A Catalyst for Change: Moving Toward Pedagogies of the Possible through Talent Development

Education is charged with the responsibility for helping students become productive members in a society. The coronavirus pandemic revealed the relative acceptance of inequality in educational opportunity and illustrated the critical role of government in creating equal opportunities, such as supplying internet access and technology to rural or low-income students. Committing to developing the talents of all students will bring about a new era in education. By treating every student as gifted, we can help students develop transformational giftedness so that they can better our society. When gifted education is envisioned as more open and accessible, it will become a force for education reform, making schools more responsive to opportunities and challenges. With the rise of information technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI), the nature of talent development may change. Gifted education should play a major role in creating innovative nations. The author begins with a review of the definitions of giftedness and creativity, highlighting the notion of talent development as an instrument in service of societal change for the better. Then, the author briefly discusses why we conceptualize pedagogies as transactional and why it is necessary to move toward more transformative pedagogies. The author then introduces the conception of “Pedagogies of the Possible” and discusses how such pedagogies represent a particular case of creative learning experiences. The author closes by discussing the core features of “Pedagogies of the Possible”, and highlights the kinds of new possibilities and transformations. The author concludes with a discussion of knowledge as a means to not only develop gifted abilities but also to maximize the number of talented people who can make transformative contributions. The multimethod design was used to bring together the results from the quantitative, qualitative and policy/document analysis.