It was extraordinary watching students who were quiet and reticent in class, engage in an Elders program in their home language and become involved, vocal and confident." "Some activities and opportunities for development are also gendered or must follow family lines. "Like many Aboriginal groups, Yolngu people have a very top-down knowledge system knowledge is a privilege that Elders provide to certain people at certain times, so young people are often discouraged from asking probing questions," Genevieve says. These indicators all support their foundation law and cultural continuation they are fundamental to who they are as a people."Įqually, traditional western indicators of giftedness - like asking probing, high-order questions and a capacity for abstract thinking - may not be considered culturally appropriate. "Elders came up with a number of indicators of giftedness - from didgeridoo playing and hunting and gathering, to a person's capacity for language and understanding of cultural knowledge. "For Yolngu people, gifts, talents and talent development are deeply entwined with foundation law (Djalkirri Rom)," Genevieve says. Instead, Genevieve enlisted the guidance of Yolngu elders, the school's teachers and educational consultant Miriam Dhurrkay to develop a culturally informed talent identification model that went far beyond the narrow western definition. "We were not leaning into their funds of knowledge and what cultural gifts they were bringing to school." "I realised that what we were determining was appropriate ‘talent development’ wasn't necessarily appropriate for Yolngu students," she says. However, her own learning was soon turned on its head. When she began her study in 2017, she thought success would be measured by an increase in the number of Aboriginal students in the school's gifted program. In a school setting, Genevieve was most concerned with intellectual giftedness, due to its relationship to academic performance. Gifted learners have specific needs and, ideally, lessons and activities are customised to develop their gifts. Most Australian schools have adopted the Gagnés Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talents, which suggests that natural abilities or aptitudes occur in one or more domains: intellectual, creative, social, perceptual or physical. They also rely on non-Indigenous definitions of what constitutes giftedness." "Lots of theories and initiatives have been put forward to explain and address their lack of participation in mainstream gifted and talented programs, but most have focused on countering perceived deficits or skills gaps. ![]() ![]() "It's hard to find evidence that this is a national problem, but we know anecdotally that it is," says Genevieve, who taught in the Northern Territory for a decade before commencing her Masters and doctoral studies at UNE."We know our Indigenous students are under-achieving in the educational system as is, but the gifted and talented Aboriginal students are under-achieving the most. That's the conclusion that UNE PhD candidate Genevieve Thraves has reached after a fascinating case study at a Northern Territory boarding school, where almost one-third of students are from remote Indigenous communities but not one has been through its gifted and talented program in 10 years.
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