Educational Justice for the Gifted: A Philosophical Case for Deceleration and Ethical Responsiveness

This article critiques the dominance of acceleration as the default pedagogicalresponse to cognitive giftedness, and introduces deceleration as an ethically groundedalternative. While acceleration is often justified through evidence-based modelsfocused on performance and efficiency, it reflects deeper cultural logics rooted inneoliberal ideals. The article develops a normative-philosophical framework forrethinking educational pacing by drawing on Aristotle’s concept of eudaimonia, Kantianautonomy, and Biesta’s theory of subjectification. Rather than rejecting accelerationaltogether, deceleration is a pedagogical sensibility attuned to depth, reflection, andmoral formation. Methodologically, the article follows a normative-philosophicalapproach that synthesizes conceptual critique with ethical argumentation. Concreteimplications are explored through examples such as reflective learning, integration ofsocial-emotional learning, and scaffolded metacognition. The analysis concludes thatgifted education must move beyond cognitive optimization toward a richerunderstanding of learning as relational, ethical, and existential. The way to do this isthe opposite to the paradigm.