A discourse analysis of giftedness education policy in Victorian state education 1975-1994

The development of giftedness education in Victorian state schools reflects a history of its support and resistance. Using an approach to discourse analysis based on Dant’s (1991) method of the ‘exchange of meaning’ this study focusses on the elements of power and resistance in discourse that are involved in the ideological construction of giftedness policy in the Victorian state education system. A wide selection of policy documents, dating from 1975-1994, are analysed to describe this process. It is proposed that the shifting nature of the meaning of giftedness reflects a discursive struggle in the maintenance of an ideology of intelligence in the institution of education, and that recent developments in Victorian giftedness policy reflect an attempt to provide an alternative education for an elite.