Deconstructing Special Education and Constructing Inclusion

"Deconstructing Special Education and Constructing Inclusion is a sophisticated, multidisciplinary critique of special education that leaves virtually no intellectual stone unturned. It is a must read for anyone interested in the role and significance of inclusive pedagogy in the new struggle for an inclusive society" - Professor Tom Skrtic, University of Kansas

In this book the authors look behind special education to its supposed intellectual foundations. They find a knowledge jumble constructed of bits and pieces from Piagetian, psychoanalytic, psychometric and behavioural theoretical models. They examine the consequences of these models' influence for professional and popular thinking about learning difficulty. In turn, they explore and critique the results of this dominance for our views about children who are different and for the development of special education and its associated professions. In the light of this critique, they suggest that much of the 'knowledge' of special education is misconceived, and they proceed to advance a powerful rationale for inclusion out of ideas about stakeholding, social justice and human rights. Concluding that inclusion owes more to political theory than to psychology or sociology, the authors suggest that a rethink is needed about the ways in which we come by educational knowledge. This is important reading for students of education, and for teachers, advisers and educational psychologists.

Gary Thomas holds a chair in education at Oxford Brookes University. He has undertaken research for a number of organizations including the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, Barnardos and the Department for Education and Employment. His book The Making of the Inclusive School won the The Times Educational Supplement/National Association for Special Educational Needs book of the year award in 1998.

Andrew Loxley is a lecturer in education at the University of Leeds, having previously worked at the Open University as a research fellow. Prior to undertaking his PhD in quasi-markets and special education, he worked as a teacher in a residential school for children with behaviour problems.