Historically, white, affluent students have been overrepresented in gifted education. Although changes to the testing procedures and nominations of students for gifted education have been recommended and implemented, this trend continues with only marginal improvement. One recommendation in particular has focused on challenging the implicit biases of educators involved in the nomination process. Unfortunately, prior research relating to teacher conceptions of giftedness is limited, especially as it relates to differences across student demographics. This dissertation study proposes a return to the examination of educator conceptions of giftedness, but within the school context. Because ideologies and implicit beliefs do not develop independently, it is important that educator views be examined as functions within a larger network. Only then can accurate interpretation of those beliefs be made and by extension pragmatic interventions can be developed. Educators from nine districts were invited to semi structured interviews where they described their conceptions of gifted students. Their descriptions were then analyzed using thematic analysis with the prevailing gifted theory and Bronfenbrenner as a theoretical framework. Results further indicated that educators are shifting away from the whole child paradigm in favor of more modern paradigms. Despite this, a majority of districts maintain tenants of the whole child paradigm for gifted identification. Additionally, participants reported a lack of knowledge relating to giftedness among their coworkers. This study did not find any evidence of differential student perspectives based on race. However, the was a difference in teacher perspectives of parents across races. Finally, the major environmental factors affecting teacher perspectives were a whole child minded school environment and obedience oriented teachers
