ABSTRACT
National and international policies directed towards supporting the development of children who experience factors marginalising them from communities are paradoxically the principal reasons why little progress has been made in addressing the negative experiences of many young children, not least those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This chapter examines this thesis, first by challenging the ideological orientation of internationally agreed conventions relating to children’s ‘protection’. It maintains that these devices adopt an ‘anointed’ position (Sowell, 1995), bearing little resemblance to the realities of young children and their families who remain excluded from even basic services, because policymakers and their acolytes who lead the drive to apply policy into practice fail to connect with the realities of marginalised groups, so children’s rights are defined by a few influential gatekeepers who adopt an ideological position. The chapter exemplifies these inconsistencies and paradoxes in several national educational contexts, representing diverse manifestations of culture, socio-economic status and political orientation. They evidence that little progress has been made in addressing the basic needs of SEND populations – even in advanced post-industrial democracies – and that early interventions supporting young children’s needs remain a figment in the minds of policymakers and their messengers.
