Labels and Stigma in Special Education

Abstract

Two notions about the delivery of services to disadvantaged deprived, and mildly retarded children are advanced: (a) that insufficient attention has been given to the fact that certain special education labels imply deficiencies and shortcomings in children and (b) that no systematic inquiry has been made of children's perceptions of the labels and services offered them. Analyses of data from several studies involving more than 10,000 public school students, graduates, and dropouts; college students; prospective and inservice teachers; and counselors revealed (a) that children reject the labels culturally disadvantaged and culturally deprived as descriptive of themselves, (b) that acceptance of such labels is associated with lowered school attitudes, (c) that teachers hold lowered expectations for performance of the deprived and disadvantaged child, (d) that the educable mentally retarded report (and teachers confirm) stigma associated with special class placement, and (e) that few strategies for the management of stigma in classes for the educable mentally retarded have been developed by teachers.

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