An analysis of the process through which pupils become classified as 'maladjusted' in the education system and consideration of the implications there of.

This study concerns the processes by which pupils were 'ascertain ed as maladjusted' before the implementation of the 1981 Education Act. An historical review defines the subject and two main themes: the continual dominance of a 'medical model' and the fluctuating pre-eminence of different professional groups. The study is then linked to the Sociology of Education. Weber's typology of ‘class, status and power' is selected to 'catalogue' groups and introduce other sociological perspectives. The research methodology comprises: 1) Examining the referral papers of 163 ascertained pupils, 2) Interviewing a senior staff member at a sample of 15 schools identified in (1), 3) Using relevant literature to support the analysis of (1) arid (2:)", Personal data, referral rationales from the documents, interview responses to questions about that data and answers concerning institutional reactions are all reported in detail. These are then analysed with associated material under four headings: 1) professional values, the most influential being those of teachers who initiate referrals and on whose accounts other professionals rely. Strongly influenced by notions of "control' and 'remediability' teachers construct an ‘ideal pupil’. The characteristics of referred pupils are those felt to be furthest from the ‘ideal'. 2) the ecology of maladjustment, showing how conflict, stratification and a variety of institutional or administrative arrangements affect rates of referral. 3) social class, using a variety of home factors and abandoning individual deficit, theories in favour of a sociological explanation incorporating poverty and alienation. 4) gender and ethnicity, described as 'status' factors creating particular referral rates within the major influences of social class. Factors. Despite changes in law and practice the strength of professional interests and the relative powerlessness cf pupils and parents mean that the referral of such pupils under some description to some form of special provision is likely to persist.