Educational Subnormality
First published in 1981. Based on a three-year study of children moving into special ESN-M education in an English city in the mid-1970s, this book questions the whole concept of mild educational subnormality by examining the criteria according to which professionals make decisions to place children within this stigmatised category. It suggests that the beliefs that the professionals hold about the behavioural, family and class characteristics of the children help to determine their judgements, and that these beliefs are related to their own position within the social structure.
Sally Tomlinson started her career as a social worker and infant school teacher and has worked in higher education for over thirty-five years. She has taught, researched and written for all of her career in the areas of race, ethnicity and education, educational policy and special and inclusive education and was a member of the Commission on the Future of Multi-ethnic Britain which reported in 2000.