Table of Contents

Introduction 
1 The ‘theory’ behind special education 
2 The knowledge-roots of special education 
3 Intersections 
4 Children’s behaviour at school: it’s strange. But why do we expect anything else? 
5 Thinking and research about learning failure, especially in reading 
6 Modelling difference and diversity 
7 Policy, politics and paradox 
8 Against inclusion? 
9 Inclusive education in the twenty-first century 
10 Conclusion

About the Author

Gary Thomas took up the post of chair in education at Birmingham in 2005. Before university teaching, he worked as a teacher and as an educational psychologist. In higher education – at the University of Leeds, at Oxford Brookes University, UWE and University College London – his teaching and research have focused on inclusion, special education, and research methodology in education. He has received awards from the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the DfES, Barnardos, the Cadmean Trust, local authorities and a range of other organisations. Most of his funded research has been on inclusive or special education, though his Leverhulme Research Fellowship was awarded to examine the role of theory in education. He currently leads an ESRC thematic seminar competition in the Teaching and Learning Research Programme on the assessment of quality in educational research. He is the founding co-editor of a Taylor & Francis Carfax journal, the International Journal of Research and Method in Education and he is an editorial board member of the British Educational Research Journal.



Andrew Loxley is now a lecturer in education at Trinity College,, having previously worked at the University of Leeds and the Open University as a research fellow. Prior to undertaking his PhD in quasi-markets and special education, he worked as a teacher in a residential school for children with behaviour problems.