Exploring the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Identification of Gifted in Turkey through Critical Systems Thinking

Abstract

This correlational study examines the relationship between identification as gifted and various indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) among high school students living in Turkey. The relatively large and representative sample consists of 688 high school students, both identified (n = 343) and unidentified (n = 345) as gifted, enrolled in nationwide after-school gifted education programs. The “identified” group comprises adolescents who scored an IQ index of 130 or higher, while the unidentified group comprises high school students attending formal educational institutions without meeting the IQ-based identification criterion. Chi-square tests of independence were utilized to investigate the relationship between identification status and SES indicators such as perceived household income, parental education level, current area of residence, and area of residence where most of life is spent. The results indicate that identified participants are more likely to come from families with higher perceived income and parental education levels, live in urban areas, and spend most of their lives in urban areas compared to the unidentified group. Overall, the findings suggest that SES factors might play a significant role in the identification of giftedness students in Turkey. The findings are discussed around the problem of underrepresentation in traditional identification methods, with a focus on educational equality within the framework of systems theory and critical systems theory.