ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the nature of gifted education in Australia and New Zealand, with a focus on the historical context of scholarship, practices, and understandings of giftedness. Gifted education in Australia and New Zealand is relatively young when compared to its American and British cousins. While New Zealand and Australia overlap in their early histories and societal attitudes in relation to gifted education, they have diverged when conceptualising and defining giftedness. Giftedness as high measured intelligence, or IQ, had a relatively short tenure in New Zealand, at least amongst teachers and educators. The decade from 2000 – 2010 reflects very different trajectories for gifted education in each country. A sustained national interest in the educational needs of gifted students spurred the New Zealand Ministry of Education to consider policy reforms, resulting in a raft of advice aimed at strengthening gifted education.
