Understanding "Jigsaw Giftedness": A Multifaceted Framework to Support African American Males

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-15 - Research on Black Girls, Black Males, and Black Youth in Contested Places

Abstract

The theory of Jigsaw Giftedness offers a new paradigm-shifting framework for conceptualizing the black male experience in urban education. Historically, giftedness has been conceptualized through whitewashed lenses and affirmed the status of the privileged majority. This framework developed from a critical, heuristic case study of six, gifted African American male students proposes a new way to think about a systemic framework to improve the academic, social, and psychological development of all African American males. The framework seeks to address the nuances of their lived experience in terms of schooling, masculinity, and gender as well as more broadly the aspect of social acceptance. This theory seeks to foster a multifaceted approach to developing the success of the African-American male.

Author

• Jermaine Arnell Wilson, Kansas City Public Schools