Innovation in gifted education coordinators: A sequential transformational mixed methods study

Abstract

Gifted education coordinators (GECs) are called upon to transform programs in their districts to overcome long-standing racial and socio-economic disparities in identification and services (Ezzani et al., 2021; Floyd, 2022). This is only possible if the gifted coordinator believes themselves to be capable of leading change and persists through the difficulties of implementation. The purpose of this study is to understand how GECs believe they can innovate within their districts and the impact those beliefs have on their patterns of practice, and what other factors contribute to innovative action. The design is a sequential transformational mixed method design with two phases and three distinct points of integration. First, we distributed a survey including scales for innovation and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE). Then we plotted the ESE score and innovative depth scores in a scatterplot and purposively sampled participants for phase two interviews from each quadrant. Second, we used the results of the phase one survey to adjust the interview protocol for phase two, and used the qualitative responses of each selected participant in the protocol as anchoring prompts. The final point of integration is in the analysis and meta-question, which includes an integrated data display. We found that leadership experience positively predicted ESE, and ESE positively predicted innovation. Through the transformation and integration of data, descriptions of each quadrant reveal relevant points of interest for preparing and supporting GECs.