Reconceptualizing Verbal Intelligence: Perspectives From Gifted and Talented Black Elementary Students and Teachers in Urban Schools

This paper presents a study that employs a raciolinguistic language ideology lens to examine perspectives on verbal intelligence of Black elementary students and their teachers. A content analysis of qualitative interviews indicates that verbal intelligence existed within and across three communication modes (informative, performative, and associative), that students and teachers differed with respect to the characteristics associated with each mode, and that teachers did not link verbal intelligence with communication in the associative mode. Implications for educational theory, Black English perspectives, and gifted and talented education identification and assessment practices are offered with attention to an urban characteristic school setting.