Rethinking roles, rethinking concepts: Special needs teachers in mainstream schools (original) (raw)

1991, Support for Learning

Readers will be aware that in last August's issue of this journal, Alan Dyson wrote, somewhat provocatively, about the future roles of special educational needs coordinators. This provoked many comments, including a response from Norman Butt and Gordon Malone in our last issue. The debate shows no sign of subsiding. Here Dyson elaborates and refines previous arguments. He goes to the heart of the matter, he asks special needs teachers to compare their present role with that of his model and he provides a step-by-step guide for this re-examination. Those with developing roles are invited to contact him at the School of Education, St Thomas' Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NEl 7RU in order to share experience. When I wrote 'Effective learning consultancy: A future role for special needs co-ordinators? ' (Supporf for Learning 5 , 3) it was with the purpose of engendering a debate. The reaction would seem to indicate that the debate has indeed begun. I am delighted that Norman Butt (1991) and Gordon Malone (1991) in print, and many others by more informal means, have taken the trouble to engage with the ideas 1 floated, even if they have disagreed with me fundamentally. I suppose the natural next step would be to respond to their criticisms in defence of my original position, or, as many have asked me to do, to elaborate on that original position in order to show precisely how the effective learning consultant might operate. In fact, 1 intend to do neither of these things, and that is because the debate I am interested in is of a very par-This paper was given at the International Special Education Congress, Cardiff, 1990.