Keywords

gifted students, student agency, secondary gifted programing, creative productivity

Subject Categories

Educational Psychology | Gifted Education | Secondary Education

Abstract

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study investigated gifted high school students’ perception of the agency afforded them within school settings, and the relationship between these perceptions and their creative productivity. A sample of 140 students was drawn from a population of 966 identified gifted high school students. These students were contacted via their parents and asked to complete the Agentic Engagement Scale (AES) questionnaire which provided gifted high school students’ perceptions of the agency afforded at school. No significant differences in perceived agency were found across demographic variables, including socioeconomic status and school type. Of the respondents, 10 students were randomly selected for phenomenological interviews to further examine their perceived agency its effect on their creative productivity at school. Qualitative findings from the interviews revealed several themes regarding how students experience and interpret agency and creative productivity in their learning decisions, and the structural or relational constraints that shaped their autonomy. Collectively, these findings suggested that while perceived agency appears uniform across demographic groups, the lived experiences underlying these perceptions are nuanced. The study highlights the importance of attending to students’ qualitative experiences to better understand the conditions that foster creative productivity among gifted adolescents. The findings were discussed from the lens of Self-Determination Theory grounded in pragmatism. Recommendations for future research were provided.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Eriksson, Gillian

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

Learning Sciences & Educational Research

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

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