ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that sociological analyses and methods may be of both interest and assistance to teachers in their work and may thus contribute to higher quality educational provision. It attempts this through a discussion of the potential sociological contribution to reflective teaching. Of course, other educational observers may not share this optimistic and value-committed view of the potential sociological contribution. Certainly many teachers are likely to be sceptical and may question the relevance of the discipline, ranging, as it does, well beyond the direct concerns of classroom and school practice. The international interest in this type of sociological contribution is reflected in the very rapid growth of the new journal Disability, Handicap and Society since it was launched in 1986 but it is also of considerable importance to classroom teachers who work with children who are deemed to have special needs.
