UWG News Archive

UWG faculty contribute to new textbook

September 21, 2004

CARROLLTON, GA - Among the 20 articles from internationally known contributors in a new textbook on diversity in gifted education are three chapters by University of West Georgia faculty.

In addition, the new resource guide, “In the Eyes of the Beholder: Critical Issues for Diversity in Gifted Education,” was edited by Dr. Diane Boothe, professor and chair of curriculum and instruction at UWG, and Dr. Julian Stanley, a West Georgia alumnus who is world-renowned in the field of gifted-child identification and education.

An essential resource for education professionals, “In the Eyes of the Beholder” is a compelling collection of chapters written by specialists and distinguished scholars that encompasses critical research on issues of diversity in gifted education and its relation to race, gender and socioeconomic status. Additional topics include enhancing awareness surrounding the representation of select gender groups in gifted and education programs; improving guidance, counseling and instruction for those students most in need; and revamping curriculum methods to ensure the universal success of every potential gifted child.

In addition to a chapter by Boothe called “Gender Differences in Achievement and Aptitude Test Results: Perspectives from the Recent Literature,” the book includes chapters by Dr. Beheruz Sethna, professor of business administration and University of West Georgia president, and Dr. Brent Snow, professor and chair of the UWG Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. Sethna’s chapter is titled “An Unconventional View of Gifted Children of Indian Descent in the United States,” and Snow is co-author (with C. Marie Jackson) of “Counseling Gifted Students and Their Families.”

Both of the books editors are eminently qualified in the area of gifted education. Boothe served as the first director of the University of West Georgia Advanced Academy of Georgia, one of fewer than twelve programs in the nation that allows gifted high school juniors and seniors to live and study full time at a University while completing high school graduation requirements in absentia. Her research areas include gifted education, cultural diversity and second language acquisition.

Stanley, a professor emeritus of psychology in the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, founded the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth at Johns Hopkins in 1971. It has since grown into four regional programs covering the country: the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins, the Talent Identification Program at Duke University, the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University and the Rocky Mountain Talent Search at the University of Denver. Stanley is also a former chair of the Advanced Academy of Georgia Board of Trustees and an alumnus of West Georgia, as well as Harvard.

Sethna, whose research areas include gifted education and business, was associated with the start of the Texas Academy for Leadership in the Humanities and the Advanced Academy of Georgia. Snow has served as the principal investigator/project director of the Transforming School Counseling initiative/grant funded by the Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund. In 2002, his department was honored by the Education Trust as a pioneer, advocate and national leader in transforming school counseling in both universities and public schools.

“In the Eyes of the Beholder” is available through Prufrock Press Inc., www.prufrock.com.

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