Is gifted education a necessary ingredient in creating a level playing field for Indigenous children in education?

Abstract

The generally below average academic outcomes for Indigenous children in Australian schools is well documented. In recent years substantial monies have been provided to help reverse this trend, with little effect. What has this to do with gifted education? The fact is that academically gifted Indigenous children have been a major part of the overall academic underachievement of Indigenous children. Gifted Indigenous children have been grossly under-represented in programs for the gifted (Braggett, 1985; Chaffey, 2002; Taylor, 1998) while evidence is emerging that the gifted cohort are underachieving to a far greater degree than the rest of the Indigenous population. This trend is also reflected in a sample of Canadian Indigenous children (Chaffey, McCluskey, &Halliwell, 2005).