Uni in the Brewery: Session 1 Pink or Paris? Girls, giftedness & popular culture
Presented by Wilma Vialle When: Wednesday 19th March, 5:30-6:30pm
Where: Five Islands Brewery
The title of this presentation is taken from a song by Pink, a young woman who critiques the “empty-headedness” of many of the celebrities and images in today’s popular culture. Is she a lone voice? Are our gifted students being detrimentally affected by the “empty- headedness” that is epitomised by celebrities such as Paris Hilton? We know that one of the significant barriers to appropriate programming for gifted students is lack of understanding as to what constitutes giftedness. Negative attitudes to gifted students and evidence-supported interventions such as acceleration are often the result of the stereotypes promulgated by the so-called popular culture. What images of giftedness and gifted education are prevalent in our popular culture? And how do these images affect gifted students? In this presentation, I will focus on three contemporary popular “texts”: the Harry Potter series, and the television animations, “The Simpsons” and “Daria”. I will also briefly consider other popular texts and contexts. In each of these texts, we find certain stereotypes of giftedness and gifted schools that need to be challenged. I will discuss the images of giftedness portrayed in these texts and how these may impact on gifted students, particularly girls.
Hear Wilma Vialle interviewed by Nick Rheinberger from ABC radio. Wilma is discussing her research and presentation at the Five Islands Brewery.
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Download (.wma, 10 mins, 9.7 MB) |
Wilma Vialle in action at the Five Islands Brewery
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