ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the origin of ‘special educational needs’ and its adoption in UK and internationally. It examines the arguments used by the Warnock Report (1978) and how the term was introduced into UK educational policy. This leads to an examination of sociological critiques and the growth and influence of the social model associated with the disability movement. What follows is an analysis of various kinds of social models that represent different kinds of social theory. These perspectives represent different philosophical assumptions about the nature of disability and the purpose of knowledge about disability. This connects with disciplinary divisions between the individual versus the social perspective, and how different groups have represented a dichotomy between the medical and social models of disability. Throughout the chapter the importance of the interaction between factors and domains is recognised. The tensions identified in this chapter relate to basic differences about the purpose of ideas about disabilities. This links to another difference between those who recognise that disabled people are socially disadvantaged and those who see them as oppressed. This disadvantage–oppression distinction corresponds to different stances to the use of knowledge and understanding in the field; investigatory versus emancipatory positions respectively.
