Abstract:

Over the past decades, research on gifted education has been steadily increasing worldwide, although some countries, like Sweden, have been comparably late to initialise such research on a broader scale. Still, there are many misconceptions about gifted education and the children and students identified as belonging to this group. This is especially the case regarding so-called twice exceptional (2e) students, which by some researchers are defined as a group of students who “possess high ability in one or more talent domains along with one or more disabilities” (Foley-Nicpon & Assouline, 2020, 1615). Different definitions of twice exceptionality exist in the literature, and it has been noted that the concept of twice-exceptionality has been contested, since many educators had difficulties “comprehending that a child can be gifted and also have learning disabilities” (Brody & Mills, 1997) and many also tended to find the concept of having high intelligence and learning disabilities inconsistent because intelligence was considered a global construct (Dare & Nowicki, 2015), a situation that according to some researchers is still prevailing (Klingner, 2022). However, some research has concluded that up to 7% of school-age children may be 2e (Assouline & Whiteman, 2004). Hence, there is a particular need to conduct more research on twice exceptionality, and not the least is there an great value in research focusing on the perspective of these children themselves and their parents.

In this presentation, we describe an exploratory single case study (Holmgren et al., 2023) of a female student (age ≈ 13 years) in school year seven, based on semi-structured individual interviews with the student herself as well as with her two guardians, regarding her educational situation. The data were first inductively coded and triangulated by three of the authors in collaboration. Subsequently, a fourth author independently and deductively coded a third of the data and thereby conducted a consensus interrater reliability check, which exceeded 85% percent agreement.

The three following main themes arose from the data processing:
(1) multiplex perspectives on academic outcomes and expectations,
(2) the intersection between twice exceptionality and academic work, and
(3) information and perceptions about twice exceptionality.

The results thereby suggest several educational challenges and opportunities for twice exceptional students. Further research is needed regarding twice exceptional students in Sweden in particular, as well as in many countries in general.

Keywords:

Special Needs Education, Twice exceptional, ADHD, Education, Gifted education, 2e.