The Social Construction of Ability Perceptions

The role of school and community contexts in the formation of gifted adolescent girls' self-perceptions of ability are explored in this article. Findings are based on an ethnographic study which used participant-observation, interviewing, and unobtrusive measures to collect data on girls' experiences in one middle school. The results of this study indicated that social interaction contributed to the development of self-perceptions of ability, and that self-perceptions of ability, in turn, influenced gifted girls' decisions about appropriate achievement-related behavior. The formation of ability perceptions was seen as a cyclic process: gifted girls' interpretations of significant others' beliefs about giftedness influenced their self-estimates of ability and classroom behaviors, and their behaviors brought them feedback about their own abilities.