From ‘Idiot Child’ to ‘Mental Defective’: schooling and the production of intellectual disabilities in the UK 1850 - 1944

dc.creator	Shereen Benjamin
dc.date	2006-04-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:12:14Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:12:14Z
dc.identifier	1477-5557
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/dbd544e0a5164dbab3c1458b5d88b8dd
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/15067
dc.description	Abstract: The UK government has committed itself, in theory, to a policy of ‘inclusive education’, and to reducing barriers to learning for children who struggle in mainstream schools. But there are many obstacles to such a project, not least of which is the government’s own insistence on raising ‘standards’: an insistence that is deeply problematic for those students to whom normative levels of examination performance are not accessible. This paper looks at the history of educational provision for such students, through the discourses which produce and are produced by that history. I divide the period up into three: the period from 1850-1899, marked by the prevalence of the charity/tragedy discourse, the period from 1899-1921, when a rights/protection discourse came to hold sway, and 1921-1944, when the medical discourse became more influential. Drawing on literature of the time, I show how various ‘common-sense’ meanings were established, and I examine how prevailing meanings and practices positioned those children and young people who were considered unable to benefit from mainstream schooling. These common-senses have not gone away, but underpin present understandings and practices. Although conditions for pupils now considered to have learning difficulties – or intellectual disabilities – have undoubtedly improved, their inscription into subordinate positions within a set of power relations largely constituted through the ability or otherwise to access dominant versions of academic ‘success’ has, I argue in this paper, remained constant.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	Institute of Education, University of London
dc.relation	http://www.educatejournal.org/index.php?journal=educate&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=48
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1477-5557
dc.source	Educate~, Vol 1, Iss 1, Pp 23-44 (2006)
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	From ‘Idiot Child’ to ‘Mental Defective’: schooling and the production of intellectual disabilities in the UK 1850 - 1944
dc.type	article