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Research in the field of gifted and talented education in New Zealand is a growing phenomenon with an increasing number of postgraduate students and a small group of academics leading the research. Despite this positive trend, I was unable to find published empirical studies carried out in New Zealand that have focused specifically on understandings of achievement and underachievement for gifted and talented students.

However, the seminal text for educators in the field in New Zealand (Moltzen, 2011d) does contain a chapter which includes a review of some research on

underachievement in gifted students (Moltzen, 2011c). The chapter explores definitions and characteristics of underachievement and discusses some causes, identification issues and ideas for remediation. Although the chapter’s author, Moltzen, has attempted to relate the issues to a New Zealand school situation, the references are, of necessity, to the international literature (with a few exceptions, such as when he refers to culturally diverse gifted and talented students).

New Zealand author Gallagher (2005) provided a review of the literature on the underachievement of gifted and talented students. She noted that most writers used the discrepancy definition but alluded to the difficulties of basing a definition on potential when this is not easily measured. She discussed the subjective judgements on which standards of both achievement and underachievement are made and the perceived

expectations of those who label a gifted student an underachiever. Gallagher did make the point, which Moltzen also alluded to, that the “construct of achievement (and therefore underachievement) differs from culture to culture” (p. 2). This seems to be something that is aligned with a particular New Zealand milieu, in that an awareness of cultural differences has become an important part of New Zealand educational philosophy. Gallagher’s review contained no references from New Zealand authors. King (2009) completed a Master’s thesis looking at gifted and talented students from a New Zealand high school, who were classified as high achievers, achievers and underachievers, based on examination results and teacher judgements. The focus of King’s study was the link between achievement and resilience. He was interested in how the students coped with failure. The students were not asked about their own understandings of achievement or underachievement per se, but perceptions of what the notions of ‘success’ and ‘failure’ meant to them were explored.

A magazine article in the New Zealand Association for Gifted Children’s Tall

Poppies by psychologist Lynn Berresford (2003) explored the phenomenon of gifted

underachievement. However, this article, too, talked about “research done in America” (p. 8). Berresford alerted parents to the vulnerabilities of gifted students who underachieve and suggested parents and teachers should reclaim the

underachiever by trying to understand the reasons for underachievement and then effect positive change. She acknowledged that there is no unanimous agreement among researchers of either giftedness or underachievement as concepts.

The above summary reflects the paucity of the literature by New Zealand writers that is currently available on underachievement in gifted and talented students. With no studies having been carried out in a New Zealand school situation which specifically explore the meaning of the phenomenon of underachievement, it is not possible for writers to refer to underachievement in the New Zealand context. Thus, any writing from New Zealand is presented as a general summary of the international literature on underachievement. The issues that surround the recognition of Maori and Pasifika conceptions of giftedness are alluded to by Moltzen (2011c) and possible links to underachievement for this group of gifted and talented learners are made. It could be interpreted that New Zealand understandings about underachievement for gifted and

talented students are similar to those represented in the international literature, but it is difficult to draw conclusions that may be specific to this country.

It is worth noting that an extensive, longitudinal New Zealand study was carried out by David Keen and published in 2005. This work aimed to give a snapshot of the perceptions about gifted education held by gifted and talented students, teachers and parents. As a parallel to this current study, part of the research involved case studies of 11 gifted and talented adolescents who were followed over a period of five months. Although Keen’s (2005) study was focused on gifted education practice, it did explore the students’ thoughts about their experiences of school as gifted young people. The study found that the majority of the participants enjoyed school in the main, but issues of anxiety, peer pressure and a lack of challenge were common and underachievement could result. However, the research did not appear to specifically ask the gifted and talented students their understandings about what giftedness meant or about

definitions of achievement and underachievement. Case-study profiles were developed which were drawn from the data collected about the 11 cases. Keen attached what he called “qualities and conditions” (p. 208) to these case studies, which included socialites, loners, broad spectrum high achievers, rebels, conservatives and dilettantes.

A small-scale study by Townsend and Kirby (2005) asked a group of pre-adolescent New Zealand children who were academically gifted and talented about their

perceptions of their schooling experiences. These researchers did ask their participants their views around the concept of giftedness and if they thought there were any issues related to being gifted learners in school. Horsley (2009) studied a cohort of New Zealand academically high-achieving students to explore factors which influenced their success. Neither of these two studies explored the students’ own understandings of what achievement or underachievement meant to them.

Ideas from the ‘popular understandings’ literature

In contrast to the empirical literature, understandings about achievement for gifted students have been discussed in depth in what I would term the ‘popular

understandings’ work that is common in New Zealand. A particular focus has been on ideas of cultural differences. Literature from several New Zealand magazine and

newspaper articles has presented a socio-cultural view of achievement which

represents a dominant assumption in Western society, that Western gifted and talented students relate achievement to innate abilities (Anyan, 2012; Black, 2007; Chisholm, 2010; Claridge, 2005; Laugesen, 2011). From a socio-cultural perspective, it is interesting that these authors contrasted this observation with the belief that Asian students attribute achievement solely to hard work. For example, recent articles in the media in New Zealand (as referenced above) have tended to confirm these discursive notions of the superior Asian work ethic along with the idea that “western societies consider that aptitude makes the difference” (Black, 2007, p.16). Controversy over author Amy Chua’s book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which outlined the parenting style of a Chinese American mother, illustrated what is seen to be a sharp contrast to that of Western American parents (Paul, 2011). Chua unashamedly advocated achievement-oriented parenting and subjected her own children to what was seen as a harsh regime of constant practice in order to have them achieve at the very highest levels. She saw Western parental views on achievement as being about asking children to do their best but not expecting them to be resilient or tough enough to put in the kind of effort expected of Chinese children because of constant parental concerns about children’s self-esteem. Chua maintained that “Westerners often laud their children as ‘talented’ or ‘gifted’ … while Asian parents highlight the importance of hard work” (Paul, 2011, p. 27).

The debate over Chua’s views, as a parent, on achievement was seen as interesting enough to New Zealanders for it to be given space as a main article in the New

Zealand Listener in 2011 (Laugeson, 2011). This was in an article which questioned

New Zealand parents’ attitudes to achievement for their children. Within the article, New Zealand academic John Hattie recommended that parents tell their children that it is hard work and effort that is the key to success, not just innate ability, espousing a different view from that presented in this popular literature.