After nearly a century of development, gifted education has evolved into a complex educational discipline with well thought out pedagogy and research agendas. However, while the number of studies escalates, the field as a whole has been criticized for producing fragmented and piecemeal results. One of the reasons for these shortfalls is that the field has invested little in meta-theoretical aspects, such as historical perspectives and philosophical foundations. This article is a comprehensive review and analysis of the conceptual changes and paradigm shifts in gifted education. Three major paradigm shifts in gifted education were identified—demystification (i.e., giftedness as manifested wonders), identification (i.e., giftedness as measurable predictions), and transaction (i.e., effectuation of human possibilities). Presently, there is still an implicit focus on the identification paradigm despite considerable efforts to shift the focus to creating and sustaining appropriate developmental niches for all individuals. Debates in the field are highlighted to provoke discussion of future directions.

Over the past century, strong applications of psychometrics have resulted in an ideology and practices of identification in the field of gifted education. In recent years, an alternative ideology that construes giftedness in an inclusive light and promotes democratic practices has emerged. This ideology posits a new meaning-making system of giftedness that is process-based rather than person-based. In this article, we elaborate some conceptual principles of this emerging ideology. First, we reflect on the nature of giftedness as a social construct using a symbolic interactionist perspective and articulate the dialectical evolution of collective meanings of giftedness. Second, we address the interdependency between an individual and a context when it comes to helping students realize their giftedness. Third, we accentuate a growth orientation and outline the importance of considering giftedness as a process-based entity. Furthermore, we provide a T:CAD conception of giftedness along with ideas for transaction-focused practices that aim to encourage the rendering of this emerging ideology in practice.

Although some scholars regard reinterpretations of grounded theory method (GTM) as erosion of its originality, this article argues that the evolutionary process has contributed to possibilities of theory making in social sciences in correspondence to a postmodern pluralistic point of view. By chronicling the development of GTM and drawing connections between realist grounded theory (RGT) and other strands of GTM, this article provides historical situatedness for RGT in the GTM family. This article also compares the major philosophical schools and their influences in the GTM development in juxtaposition. Moreover, a validation model is proposed to assist better understanding and usability of RGT, as this approach needed further clarification in both its philosophical foundation and evaluative criteria. The RGT validation model suggests that the degree of validity of an RGT account is contingent on the closeness between a theoretical account and social reality, which is rudimentarily suggested by the “groundedness” of a study (concurrent procedural validity) and subsequently reinforced by external testing studies and/or practices (incremental procedural validity). In addition, the validation model was tested in an empirical study. Examples were elicited to demonstrate the usability of the proposed model and its evaluative criteria.

Literature review is fluid and additive in nature in grounded theory (GT). This article illustrates the complexity of literature review through a 3-stage literature integration process. In this literature integration process, field literature was first reviewed a priori with an aim of sensitization and gaining entry knowledge. Because the purpose was to investigate the context and foundation of a phenomenon, the themes of this preliminary review were set to be general and broad. Once the data analysis took place and a theory began to emerge, field literature was used as secondary data in concurrence with empirical data to formulate the theory. With an aim to achieve theoretical saturation, field literature was analyzed both inductively and abductively for clarifying, elaborating, and modifying the emerging concepts. After a satisfactory level of theoretical saturation was obtained, field literature was then used recursively as triangulation references for locating the situatedness of the emerged theory.

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