Developments in special education in Ireland: deep structures and policy making

Abstract

Clinical discourses from the domains of medicine and psychology exert a powerful influence on theory and practice in special education. These discourses first define disability as ‘an individual human condition’ and locate ‘the problem’ in the physiological and psychological characteristics of the individual. Second, they privilege the role of experts and exclude the perspectives of disabled people themselves. In spite of considerable criticism, psycho-medical definitions of and responses to disability have been incorporated into educational legislation in Ireland and continue to dominate policy development in special education. The real danger of failing to address these deep structures in special education is that exclusion and marginalization will be reproduced even in well-intentioned and well-supported programmes.

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