One of the strategic goals of the World Giftedness Center (WGC) at Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Medical and Educational Sciences is to encourage and advance the culture of best research practice in gifted education, talent development and related areas. The idea of focusing on research has been developed simultaneously with the establishment of the WGC whose main objective is to make significant contributions to enhance gifted and talented education at the national, regional, and international level. The main purpose of this research project is to encourage and conduct cross-national research to examine different phenomena in gifted education. Thus, the WGC drafted a realistic plan to start its efforts gradually and focus on publishing a special issue in a reputable journal about a particular region each time and build on this experience to conduct broader and global based research projects.
Serving Gifted Education in Developing and Threshold Countries
This special issue included ten research articles about gifted education in developing and threshold countries in Asia, Africa, South America, Turkey, Russia and the Middle East. It is concerned with the theory and practice of gifted education in those countries. This subject is especially newsworthy since it has increasingly become obvious that the Western models of gifted education cannot be simply transferred to other cultures. Consequently, the last years have witnessed a considerable effort of “developing and threshold countries” to find their own distinct approaches and paths to gifted education to serve the purpose and unique circumstances of each nation.
Special (Fifth) Issue of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted
This special issue included six articles selected from different issues on the basis of interest to the field. They covered the following topics: “overcoming barriers to participation in gifted education among underserved students, gifted students publicly accepting a scholarly identity, the cognitive processes associated with occupational and career indecision, perfectionism, and achievement motivation, comparing prospective twice-exceptional students with high Performing peers, and the lived experiences of gifted students.” These articles have collectively received considerable attention from readers and offer something exceptional to the field.
Gifted Education in Arab Countries: Analyses from a Learning-Resource Perspective
In addition to ten articles about gifted education in Arab countries (United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sudan, Kuwait, Morocco, Jordan, and Palestine), this special issue included three editorial articles. In recent years, several Arab countries have started paying more attention to the issue of gifted education and talent development as they consider the education of the elite generation fundamental for the development and prosperity of their nations. Collectively, the results divulged the status of gifted education in those countries and the similarity and differences in their knowledge, experience, and practices.
Gifted Education in Latin America: Analyses from a Learning-Resource Perspective
This ongoing special issue is currently including nine articles about gifted education in different countries in South America (Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay, & Peru). The current articles of the special issue have explored, analyzed, and shared state-of-art of gifted education and talent development from the perspective of an “educational and learning resource model.” Yet, different countries have acknowledged and embraced this kind of education at various times during the history and progress of education in each particular nation.