ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the epistemological status of the concept of mild educational subnormality (ESN-M), by an empirical examination of the way in which professional people make decisions which place children within the category. It suggests that the decisions and judgments professionals made are constituted by their own beliefs about 'what is' an ESN child, rather than on any agreed objective criteria, and there is no normative agreement about what constitutes the category ESN-M. The chapter focuses on the accounts and explanations used by the professionals and the way they regard the involvement of other professionals in the referral process. It considers the 'racial' dimensions of the category in terms of the problem metropolitan British society currently faces over the incorporation of the children of black immigrant workers into the class structure. The chapter shows that parents overestimate the 'educational' functions of special schools.
