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Mental Deficiency: The Diagnosis and After‐Care of Special School Leavers in Early Twentieth Century Birmingham (UK) 1
Author(s) -
MYERS KEVIN,
BROWN ANNA
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2005.00247.x
Subject(s) - narrative , politics , sociology , state (computer science) , corporate governance , identification (biology) , social science , gender studies , public administration , political science , law , management , philosophy , linguistics , botany , algorithm , computer science , economics , biology
This article explores some issues concerning the development and implementation of mental deficiency as an organising principle of state education policy in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. More specifically, and using the city of Birmingham as a case study, it explores three themes. First, it provides a critical narrative of policymaking at the local level with the emphasis on governance and the politics of knowledge. Second, it engages with emerging debates around the processes of identification and diagnosis of children deemed in need of special schooling. Third, it employs both descriptive and inferential statistical models to realise some issues about the impact of diagnosis on the immediate life chances of those identified as mentally deficient.