Young Gifted and Working-Class: Issues Arising from Case Studies of Families with Gifted Children

The article reports findings from a small qualitative investigation into the perceptions of giftedness held by four working-class families in the northeast of England. Each family had a child identified as gifted in England's national program for gifted education. These findings include: intense hostility toward those of their neighbours they despise as welfare-dependent; the dominance of entity theories of giftedness; how the children carried their parents' vicarious ambitions; lack of interest in general social and educational equity; negative experiences of the national program for gifted education; and, low sense of actual parental agency in relation to schooling, though potential empowerment arising from the children's high attainment. The findings are discussed in relation to policy formation and theorizing about giftedness and social reproduction.