Favouring of Gifted Pupils by Elementary Teachers: A Labelling Theory Perspective

Authors

Eva Klimecká, Tomas Bata University in ZlinFollow

Abstract

Improving the quality of care for gifted pupils also brings problems related to their favouring. Favouring, as a part of the labeling theory, leads to the selection of gifted and stagnation in their development, making it one of the risk factors. This study identifies and analyses pedagogical situations leading to favouring of gifted pupils. The qualitative research is conducted in the elementary schools in the Czech Republic (Central Europe). Data are obtained through observation of school lessons and from interviews with teachers and were subsequently analysed by the situational analysis. The study has found five typical situations, such as teachers’ increased expectations of gifted pupils, privileges only for gifted pupils, gifted pupil as the teacher’s assistant, additional tasks only for gifted pupils, and gifted pupil as the captain of group work. We also detect typical features leading to favouring as a privilege, representation, performance, segregation, lack of purpose, and rigidity. The study draws attention to the existence of high-quality formalized care for the gifted (anchoring care in school legislation), for which school practice is not sufficiently prepared.

Keywords

gifted pupil, favouring, labeling theory, situations leading to favouring, situational analysis

Author Bio(s)

Mgr. Eva Klimecká, Ph.D. is a pedagogue and research fellow at the Research Centre of the Faculty of Humanities, Thomas Bata University in Zlin, where she carries out research in the field of gifted education. She also works as the Giftedness Support Coordinator of Zlin Region, which is a position managed by The National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic. She is an active member of ECHA – European Council for High Ability. She is the author of two monographs and several articles on gifted education (see ORCid 0000-0001-8732-0231, h-index WoS = 4). Correspondence author: Research Centre of Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Štefánikova 5760, 76001 Zlín, The Czech Republic. Email: klimecka@utb.cz.

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2024.5292

Recommended APA Citation

Klimecká, E. (2024). Favouring of Gifted Pupils by Elementary Teachers: A Labelling Theory Perspective. The Qualitative Report, 29(1), 50-67. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2024.5292

ORCID ID

0000-0001-8732-0231

ResearcherID

H-3424-2015