Volume 14, Number 2

Summary and Review of a 1996 Unpublished Undergraduate Dissertation, ‘the Exclusion of Special Educational Needs Pupils [dyslexia]’: Is the Child Excluded, a ‘Child in Need’?

  Authors

Paula Laura J Latham, Independent Researcher, United Kingdom

  Abstract

Has the digital industry and associated knowledge transfer systems been able to support the training of teachers in England and other parts of the world in being more aware of learning challenges like dyslexia? The 1996 research was able to contribute to the main question of appropriate school punishment. For instance, is the punishment of [school] exclusion appropriate or would another punishment be more appropriate? Does school exclusion (as a punishment) result in ‘creating a child in need’ or at the very least exacerbate the conditions of a ‘child in need’. The 1996 methodology was a case study project: primary data of a non-participant observation study related to a possible school-child/pupil exclusion. The child was 10 years old and statemented for specific learning needs: Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision. Today, the case study is still relevant as an example of a SEN childwho was receiving inadequate SEN provision because the 1996 report included literature to enable a c critical discussion. More generally, the school wasn’t a failing school. More recently, in 2021, The Centre for Social Justice for the UK (2021) clarified that dyslexia is classified as a disability and that approximately 50% of the prison population could have dyslexia prevalences.

  Keywords

Special Education Needs and school punishment, school exclusion, dyslexia, undergraduate dissertation, researcher ethics, digital connectivity for education and learning