This article reports on an ethnographic and sociological study of the curriculum inside a special school for students with severe intellectual disabilities in the UK. There are few such studies since it is the routing of children into the special education system that has been sociologically captivating. Bernstein’s analytical approach to the study of curricula is proposed as useful since it draws attention to the structure of the curriculum and is less concerned with assumptions about its content. It also highlights the social messages that are embedded within the curriculum. The data suggest that two codes were in operation within the curriculum. The first was designed to draw the out-of-school experiences of students into the classroom for greater scrutiny. The second involved the strict regulation of ‘dangerous’ knowledge, that is sexual knowledge. The implications of findings are discussed in relation to curriculum development, self-identity and the strength and nature of social boundaries.
Abbot, D., Morris, J. & Ward, L. ( 2001) The Best Place To Be?York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
2.
Armstrong, D. ( 2003) Experiences of Special Education: Re-Evaluating Policy and Practice Through Life Stories. LondonTaylor and Davies.
3.
Atkinson, P. ( 1981) The Clinical Experience. Aldershot : Gower.
4.
Atkinson, P., Dickinson, H. & Erben, M. ( 1986) ‘The Classification and Control of Vocational Training for Young People’, in S. Walker & L. Barton (eds) Youth Unemployment and Schooling . Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
5.
Barton, L. ( 1986) ‘The Politics of Special Educational Needs’ , Disability, Handicap and Society1: 273-90.
6.
Barton, L. & Tomlinson, S. ( 1981) ‘Introduction: A Sociological Perspective’ , in L. Barton & S. Tomlinson (eds) Special Education: Policy, Practices and Social Issues. London: Harper and Row.
7.
Barton, L. & Tomlinson, S. ( 1984) ‘The Politics of Integration’, in L. Barton & S. Tomlinson (eds) Special Education and Social Interests . London: Croom Helm.
8.
Berger, P.L. & Berger, B. ( 1976) Sociology: A Biographical Approach. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
9.
Bernstein, B. ( 1975) Class, Codes and Control 3. Henley : Routledge and Kegan Paul.
10.
Bernstein, B. ( 1996) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. London: Taylor and Francis.
11.
Brown, H. ( 1994) ‘"An Ordinary Sexual Life?" A Review of the Normalisation Principle as it Applies to the Sexual Options of People with Learning Disabilities’ , Disability and Society9: 123-44.
12.
Byers, R. ( 1999) ‘Experience and Achievement: Initiatives in Curriculum Development for Pupils with Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties’ , British Journal of Special Education26: 184-9.
13.
Carpenter, B. ( 1997) ‘The Interface between the Curriculum and the Code’ , British Journal of Special Education24: 18-23.
14.
Carrier, J. ( 1990) ‘Special Education and the Explanation of Pupil Performances’, Disability, Handicap and Society5: 211-26.
15.
Chazan, M. ( 1988) A Survey of Leavers from Schools in Wales for Pupils with Severe Learning Difficulty: Provision and Placement. Cardiff : Welsh Office.
16.
Clark, C., Dyson, A., Millward, A. & Skidmore, D. ( 1997) New Directions in Special Education. London: Cassell.
17.
Colwill, I. & Peacey, N. ( 2001) ‘Planning, Teaching and Assessing the Curriculum for Pupils with Learning Difficulties: Curriculum Guidelines to Support the Revised National Curriculum’, British Journal of Special Education28: 120-7.
18.
Craft, A. & Craft, M. ( 1983) Sex Education and Counselling for Mentally Handicapped People. Kent: Costello.
19.
Davis, J.M. & Watson, N. ( 2001) ‘Where Are the Children’s Experiences? Analysing Social and Cultural Exclusion in "Special" and "Mainstream" Schools’ , Disability & Society16: 671-88.
20.
DES (1990) A View of the Curriculum . London: HMSO.
21.
Fogelman, K. ( 1991) Schooling and Citizenship. London: Fulton.
22.
Ford, J., Morgon, D. & Whelan, M. ( 1982) Special Education and Social Control: Invisible Disasters . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
23.
Gallagher, D.J. ( 2001) ‘Neutrality as a Moral Standpoint: Conceptual Confusion and the Full Inclusion Debate’, Disability and Society16: 637-54.
24.
Gordon, T., Holland, J. & Lahelma, E. ( 2000) Making Spaces: Citizenship and Difference in Schools . Basingstoke: Macmillan.
25.
Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. ( 1995) Ethnography: Principles and Practice, 2nd edn. London: Routledge .
26.
Heyman, B. & Huckle, S. ( 1995) ‘Sexuality as Perceived Hazard in the Lives of Adults with Learning Difficulties’, Disability and Society10: 139-56.
27.
John, P.D. & Osborne, A. ( 1992) ‘The Influence of School Ethos on Pupils’ Citizenship Attitudes’, Educational Review44: 153-65.
28.
Johnson, K. ( 1978) ‘Dangerous Knowledge: A Case Study in the Social Control of Knowledge’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology14: 104-12.
29.
Lofland, J. & Lofland, L.H. ( 1995) Analyzing Social Settings, 3rd edn. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
30.
Maddison, A. ( 2002) ‘A Study of Curriculum Development in a New Special School’, British Journal of Special Education29: 20-8.
31.
Male, D. ( 1996) ‘Who Goes to SLD Schools?’, Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disability9: 307-23.
32.
