Assessing Meritocratic Talks of Taiwanese Gifted Students: An Analysis of Educational Categorical Inequality

• In Event: 21020 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Exceptionality in Education

Abstract

This study aims to elucidate the complexity surrounding educational meritocracy, by examining how gifted students define and defend their status as a privileged category. Education systems often perpetuate categorical inequalities through mechanisms like tracking, grading, and labelling, such as ‘gifted’ programmes. While previous research has explored various meritocratic beliefs among academic elites, less is known about the experiences of gifted students who are institutionally labelled and afforded educational privileges. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 39 Taiwanese gifted high school students and 22 parents, this study identifies several self-presentation patterns. First, ‘talent’ is portrayed as deeply expressive, rather than merely intellectual or stereotypically ‘nerdy’. Second, ‘effort’ is depicted as embodying a self-disciplined scientific ethos, distinct from mere ‘diligence’. Finally, interviewees implicitly reference socially unequal ‘opportunities’ in a twofold manner: they distance themselves from peers of lower strata while asserting their status as genuine meritocratic elites, compared to those who rely on inherited advantages. By emphasizing their advanced competencies and downplaying the social privileges they benefit from, gifted students affirm meritocratic beliefs in a euphemized manner. By employing multiple techniques to explore how interviewees position themselves, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of meritocratic beliefs and their complexities.

Author

• Ting-Huang TAI, ENS Paris-Saclay