Injustice: Why Inequality Persists .

Daniel Dorling 2010 .

London : Policy Press , 400 pp. Hardback £19.99. ISBN 13 978 1847424266

The case for change within both the educational and special educational needs system is clear (DfE, 2010). As Rix et al. (2010, p. 4) suggested, ‘nearly everything about the construction of our current social system is based on separation and segregation . . . it is not a system that is well suited to the delivery of equality, participation and inclusion’. Practices in special needs education do not develop in isolation. Research-based knowledge dedicated to the illumination of school development for inclusion (see, for example, Barr and Smith, 2009), speaks to the importance of the interplay between individual teacher, institutional and wider discourses and narratives that either help or hinder institutional practices. Such discourses or narratives appear to interact in very complex ways, creating different patterns at different institutional sites (Barr and Smith, 2009).

In addition to having this book as indicative reading for my Master's in Education module, it was ideas such as the above that drew me to it. Dorling's book is about the wider societal discourses and narratives associated with social injustice today. His starting point comprises the five social evils identified by Michael Beveridge, the British economist and social reformer closely associated with the development of the welfare state. In 1941, Beveridge was commissioned by the Government to report into how Britain should be rebuilt after the Second World War. His report, published in 1942, recommended that the Government find ways of fighting the five giant evils of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. In this book, Dorling argues that, as these five social evils have gradually been eradicated, they are nevertheless being replaced by five new tenets which have now become the incubus of inequality within local and global communities. The five tenets are:

•Elitism is efficient.

•Exclusion is necessary.

•Prejudice is natural.

•Greed is good.

•Despair is inevitable.

With regard to the last two discourses, Dorling explains their emergence in the following terms. For example, with the widespread eradication of squalor in affluent countries, the checks and balances on greed were lost. Greed became acceptable and led to further inequality within society. Material goods came to represent the person and greed soared to bolster self-image, such that, if goods disappeared, sense of self disappeared, leading to despair. With respect to despair, Dorling suggests that this mutated from the social evil of disease. So, for example, while there are now better outcomes and treatments for physical illnesses, mental illness has increased, particularly in societies where social inequalities are greatest. According to Dorling, the above five tenets all contribute to this discourse or narrative, and, he argues, unless things change, despair and depression will continue to rise in the most unequal affluent countries.

Dorling raises a great number of important issues with respect to education. For example, while not a new idea, his critique of the legacy of psychometric theories of intelligence that presuppose the existence of fixed, differential ceilings of achievement for each child –IQism– is made anew and with much conviction in the context of its role in embedding and reinforcing elitism. Dorling argues against claims of heritable differences in ability and states that environment has a much greater bearing on performance. In addition, he refutes the term ‘gifted’ and states that a belief in the existence of a small group of ‘elite’ learners identified by IQ tests contributes greatly to injustice, since it gives credence to the acceptability of social inequality. In advancing his claim that educational institutions reproduce elitism, Dorling points to such evidence as the disparity that exists for private education in Britain, which constitutes 7% of the total educational establishment while nevertheless accounting for 23% of the total education budget.

This is a book which, I believe, would be essential reading for school-based practitioners undertaking Master's-level study in topics that link special educational needs and educational disadvantage – but not to be read from cover to cover. Furthermore, following Ekins (forthcoming), I believe it would be essential reading for school-based practitioners, higher education colleagues, advisers, and professionals from education, health and social care working with vulnerable pupils, who are keen to engage actively with a critical review and reflection about the current situation for pupils identified as having special educational needs, and ways in which school-based work might be radically reformed to offer better outcomes for all.

Nichola Corner

References

BARR, S. and SMITH, R. A.L. (2009) Towards educational inclusion in a transforming society: some lessons from community relations and special needs education in Northern Ireland. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 13, 2, 211–230.

DfE (2010) The Case for Change. London: Crown Copyright.

EKINS, A. (forthcoming) The Changing Face of Special Educational Needs: Impact and Implications for SENCos and Their Schools. London: Routledge.

RIX, J., WALSH, C., PARRY, J and KUMRAI, R. (eds) (2010) Equality, Participation and Inclusion: Diverse Perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge.

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