as something that they have to do until they are old enough to make their own choices (Lovett, 2011). Unfortunately, many African Americans fall within the second category where education is seen as a waste of time or a rite of passage (Olszewski-Kubilius & Thompson, 2010). Gifted students under this category may not be identified without proper support. Support in this regard includes motivating the students to want to participate in the gifted programs and also motivating the students to want to work hard enough for their giftedness to manifest. 

In most schools, the process of identification of gifted students depends on the opinion and evaluation of the students by their teachers. Modern teachers operate under strenuous circumstances, more so under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) law of 2002, as expanded by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (Stephens, 2018). It is often hard for the teacher to be able to give personalized attention to diverse students even when they are in dire need of it. This is more so because the gifted child in a poor learning environment will still perform passably hence become unnoticeable yet to be identified as gifted, a student requires to be noticed (Card & Guiliano, 2016). To assist gifted children to get identified, therefore, it is necessary for them to be placed in some form of stimulus programs such as Project Excite and other similar programs. These programs will bring out the giftedness of the students and enable them to get noticed. 

Support for gifted students can also come in the form of motivation to perform better and get identified as gifted and thus admitted into the gifted class. In this regard, the proper definition of rewards would be indispensable (Ford et al., 2018). For example, among the culturally diverse communities including economically challenged African Americans and Latino communities, being a good child may be seen as a sign of weakness and excelling in school as a sign of being disconnected from the community. Such children have a warped opinion of right and wrong and may consider rewards to be punishments. Supporting them includes enabling them to understand that performing well does not make them outcasts from their peers, but creates for them an opportunity to assist their peers in the future (Ford, 2010). 

Finally, identifying gifted students and having them selected for the gifted class is only the beginning since the gifted class is a major challenge for diverse children and one that will see them require extra support. Being in the gifted class means having to spend more time in class and less time in play (Ford, Grantham, & Whiting, 2008). It also means having to compete with smarter students, getting more homework, and studying harder material. Linguistically, students are supported in a manner that enables them to overcome their language handicap (Goings & Ford, 2018). Conversely, an African American child who was already a minority in class might feel even more isolated in the gifted class and will need more social support to endure the isolation (Lovett, 2011). The teacher will need to provide counseling and moral support for the culturally diverse student in the gifted class (Ford, Grantham, & Whiting, 2008). Seeking to ensure that more diverse students make it to the gifted class would also count as support (Banks, 2015). 

Conclusion

The research above provides evidence of the different ways that culturally diverse gifted students are identified and supported. Culturally diverse students in American classes include the economically challenged and minority races. In most case, linguistically challenged students include immigrant students. There are also instances where cultural and linguistic challenges go hand in hand. For the diverse students, support normally sandwiches identification, as it happens both before and after the children are identified as different. As reflected by the research above, many teachers have to motivate African American and Latino students. Without motivation, their giftedness may never be identified as they will have an average performance. Further, academic stimulus programs have also been created to enable diverse students to perform better thus enabling their giftedness to be identified. Unfortunately, the identification process for diverse students leave a lot to be desired as special measures are not put in place to create a kind of affirmative action. However, teacher discretion creates an avenue where a committed teacher can recognize a gifted student, even when the student is struggling with diversity. Support is also necessary to mitigate the vagaries of diversity, even when students have been admitted to the gifted class. 

References

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