Identifying, Preventing and Combating Bullying in Gifted Education

Edited by:
Fernanda Hellen Ribeiro Piske, Municipal Secretariat of Education of Curitiba, Brazil
Kristina Henry Collins, Texas State University

A volume in the series: Contemporary Perspectives on Multicultural Gifted Education. Editor(s): Donna Y. Ford, Ohio State University. Malik S. Henfield, Loyola University Chicago.

Published 2022

Acts of bullying and victimization experienced by gifted individuals is a seriously neglected problem, leaving many of these students emotionally shaken and subject to extreme anxiety and depression. Even more, based on certain common characteristics of giftedness in particularly, some gifted individuals can find themselves very vulnerable to bullying, which can cause even more difficulties in their interpersonal relationships and development. Despite its importance in the social-emotional wellness and mental health of gifted children, many related books do not discuss bullying as a primary or exclusive topic for students with high abilities.

Identifying, Preventing, and Combating Bullying in Gifted Education provides a critical review and expanded context within gifted education to include social, emotional, and cultural (SEC) components of the bullying phenomenon. It offers a global, multidisciplinary perspective and has the differential of helping all stakeholders of gifted education and programming identify, prevent and combat different forms of bullying and other aggressive behaviors that negatively impact the quality of education for all gifted students. It presents a balance between theoretical, methodological and empirical chapters with research, testimonies and experiences of the authors, clients, and students shared. Structured and integrated around a coherent central theme, an additional introduction stages the three sections of the book with each of the chapters strategically crafted to better equip readers with ways to identify, prevent and intervene in actions of bullying in gifted education. Specifically, it serves as a fundamental resource for educators, teacher-trainers, mental health professionals, and families of gifted students at all grade levels.

As a call to action, this book aims to better equip readers as advocates in their service to all students, and gifted students in particular. Research-based content and topics include identifying the aggressors, the victims, and the bystanders of bullying; peer-to-peer bullying; in-depth, personal, and global look at the relationship between giftedness, vulnerable populations, and bullying; gifted and talented education policy and practices that foster a micro-aggressive environment; and issues of equity for special populations, such as underrepresented student in gifted education. Culminating a unique and more comprehensive perspective, the contributors are internationally recognized and award winning experts who have committed their professional life to work that positively impact the emotional well-being of students as a critical element to their cognitive and talent development. Leading authors and specialists from around the world, and from different academic disciplines and backgrounds to include education, engineering, physics, counseling, and psychiatry are featured.

CONTENTS
Foreword, Joseph S. Renzulli. Introduction, Fernanda H. R. Piske and Kristina Henry Collins. SECTION I INTRODUCTION: THE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF BULLYING IN GIFTED EDUCATION, Mariana Davila and Andrea Dennison. Bullying and Its Socioemotional Implications in the Education of Gifted Students, Fernanda Hellen Ribeiro Piske and Rachel U. Mun. Covert Bullying of Gifted Children at School, Jana Škrabánková. The Dark Side of Friendship: Gifted Children, Social Contexts, and Bullying, Michele Kane. SECTION II INTRODUCTION: CONCEPTUAL IDENTIFICATION OF THE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE CHARACTERS OF BULLYING AND THEIR ROLES IN THE ACT OF BULLYING, Melanie S. Myer and Nicole Mattingly. Gifted Bullies, Targets, and Bystanders: A Mental Health Perspective, Jean Sunde Peterson. Bully and Victim: The Two Sides of Bullying in Gifted Students, Jennifer Groman. On Boredom and Bullying: How Being Gifted, Bored, and Frustrated in the Classroom Can Lead to Being Bullied or Being a Bully at School, Fiona Smith and Dominic Westbrook. SECTION III INTRODUCTION: ADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES AND RESEARCH FINDINGS: AN IN-DEPTH AND GLOBAL LOOK AT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GIFTEDNESS, VULNERABLE POPULATIONS, AND BULLYING, Javetta Jones Roberson and Kari Lockhart. Gifted and Bullied: Understanding the Institutional Victimization of Identified, Unidentified, and Underserved Gifted Students, Kristina Henry Collins. Giftedness and Bullying: What’s the Relation? Maria Assunta Zanetti, Silvia Montuori, and Elisa Tamburnotti. Similar, Different, and Unique: Targeting the Gifted Child, Patricia Gatto-Walden. Gifted or Cursed: Are Gifted Students More Victimized Than Their Non-Gifted Peers? Joaquín González-Cabrera, Javier Tourón, and Juan Manuel Machimbarrena. When Gifted Students Experience Bullying: How to Identify and Impact Psychological, Social, Emotional, and Academic Well-Being When Peer Interactions Are Counterproductive, Christian E. Mueller and Denise L. Winsor. About the Editors. About the Contributors.