Policy Intersections in Education for the Gifted and Talented in China and Denmark

Inclusion and excellence are keywords in global education policies, which are widely aimed at both.
Sometimes these aims are even combined, when policies aim to cater to the needs of those
considered excluded because they are particularly talented. This is due in Denmark since 2011,
when talent development in the educational system was launched as an explicit policy objective.
While setting up special programs for the gifted and talented is a recent phenomenon in the Nordic
countries with their strong traditions for an un-streamed comprehensive school, China has had
middle school gifted education classes for more than three decades. This chapter explores what
assumptions about excellence in education are expressed in such curricular provisions for the
‘gifted and talented’. By focusing on selected programs and policies for gifted and talented students
in China and Denmark, it aims to understand what terms of giftedness and talents are implied, when
policy makers aim to identify and develop the talents of particular student groups. The general aim
of the chapter is to identify policy intersections on education policies for the gifted and talented in
China and Denmark and understand their local particularities. National practices of ‘gifted and
talented’ policies are widely departing in and relating to global policies, but they also remain
national and localized, reflecting and affecting differing dispositions. The analysis applies
distinctions on talent from different talent models and distinguishes between potentials and
achievement, critical states versus exceptional performances, nature versus nurture, between
identifying by subjecting individuals to objective measurement versus normative judgment shaped
by culture and approaches of segregation versus inclusion.