Abstract
Building upon the statement issued by The Association for the Gifted, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC-TAG), as editors of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted (JEG), we want to underscore the message and commitment to working against racial injustices and the oppression of Black people. The Black Lives Matter protests that have swept across the nation and worldwide highlight the tragic murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor—and the too many others whose names we must acknowledge and not forget. Systemic racism can also be found in U.S. schools. Gifted education’s past is sullied with racist predispositions, and the residue is something that the field still grapples with today.
Over the past 50 years, CEC-TAG has embraced the importance of providing educational opportunities for individuals from all diverse groups with gifts, talents, and/or high potential. In 2009, the board published Diversity and Developing Gifts and Talents: A National Call to Action, which highlighted the lack of diversity still found in gifted education: The need for a national call to action about diversity and developing gifts and talents derives from the continuing and significant underrepresentation of specific groups receiving educational services for the gifted and talented. This underrepresentation belies the premise that the capacity for exceptional achievement exists across racial, ethnic, language, and economic groups as well as some categories of disability. With all children and youth, expressions of potential differ as a result of family background and experiences with social institutions. As we continue to implement traditional educational policies and practices, we ignore these differences and contribute to the inequities. Our schools must reflect society’s changing values about excellence and the needs of its people. (CEC-TAG, 2009, p. 3)
More than a decade later, CEC-TAG’s (2020) A Critical Call to Action: Supporting Equity, Diversity, and Access for Gifted Students has been released. It is in part possible due to advocacy and scholarship on behalf of underrepresented students in gifted education. As Black communities have been impacted disproportionately and as a tool to advancing diversity, equity, access, and social justice in gifted education, JEG is committed to publishing research that highlights these crucial issues in the field. Scholarly inquiry can help to interrogate the field’s past, provide critiques, and expose policies and practices that are racist and undermining to students’ success and well-being. We encourage researchers to continue to pose questions related to racially, culturally, ethnically, and linguistically different students.