Foreword

I find this work very moving. It is a critique of the present approach to special education informed by a poststructuralist framework, utilising extracts from the diary of the principal of a special school. Cath Laws reflects not only on existing discourses in relation to positions of 'bad, mad, and sad' within special education but also, critically, on her own practice, and therefore makes an important intervention into the practices of special education.

This work does not use Foucault in the traditional way, but more as a point of departure toward understanding the positioning of the subjects within the special school. It is this different approach which makes the work so moving and provides insights about subjectivity quite different from those in standard Foucauldian work.

The quality of this work lies in its thoughtful engagement with the discourses and practices of special education, and its use of a narrative approach, which in itself challenges the 'education as truth' doctrine found in the fields Laws critiques. It is a highly significant presentation of crucial issues for practice, set out in a clear, accessible way, and beautifully written. This work forms a much-needed critique of present practices of subjectification within special education. For that reason alone, it deserves to be taken very seriously indeed.