A Critique of Asynchronous Development in Gifted Education Using Foucauldian Conceptions of Time and Stage Developmentalism

• In Event: Paper Session 1

Abstract

Although to be “gifted” is usually also to be “special” and “exceptional,” giftedness is often associated with other comorbidities, such as anxiety, depression, and social isolation (Harrison & Van Hanneghan, 2011; Kieley, 2002; Neihart, 2002). Researchers have described that the gifted learner often suffers from “asynchronous development” (Morelock, 1992; Silverman, 1997; Warne, 2016), which portrays the gifted child as “out of sync” with normal stages of development in various domains (e.g., social, emotional), and thus vulnerable to psychological suffering. In this paper, I interrogate the psychological construct of asynchronous development by putting gifted psychology literature in conversation with critiques of stage developmentalism and Foucauldian theories related to time as a mechanism for social control.

Author

• Margaret Smith-Peterson, University of Minnesota