Learners, including gifted learners, are diverse, complex and constantly developing. They have individual needs that require equitable responses. Learning itself does not take place in a vacuum, it is multifaceted and constantly influenced by the past, present and potential future contexts in which it develops.
As an example of this the colonisation of Africa has left a legacy on national education systems that have resulted in a disjuncture between dominant western and local (often informed by, but not wholly indigenous) cultures and knowledges. The future appears to hold the promise of development from a basic focus on ensuring education is available to all to an acknowledgment that universal education itself must be responsive to the diverse needs of the learners, including gifted learners. Therefore whilst international educational agendas, such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, are typically focused on basic, universal provision, there is little attention given to how the diverse needs of learners are to be catered for in distinct national and local contexts of the Global South.
In this paper as a case study we will consider the specific contexts in which learners encounter environmental science education within the African context, with concern for differences between urban and rural settings. This, we argue, is of particular importance to understanding the context in which education for gifted learners must be negotiated, and we will highlight how, even within the national space, local environmental knowledges which learners encounter will vary considerably, as do local cultures of children’s voice and empowerment, within and between divergent communities. We argue that it is as much local context, as it is the nature and implementation of science education, which may structure gifted learners experiences of learning.