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.
"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.
"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. They also rely on non-Indigenous definitions of what constitutes giftedness."
Western perceptions of giftedness
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. Gifted learners have specific needs and, ideally, lessons and activities are customised to develop their gifts. In a school setting, Genevieve was most concerned with intellectual giftedness, due to its relationship to academic performance.
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. However, her own learning was soon turned on its head. "I realised that what we were determining was appropriate ‘talent development’ wasn't necessarily appropriate for Yolngu students," she says. "We were not leaning into their funds of knowledge and what cultural gifts they were bringing to school."
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.
Yolngu share their learning values
"For Yolngu people, gifts, talents and talent development are deeply entwined with foundation law (Djalkirri Rom)," Genevieve says.
"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. These indicators all support their foundation law and cultural continuation; they are fundamental to who they are as a people."
Equally, traditional western indicators of giftedness - like asking probing, high-order questions and a capacity for abstract thinking - may not be considered culturally appropriate.
"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. "Some activities and opportunities for development are also gendered or must follow family lines. 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."
Most importantly, the Yolngu Elders wanted to facilitate "both-ways", or Ganma, learning. "They want their children to be successful in western education, but not at the expense of their Yolngu culture," Genevieve says. "The gifted education model we designed together sought to identify those kids who had academic potential but were also culturally gifted. Then we built hybrid learning programs founded on Djalkirri Rom."
It became perhaps the first program of its kind in Australia. "The major benefit for students was seeing their own funds of knowledge valued at school," Genevieve says.
"It legitimised and celebrated their knowledge stream and way of being in the world. It wasn't about changing the students to fit a program that already existed, but expanding that program to suit them."
The next steps
Taking this important research and writing up her thesis was challenging for Genevieve amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, UNE extended both her stipend and the deadline for submission of her thesis. "Writing up my thesis while home-schooling two teenage boys, after moving from Darwin to Armidale, was an extremely trying period," she says. "But my supervisors checked in regularly, one welcomed me into their home for meals, and I always felt really supported."
As for the future of her program, although it operated successfully for two terms in 2019 with positive Elder endorsement and enhanced student experiences, it was developed specifically for that school population.
"My findings cannot be generalised because I worked with a particular cultural group," Genevieve says. "However, I hope the process of bringing in Elders to work with teachers is transferable, because it demonstrates that there is more than one way of being, thinking and learning about knowledge, and other gifts and talents that schools could be valuing. This is relevant for a range of students from different cultures."
