the backs of a mother and her child sitting on the edge of a porch

Doctoral project: Gifted Children

This dissertation project examines the notions of gifted children. The research focus is on early childhood.

Project information

Doctoral student
Åsa Morin
Supervisor
Peter Erlandson
Assistant supervisor
Helena Ackesjö
Timetable
1 Sept 2020–1 Sept 2025
Subject
Pedagogy (Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Social Sciences)

More about the project

With their rapid development, gifted children often arouse curiosity in their surroundings. Like all individuals, gifted children are different, but there are common denominators and traits that often show up early. Nevertheless, it is a group that is rarely noticed, which tends to have a negative impact on the child's well-being and schooling.

The concept of giftedness is dynamic, which means that it is assigned different meanings depending on the surrounding context. There is no uniform global definition of what giftedness is, which contributes to the difficulty of identifying gifted children.

This dissertation focuses on the fact that there are different notions about this group of children's needs and development opportunities, and that these different notions can in turn complicate the relationship between preschool/school and home as well as between educators, guardians and the children themselves.

The project is part of the research in the research group Research on pedagogical professions and practices (PEPP).