ABSTRACT
The position of ethnic minority children in special education, particularly those of West Indian origin, is one of the clearest indications that this type of education does not exist solely to cater for the needs of individual children, but is related to the way particular groups are regarded as potentially troublesome to schools and society. Given the history of colonialism and white beliefs about the potential of black people (see Banton, 1979; Rex, 1971), it was highly probable that when black immigrant children began entering the education system in the early 1960s they would be regarded as a problem. Liberal pedagogic ideologies have always been stretched to their utmost in the assumption that black children were equal to white in most of the educative processes (Rex and Tomlinson, 1979, ch. 6). The general poor level of achievement of West Indian children in normal schools and their non-achievement through special schooling are not necessarily due to factors intrinsic to the children, but also to the ways in which the educational administrators and practitioners regard, and deal with, black children.
