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Special Needs and Client Rights: the changing social and political context of special educational research
Author(s) -
Corbett Jenny,
Norwich Brahm
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192970230309
Subject(s) - explanatory power , sociology , politics , context (archaeology) , inclusion (mineral) , position (finance) , educational research , power (physics) , positive economics , social science , epistemology , political science , economics , law , paleontology , philosophy , quantum mechanics , biology , physics , finance
This paper explores the ways in which the study of special educational needs has developed and changed in the last decade and a half of policy‐making in education. It focuses upon key theoretical changes and the shift of emphasis in substantive concerns. In relation to theoretical issues, the changes have involved an increased focus upon social and political values guiding educational provision rather than on the specific explanatory disciplines of psychology and sociology. These changes can be attributed to the growth in consumer rights and parent power since the 1980s. It is argued that dichotomous thinking oversimplifies matters, whether between psychological and sociological perspectives or between the policy‐making values of inclusion and market‐driven choice. The implication of this position in terms of recent developments and their implications for future policy‐making are explored.