What Makes a Quality GT Program for Gifted Students of Color that Benefits All Students?

“We need to make learning something interesting by connecting it to the student. The best thing we can do is excite their passion for learning.”

Foster, Lewis & Onafowara, 2003, p. 274 

Giftedness is found in every race, gender, and socio-economic identifier. High Ability Students of Color and Identified Gifted Students of Color deserve the opportunity to learn in safe places at the level of their intellect, skillsets and identified racial and gender identity. Yet, too many times Students of Color, in gifted programs, are subjected to curriculum, conversations or learning strategies that do not always support their learning style. This is a travesty for all students.

“Why?” you may ask. Whenever any student does not feel a sense of belonging in educational spaces due to barriers outside of his or her locus of control, it creates an incongruous environment for learning for all students. This inharmonious atmosphere presents itself in the form of a student dropping out academically, socially, emotionally or physically leaving the classroom or school setting.

Mitchell (1998), in her qualitative study of eight recently retired African American teachers, reminded us of the insight Black teachers can have in helping us understand the important connections between the affective domain and student behavior. Building on lessons learned from Black teachers, Mitchell explained that in order for teachers to establish and to maintain student motivation and engagement, they should be aware of the students’ feelings and their social needs. Furthermore, students’ feelings and emotions matter in how they experience education. Black students often bring a set of situations that have been grounded in racism, inequity, and misunderstanding (Milner, 2002). Racism and inequity can emerge not only through their daily interactions, but also through institutional and structural circumstances. Thus, the loss of creativity, intellectual genius, and productivity as a global citizen is immeasurable.

All students benefit when the classroom environment is culturally fine-tuned to address the needs of students with strategies their moms, dads, grandmas, and other community folks use to teach them life skills and basic concepts long before they come to school and during out-of-school time. (Zaretta Hammond, 2014, p. 77)

However, all is not lost if we address the situation with urgency and intentionality.

First, we start with equity, an eliminator of all barriers. Equity serves as the gateway to ensure that the needs of Black and Brown students are at the beginning of every decision made. Equity benefits all students, eliminates debates about fairness (equality), and decreases the conversations about poverty, skills, competencies, and assessments to remain focused on providing quality educational services for all.  

Next, educational systems must stress the importance of teaching learning pursuits as identified by Gholdy Muhammad (2020),  in her book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. The four learning pursuits she addresses are:

a.    Identity

b.    Intellect

c.     Skills

d.    Criticality (race)

These serve as barriers that decrease the identification, recruitment and retention of diverse gifted learners and diverse Teachers of Color in gifted education. Furthermore, schools—at all levels—must promote quality programming and insure diverse teachers are in the classroom, higher educational institutions and educational decision areas with a voice to be heard, not as a token at the table.

Finally, classroom teachers and higher educational institutions optimize learning outcomes for Students of Color to imitate students’ cultural learning styles and tools by:

·      using culturally relevant schema to organize learning;

·      creating lessons that require personal involvement, are relevant, practical and applicable to students’ lives;

·      making explicit to students what they are going to learn and how they are going to learn it; and

·      leading students toward more analytical and critical learning (Foster, Lewis, Onafowora, 2003, p. 268).

For too long Students of Color have been denied access to gifted educational programming and the quality of services they require socially, emotionally and intellectually. All children, and especially, African American children, must have their cultural attributes enriched as part of their full development. Ignacio Estrada (2021) advises:

“If students don't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”

In closing, I leave you with this question: “What will I do to make a difference for Students of Color now that I have the tools to begin?”

Author Biography

Dr. Theresa Y. Newsom holds a M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction and a Ph.D. in Special Education with an emphasis in gifted education. She is a Gifted and Talented Resource Teacher in D11 Colorado Springs Schools with a dual emphasis on children of color and the development of leadership skills in identified gifted and high ability students. Theresa founded the Black Educator’s Network and is CEO of Children with Promise Educational Services. Teacher Advisor for the Paralympic Olympic Museum project, she also serves as a SENG Model Parent Group facilitator for the school district.

References

Estrada, I. (2018). Quote. Retrieved January 3, 2021 from
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/750708-if-a-child-can-t-learn-the- way-we-teach-maybe 

Foster, M., Lewis, J., & Onafowora, L. (2003). Anthropology, culture, and research on teaching and learning: Applying what we
have learned to improve teaching practice. Teachers College Record, 105(2), 261 -277. 

Hammond, Z. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Milner, H.R. (2002). Affective and social issues among high-achieving African American students: Recommendations for teachers and teacher education. Action in Teacher Education, 24(1), 81-89.

Mitchell, A. (1998). African American teachers: Unique roles and universal lessons. Education and Urban Society, 31(1), 104-122.

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and 
Historically responsive literacy.  New York, NY: Scholastic.