Nurturing Interdisciplinary Interconnections to Enhance Theoretical Talent Development: Using Metaphor to Reflect on Ambrose’s Insights for Gifted Education

Abstract

n ‘Borrowing insights from other disciplines to strengthen the conceptual foundations for gifted education’, Ambrose takes an innovative approach to analysing interdisciplinary explorations in Gifted Education research and he raises some very pertinent issues. The innumerable contradictory findings, contrasting beliefs, and varied theories in Gifted Education reinforce the diversity of the field. Yet, there is ongoing criticism of research in Gifted Education that it tends to lack cohesiveness, driving investigators to synthesize literature from multiple sources and cross disciplines to answer some of the simplest questions. The fact that academics are ‘borrowing’ more from other disciplines however, suggests that there is no need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ within our own discipline! Ambrose reinforces that we shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel so much as amending old ones, old concepts, theories, strategies, processes, and exploring new ideas, based on the ingenuity of colleagues in other disciplines who may have pioneered new theories or explored similar conceptions, but in more ingenious ways. Taking into consideration the above contrasting perspectives, this reflection will review a few key issues raised in Ambrose’s target paper that are relevant to our philosophical view, our research, and our practice. We will respond to the possibilities of interdisciplinary scholarship indicated by Ambrose by using the metaphor of ‘theoretical talent development’.