Chair: Lianne Hoogeveen

Native gifted children are often invisible in ethnic-linguistic diverse groups around the world. Included among them are indigenous populations descendants from African slaves, Indian natives, and Spanish conquer in the Americas. They may have high intellectual potential. However, the lack of access to adequate schooling prevents them to meet their cognitive and academic needs, becoming under-represented when comparing with the other gifted children around the world. On the one hand, there are inter-group differences and negative values towards certain social groups which lead to different forms of discrimination and exclusion. On the other hand, educational practices focused on accountability and achievement in general education lack to meet the needs of the highly able gifted learners. Therefore, the marginalization towards the native gifted children remains.

However, the digital age seems to democratize access to appropriate educational virtual settings, enabling these native gifted learners, often overlooked, to have equitable access to learning environments to meet their needs and reach their highest potential. It is our aim to share exemplary programs for the native gifted children, in order to dispel stereotypes about them as well as to clarify parenting traits related to the success of the native gifted children.