ABSTRACT
In England, the first significant educational changes with regards to pupils with special educational needs in mainstream education were recommended in the Warnock Report of 1978. The Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People, chaired by Mary (later Baroness) Warnock, was appointed in November 1973 by the then Secretary of State, Margaret Thatcher. Its remit was ‘to review educational provision in England, Scotland and Wales for children and young people handicapped by disabilities of body and mind, taking account of their needs, together with arrangements to prepare them for entry into employment; to consider the most effective use of resources for these purposes; and to make recommendations’ (Warnock, 1978: 1). Its most important contribution was the recommendation that the term ‘learning difficulties’, described as ‘mild’, ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’, be used, allowing these pupils to be included in mainstream educational schools and minimizing their social stigmatization. In the same report, the term ‘specific learning difficulties’ was coined for the first time for those pupils who experience major difficulties in particular areas of learning, namely reading. The focus in this chapter is on the antecedents, networks and uses of the concept of inclusion.
