A qualitative analysis of the attitudes of selected secondary administrators toward gifted education programming
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of secondary school principals toward gifted education programs in their respective schools. The study was impelled by observed variations in school district reports that summarized the secondary school programs offered to students in each of 200 Indiana school districts that received gifted and talented education grants. The study examined the comments of secondary school principals in nine transcribed interviews. The principals were randomly selected from two Indiana counties. The respondents also represented three equal strata that included urban, suburban and rural school districts. The interviews were conducted under an open-ended, semi-structured interview protocol that examined each principal's perception of the school's demographics and academic climate; background, training, leadership style and educational philosophy; role in the processes of curriculum development and supervision within the school; and specific knowledge of gifted education goals, objectives, and program models. The data were analyzed though a coding system that was derived by inductive generalization. They were arrayed in a matrix that permitted cross-site analysis. The reliability of this coding was independently corroborated by persons who were not involved in the inductive analysis of the data. An examination of the results of this analysis led to the conclusions that the principals interviewed had weakly formed notions of gifted education programs for secondary students. Additionally, while the principals were able to use some of the language associated with gifted education literature, they had little understanding of the concepts represented by that language. They also experienced difficulty in discriminating between the terms "gifted and talented" and "high ability," and saw little difference between traditional honors programs and gifted education. Finally, the principals were largely untrained in gifted education and had not investigated the existing state regulations governing gifted and talented education, despite the fact their school districts received state funds that required the development of an articulated K-12 curriculum for gifted and talented students.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Shermis, Purdue University.
Subject Area
School administration|Curricula|Teaching|Educational theory
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