An empirical investigation of international research relating to special educational needs is reported. Two international arenas were identified: a North American and a British/European. Articles from 2004 were analysed with regard to 1) sex of authors, 2) country of institutional affiliation of authors, 3) themes and 4) perspectives. The analyses suggest that, to a large extent, research is still nationally oriented. Female authors were most common in 11 of the 12 journals. The thematic analyses revealed similar patterns across arenas but the theme inclusion was far more common in the British/European journals. Research perspectives were mostly normative and a possible emerging middle-ground was identified. Implications of these empirical patterns are discussed in the article. (Contains 15 tables and 1 figure.)