ANNOUNCING IGET-Network, LLC  “NEW BOOK”: Running the Long Race in Gifted Education: Narratives and Interviews from Culturally Diverse Gifted Adults, co-edited by Joy M. Scott-Carrol, PhD and Anthony Sparks, PhD.

Visit our website at: http://www.diversegiftedadults.com

 

The International Gifted Education Teacher-Development Network (IGET-Network, LLC) is an established membership organization with origins on the Park Town campus of the Wits School of Education–University of the Witwatersrand in June, 2006.

In 2005, IGET-Network’s five co-founders and colleagues identified Johannesburg area schools and classrooms as lacking in the necessary resources to appropriately provide for the needs of children with high potential and ability in various domains (intellectual, academic, creative, leadership, etc.). Roused to action and motivated by the intrinsic reward of supporting schools, teachers, youth and parents, they decided to fill the gap by offering education and resources to better serve gifted students. IGET-Network’s non-traditional approach borrows from the best practices and programs that have been successful for decades with economically disadvantaged, culturally diverse and limited English proficient gifted learners in the United States. Because gifted children are everywhere, we share our program and services globally, anywhere there is a high need for gifted education teacher development.

 

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Joy Maria Scott-Carrol, PhD.

Professor Joy M. Scott-Carrol has over 20 combined years of university teaching, research & practical experience in the field of gifted education. She is Visiting Scholar and Professor of Education in the Wits School of Education (WSoE)-University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; and IGET-Network co-founder. Her international teaching includes teaching a WSoE course covering the historical, philosophical and practical aspects of identifying and servicing culturally diverse gifted learners (2006 to present).

In addition to teaching internationally Dr. Scott-Carrol’s  evolving career includes full and part-time positions as a Primary School Music Teacher (6 yrs.), Contractual Family Therapist (5yrs.), College Counselor (7yrs.), College and University Professor (16 yrs.), U.S. Department of Education Grants Program Director (7yrs.) and Assistant Academic V.P. for Academic Affairs (2.5yrs). Under the direction and tutelage of Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius– current CTD Director, Dr. Scott-Carrol successfully implemented and managed Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development (CTD) three-year grant funded NU-Horizons Counseling Program for Economically Disadvantaged College-Bound Gifted Students. Also significant in Dr. Scott-Carrol’s career is her uninterrupted study of the educational research literature on culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged gifted children. Her most recent article, “South African Educators Perspectives on Barriers to Identifying Black and Second Language Learners as Gifted” is published by the International Journal on Learning, 2008. Since 1988 she has presented topical papers in the gifted education field at national and international conferences.

Dr. Scott-Carrol earned her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Psychology from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, Masters of Science in Education—Guidance Counseling from the University of Wisconsin, and Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies: Higher Education Administration with elective studies in educational research methods-Loyola University, Chicago. Her doctoral dissertation entitled “The Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Career Aspirations of Undergraduate Gifted Black Students revealed astounding results—a zenith of her dedication to the gifted education field of study and practice absent the promise of accolades and recognition.

Professor Ruksana Osman PhD.

Ruksana Osman is Professor of Education and convenor of the UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education for Diversity and Development at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

She is also the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Wits.  Her former position was Head of the Wits School of Education at Wits.  Her research interests are in the area of higher education studies and teacher education.  Her particular focus has been higher education policy, pedagogy and access. Her research work which focuses on higher education policy and access examines the traditional social divisions of knowledge and the contradictions between intellectual labour and manual labour.  The central issue is the relationship between learning in work and in life and learning at university.

She has published her work in a variety of journals and books.  She is also co-editor of Research-led teacher education: Case studies of possibilities (2012); Service learning in South African Higher Education: Studies in selected disciplines (2013); and Large Class Pedagogy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Quality Higher Education (2013).

Ruksana has broad experience in research leadership and capacity building through her involvement as principal investigator in several large multi-year international and national research projects.   During this time she has worked directly and indirectly with public school systems and higher education systems and has an intimate knowledge of these systems within the country and on the continent. Through this work she has built a strong and diverse range of networks which speak in a variety of voices on the commitment to improve education for all.

Her current position and role as convenor of the UNESCO Chair provides IGET-Network, LLC with a strong academic and professional resource which is well grounded in the global south.

Mrs. Noële Hillen, M.S.Ed

 

Noële Hillen was born and educated in South Africa and has been the Principal of two independent preparatory schools over the last twenty years. She was the founding Headmistress of Rand Preparatory School and remained there for five years. Rand Prep is an independent school which was opened expressly to accommodate black children as an alternative to township schooling in the apartheid era. In the course of her work there she met several struggle heroes including the legendary Walter Sisulu, Adelaide Tambo and Mpho Hani. After the first historic democratic elections in 1994, Noële began to look for a school which would be more representative of the normalizing social and political situation and she became the founding Headmistress of Beaulieu Preparatory School where she still works today.

Noële holds a Bachelor of Primary Education (1983), a Bachelor of Education (Hons) in 1998 and a Master of Education (1996) all from the University of the Witwatersrand. Noële has always been interested in multicultural education. In 2005 she met Dr. Joy Scott by chance whilst holidaying at Kruger Park in South Africa and this meeting piqued her interest in Gifted Education. Noële’s schools are both members of the largest association of independent schools in South Africa (I.S.A.S.A.) and she is a member of S.A.H.I.S.A. (South African Heads of Independent Schools Association). She has represented South African Preparatory Schools at two conferences in Australia and she chaired ISASA’s Preparatory School group for a two year term in 2005 and 2006.