GATE Teachers From the Inside Out: Students’ Perceptions on Gifted and Talented Teachers in the Classroom

Abstract

This chapter departs from the crisis of education to explore the students’ perceptions about the teacher within the classroom. Based on a sociological qualitative study developed with both students and teachers at secondary public schools in Brazil and Portugal, four categories of teachers were characterized: authoritarian, bureaucratic, accomplice, and the democratic teacher. An in-depth analysis of data sheds new light on the definition of giftedness and talent among teachers, as the category of teachers here designated as “democratic” seems to be characterized by the teachers’ ability and talent in balancing the two main axes of school education: transmission and socialization. Relations between respect, gift, and talent are further explored, proving to be of the utmost importance in the classroom, insofar as gifted and talented (GATE) teachers are perceived as those who, based on responsibility for the educational act, manage to establish a pedagogical contract based on mutual respect.