Date of Award
2024
Type
Dissertation
Major
Doctor of Education
Degree Type
Doctor of Education In Curriculum and Leadership
Department
Teacher Education
First Advisor
Andrea Dawn Frazier, PhD
Second Advisor
Parul Acharya, PhD
Third Advisor
Basil Conway, PhD
Abstract
Gifted students from minority backgrounds, including low SES, African American and Latinx students, are underrepresented in gifted education, specifically high school Advanced Placement (AP) programs. Despite national legislation and guidance, the federal government allows individual states, including Georgia, to create their own gifted policies and delegate implementation to individual districts. Georgia, like many other states, continues to show inequity in gifted education for minority students and deficiencies in gifted instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of inequity in gifted education for high school students in Georgia through a generic qualitative research design that analyzed AP teachers’ perceptions of gifted educational practices. The study took place in two West Georgia school districts where teacher perceptions of high school gifted education and Gagné’s environmental catalysts was gathered. Legislation and Gagné’s environmental catalysts from his Model of Giftedness were used to create interview questions for a generic qualitative study with 8 AP teachers via Zoom. This study filled gaps in the literature on teacher perceptions of efficacy in the use of AP coursework as gifted instruction as designated by Georgia state legislation. The study revealed information on the major themes of milieu, persons, provisions and events that revealed AP teachers perceived AP classes as an inadequate gifted education option. Gagné’s framework helped focus on the themes of environmental catalysts to analyze implications for students underrepresented in the gifted education, revealing that teachers perceived impenetrable barriers between home and school in the themes of persons and milieu, with a lack of equality in adequate gifted opportunities for high school students from low socioeconomic African American and Latinx backgrounds.
Recommended Citation
Atkinson, Rebekah Annette, "Advanced Placement Teachers’ Perspectives on Effectiveness of Georgia Gifted Legislation: A Generic Qualitative Study" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 538.
https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations/538
