Swedish teachers´ perspectives on educating highly able pupils

Abstract

This text is a brief summary of two studies presented in my doctoral thesis. The aim of the studies was to capture teachers’ perspectives on orchestrating teaching of mathematically highly able pupils (MHAPs) in diverse classroom. Positioning theory was used to analyze teachers’ (N=17) discussions in the context of a long term (two-year, 120 h) professional development programme on gifted education. The results show that, when teachers connect theories of gifted education with their teaching expertise, they express possibilities and obstacles, but also rights and duties, in their professional task, to include MHAPs in classroom learning. The teachers express a duty to collaborate with colleagues to meet the learning needs of MHAPs. Differentiation and well-composed mathematical tasks are suggested as possible ways of catering for those needs. Through the lens of positioning theory, the results show that teachers have deep knowledge of what constitutes high ability and that they have the power to orchestrate teaching to meet the needs of MHAPs. Whether they can or do use this power, however, is a question yet to be explored.