1. Talent development in education: an inclusive or exclusive education policy?
Annette Rasmussen & christian ydesen
ASA Annual meeting 2017
Saturday, August 12, 4:30-5:30pm 
Table 25
The Roles of Teachers: Beyond Teaching to the Test 

2. Talent development policies
We cannot afford that young people with the will and talent to make a special effort lack challenges in our educational system and perhaps lose interest in getting an education. Denmark’s competitiveness in the global knowledge society depends on our ability to develop talents. We therefore have to give the most gifted room to perform so that they can exploit their potential to the benefit of society and their own future. Danish Ministry of Education, 2008
We find reforms in education policies that are on one hand widely aimed at inclusion of different groups and on the other at raising standards generally (OECD, 2012). Along with political interest in attending to excellence in education on a global scale goes an attempt of identifying an intellectual elite and making educational provision for them, which has also been expressed as catering to the needs of those considered particularly gifted and talented (Ball, 2008). But also – as we see in this quotation – human capital theory framing education policy for some time now and a global war for talent
As appears from this quote
Stating that ‘young people lack challenges’ indirectly states that the present school system, in the name of an inclusive school for all, promotes mediocrity over merit and standards of excellence – can be seen as an educational argument promoting individualism
- To assure ‘Denmark’s competitiveness in the global knowledge society’ – is an economic argument which understands education in human capital terms

3. Outline of the presentation
Brief introduction to the Danish education system
The teacher as one among many stakeholders
The role of teachers in talent development
Selection criteria
A sociological gaze at the Nordic welfare state setting
Concluding remarks

4. The Danish Education System
1814: A national system of compulsory education was established.
1855: The first Danish school for so-called ‘idiotic, imbecile and epileptic children’ was founded  focus on the streaming of problem children into special education.
During the 20th century, the Danish primary school gradually developed into an undivided comprehensive school.
1993 Education Act: teaching must “be varied to correspond to the individual student’s needs and abilities” and thus “contain challenges to all students”.
2006 Education Act: reintroduced the option of streaming, although only for limited periods  differentiation based on gender or academic level is possible.
In the 21st century, the Danish primary school shifted from a focus on Bildung to a focus on knowledge and skills

5. THE DANISH MAINSTREAM EDUCATION SYSTEM
The Danish mainstream education system - about 1.1m students enrolled
A comprehensive system with multiple horizontal and vertical options.
Compulsory education
Education is compulsory for 9 years, from the age of 7, and is provided by municipal schools (Folkeskoler)
and free elementary (private) schools - attended by 88% and 11% of a year group respectively.
Also, parents can choose to teach their children at home (approx. 1% of a year group). (2002)
In addition, basic schools comprise a pre-school year and an optional 10th year – the latter is attended by
approx. 61% of a year group.(2003)
Pupils in forms 8 to 10 can choose to attend a continuation school – boarding schools which put great
emphasis on social learning, sports, music etc. in addition to the normal subjects.
Youth education (80.3% of the 2003 year group will finish a youth education programme)
In Denmark, education programmes at upper secondary level are called youth education programmes. Students must have completed compulsory education in order to continue in a youth education programme.
General or vocational upper secondary education programmes - Completion rate: 43.3% (2003)
Academically oriented and qualify primarily for higher education.
General upper secondary programmes: - The three-year Upper Sec. School Leaving Examination (STX)
- The two-year Higher Preparatory Examination Course (HF)
Vocational upper secondary programmes: - The three-year Higher Technical Examination (HTX)
- The three-year Higher Commercial Examination (HHX)
Vocational education and training (VET) programmes – Completion rate: 25.8% (2003)
Vocationally oriented and primarily aimed at preparing students for a career in a specific trade or industry.
Four overall categories of VET programmes: Technical or Business oriented; Social and Health Care oriented;
Agricultural, maritime etc. and Vocational basic training.
Duration varies from two to five years.
Higher education (52.5% of the 2003 year group will move on to higher education programmes)
Comprises the university sector offering research-based programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate
level: the three-year Bachelor programmes, the two-year Candidatus programmes and the three-year PhD.
A parallel sector of higher education institutions offer short-cycle Academy Profession programmes and
medium-cycle Diploma and Professional Bachelor programmes.
 These programmes include a practically oriented approach in addition to the theoretical courses.
Access requirements: the general or vocational upper secondary school leaving examinations, but also some
VET-programmes. Access may depend on a specific subject combination and a certain level of grades.
Most higher education institutions offer courses and even whole programmes in English.
ISCED
The International Standard Classification of Education – classification of educational levels developed by
UNESCO.

6. The teacher as one among many stakeholders
Government authorities (the executive)
The local councils (municipalities)
School management
The teachers
The parents
The children
International organisations

7. The role of teachers in talent development
To identify potential talents
To communicate to a certain group of students that they are talented
To advise them to participate in talent class activities
To upward differentiate their teaching
- Which means of identification? – increased testing?
- Indirectly communicate to a larger group of students that they are not talented
- Whom should be included and excluded, on the basis of which criteria?
- Differentiation is necessary no matter how selective the system

8. Selection criteria
They have to be above average in the subjects of English, Danish, and Mathematics
They have to be motivated and prepared to invest time in taking on new challenges in school and personally
They have to be extrovert
They have to be prepared to take on exceptional challenges
They have to be able to set targets for their achievements personally and as a group
They have to be independent and reflexive
These criteria, set up for recruiting students for the talent classes, illustrate the variety of qualities and distinctions involved in the
identification of the talented/gifted students – and so in the definition of talent.
Some qualities are strictly linked to the school (and subjects) and can be measured in that setting; others are very general and depend more
on subjective evaluations – of the student as an individual – his or her social competences
Such identification criteria raise questions as to what extent talent should be considered a measurement of achievement or a judgement of potential ability ; whether emphasis is given to nature or nurture; and whether talent should be considered a one-dimensional or multimodal concept – and especially, to what extent objective and subjective notions prevail

9. A sociological gaze at the Nordic welfare state setting
The state as a collective illusion  the state is constantly reproduced (real effects) – it is a bureaucratic field
The origins of the modern state:
Genetic: invention of the “public”: from dynastic to bureaucratic mode of reproduction
Structural: claims to the “universal” - “central bank of symbolic power”
Functional: protect and discipline - “Left hand, Right hand”

10. The concept of state-crafting
The professionals’ boundary work shapes:
the professions, since it becomes constitutive of their jurisdiction, technologies, and positions.
the deviant, because it defines a social taxonomy of deviant characteristics and traits.
the state dictating the configuration of the public good and how the state operates in practice.
State-crafting is the dialectical and symbiotic connections between professionals’ actions and interventions and their boundary work constructing the boundaries of unacceptable otherness, and ultimately statist capital as the configuration of the public good understood as a justifying referent for governing.
The concept collapses the usual dichotomies of state versus professions.

11. Concluding remarks From a ‘welfare state’ to a ‘competition state’
The rationale behind the talent initiatives is primarily economic motives based on optimal development of each individual’s resources (rather than the group’s) as a prerequisite for national economic growth
However, a more democratic rationale can be identified at the local level where the fellowship of the class – the rub-off effect on the other students – is used as an argument for the talent class
Power struggles within the bureaucratic field of the state (economic vs. pedagogical rationales)
… a shift in the way education is enacted  the very workings of the welfare state have changed and the societal values are being reconfigured