Date Awarded

1991

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

G. William Bullock, Jr.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify social and intellectual sources of influence shaping 14 gifted high school seniors in one rural culture, to delineate patterns among those sources of influence, and to generate questions for further investigation of giftedness--primarily in a rural culture.;All 14 seniors attending the single public high school in a rural county in eastern Virginia who had been identified according to state guidelines as gifted by school division personnel were selected as subjects for this case study research. The triangulated data collection methods used in this study encompass interviews, observations, and the examination of school records, subject journals, and researcher memoranda. The triangulated data sources include subjects, parents, faculty, peers, school records, and subject journals.;The individual case studies are composed from the raw data in order to explore the sources of influence on each subject. The prosopography compiles and contrasts the same raw data from all the subjects in order to delineate patterns. These patterns are summarized according to the eight sources used throughout this study: background, home, rural community, church, school, outside world, peers, and self.;From the summarized findings, ten conclusions are drawn; six recommendations for administrative practice are made; and nine questions for future research are specified.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-xr0z-e749

Rights

© The Author

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