Male, D. ( 2000) ‘Target Setting in Schools for Children with Severe Learning Difficulties’, British Journal of Special Education27: 6-12.
33.
McCarthy, M. ( 1999) Sexuality and Women with Learning Disabilities . London: Jessica Kingsley.
34.
McCarthy, M. & Thompson, D. ( 1995) ‘No More Double Standards: Sexuality in People with Learning Disabilities’, in T. Philpot & L. Ward (eds) Changing ideas in Services for People with Learning Disabilities. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
35.
McConkey, R. & Ryan, D. ( 2001) ‘Staff Experiences of Client Sexuality’ , Journal of Intellectual Disability Research45: 83-7.
36.
McDermott, S., Martin, M., Weinrich, M. & Kelly, M. ( 1999) ‘Program Evaluation of a Sex Education Curriculum for Women with Mental Retardation’, Research in Developmental Disabilities20: 93-106.
37.
MacMillan, D., Gresham, F. & Forness, S. ( 1996) ‘Full Inclusion: An Empirical Perspective’ , Behavioral Disorders21: 145-59.
38.
Mehan, H., Hertweck, A. & Meihls, J.L. ( 1986) Handicapping the Handicapped: Decision Making in Students’ Educational Careers. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
39.
Mercer, J. ( 1977) ‘Career Patterns of Persons Labelled as Mentally Retarded’, in E. Rubington & M. S. Weinburg (eds) Deviance: The Interactionist Perspective. London: Macmillan.
40.
Mittler, P. ( 1995) ‘Special Needs Education: An International Approach’ , British Journal of Special Education22: 105-8.
41.
National Curriculum Council (1990) Education for Citizenship. York: NCC.
42.
Oliver, M. ( 1985) ‘The Segregation-Integration Debate: Some Sociological Considerations’, British Journal of Sociology of Education6: 75-92.
43.
Oliver, M. ( 1990) The Politics of Disablement. London : MacMillan.
44.
Parry, O. ( 1988) ‘The Journalist School: The Occupational Socialisation of Graduate Journalists’, unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Wales College of Cardiff.
45.
Parry, O. & Pill, R. ( 1994) ‘"I Don’t Tell Him How To Live His Life":
46.
The Doctor/Patient Encounters as an Educational Context’, in M. Bloor and P. Taraborrelli (eds) Qualitative Studies in Health and Medicine. Aldershot: Avebury.
47.
Pearce, N. & Hallgarten, J. (eds) (2000) Tomorrow’s Citizens: Critical Debates in Citizenship and Education. London: Institute for Public Policy Research.
48.
QCA/DfEE ( 2001) Planning,Teaching and Assessing the Curriculum for Pupils with Learning Difficulties. London: QCA.
49.
Robinson, C. & Stalker, K. (eds) Growing up with Disability. London: Jessica Kingsley.
50.
Sex Education Forum (2004) Sex and Relationships Education for Children and Young People with Learning Difficulties . London: NCB.
51.
Simpson, A., Lafferty, A. & McConkey, R. ( 2006) Out of the Shadows: A Report on the Sexual Health and Wellbeing of People with Learning Disabilities in Northern Ireland. London: FPA.
52.
Spradley, J.P. ( 1979) The Ethnographic Interview. New York : Holt Rinehart and Winston.
53.
Stewart, D. ( 1999) ‘Sex Education for Students with Severe Learning Disabilities’, in P. Cambridge & H. Brown (eds) HIV and Learning Disability . Kidderminster: BILD.
54.
Thomas, G., Walker, D. & Webb, J. ( 1998) The Making of the Inclusive School. London: Routledge.
55.
Tisdall, E.K.M. ( 1994) ‘Why Not Consider Citizenship? A Critique of Post-School Transitional Models for Young Disabled People’, Disability and Society9: 3-17.
56.
Todd, S. ( 1995) ‘Preludes to Secrecy’, in J. Salisbury & S. Delamont (eds), Qualitative Studies in Education. Aldershot: Ashgate.
57.
Todd, S. ( 2000) ‘Working in the Public and Private Domains: Staff Management of Community Activities for and Identities of People with Intellectual Disabilities’, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research44: 600-20.
58.
Tomlinson, S. ( 1981) Educational Subnormality: A Study in Decision Making . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
59.
Tomlinson, S. ( 1982) A Sociology of Special Education. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
60.
Tomlinson, S. ( 1985) ‘The Expansion of Special Education’ , Oxford Review of Education11: 157-65.
61.
Tomlinson, S. & Colhuqoun, R.F. ( 1995) ‘The Political Economy of Special Educational Needs in Britain’, Disability and Society10: 191-202.
62.
Tyne, A. ( 1993) ‘The Great Integration Debate, Part 3’ , Mental Handicap21: 150-2.
63.
Wolcot, H.F. ( 1992) ‘Posturing in Qualitative Research’ , in M. D. LeCompte, W. L. Millroy & J. Preissle (eds), The Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education (pp. 3-52). New York: Academic Press.
64.
Walmsley, J. ( 1991) ‘"Talking to Top People": Some Issues Relating to the Citizenship of People with Learning Difficulties’, Disability, Handicap and Society6: 219-31.
65.
Wheeler, S. ( 1976) ‘The Structure of Formally Organized Socialization Settings’, in O. G. Brim & S. Wheeler (eds), Socialization after childhood: Two Essays. New York, Wiley.
