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Systematic Review of U.S.-Based Research on Racism Experienced by School Psychology Graduate Students
School Psychology Review
... Among the studies that examined a specific racial/ethnic group's experiences, the majority, by far, focused on Black and African American students' experiences. As we have articulated elsewhere (Goldie et al., 2024), we understand this as an important development in the field given that anti-Blackness has long been embedded in school psychology practice and K-12 schools more broadly (e.g., Proctor, 2022). Conversely, we identified very few studies focused specifically on the experiences of Asian and Latine youth, especially relative to their representation in the US broadly. ...
Individual and systemic racism are pervasive in K-12 schools in the United States and threaten the well-being of Students of Color. Understanding the extent to which school psychology research has examined students’ perceptions of individual and systemic racism in schools is critical for advancing the field’s antiracist scholarship and practice. The present review systematically evaluated empirical articles published in eleven major school psychology journals between 2011 and 2021 that focused on K-12 students’ perceptions of individual and systemic racism. Twenty studies met criteria for inclusion and examined racism in relation to: (a) interpersonal relationships; (b) mental health and psychological outcomes; (c) academic outcomes; (d) school climate; and (e) behavioral outcomes. A majority of these studies included racially/ethnically diverse students ( n = 6; 30%) or exclusively Black/African American students ( n = 7; 35%) in their samples. Most used quantitative methods ( n = 16; 80%), whereas relatively few employed qualitative methods ( n = 4; 20%). These findings suggest the presence of a foundational yet developing literature on students’ perceptions of racism in schools. Implications for school psychology practitioners and researchers in furthering antiracist efforts are discussed.
... Although there are no studies specifically about school psychology faculty's multicultural competence, the experiences of school psychology students and practitioners suggest similar concerns. Racially and ethnically minoritized students report experiences of racism, discrimination, and microaggressions in their graduate programs (Goldie et al., 2024). For example, female graduate students of color described a disconnect between faculty's social justice aspirations and their actions, with faculty treating multicultural training as an afterthought. ...
Faculty play an integral role in preparing multiculturally competent school psychologists; however, little is known about the faculty’s capacity to provide multicultural training. The present study examined graduate students’ perceptions of their faculty’s multicultural competence and explored differences in perceptions based on students’ race, sexual orientation, and gender. A sample of 112 graduate students completed the Perceived Faculty Competence Inventory (Multicultural Competence subscale) and a brief demographic questionnaire. Results indicate that participants had moderately favorable perceptions of faculty multicultural competence but were not strongly confident in their faculty’s multicultural competence. Additionally, Black students and female and other gender students had more negative perceptions of faculty multicultural competence compared to White peers and male peers. Recommendations for developing and maintaining faculty’s multicultural competence are provided.
Individuals from racial and ethnic minoritized (REM) groups have long been underrepresented in school psychology. While REM individuals comprise 23.6% of the United States population, REM representation in school psychology is only 12% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019; Walcott & Hyson, 2015). Most efforts to diversify school psychology have focused on recruitment of REM individuals into graduate programs. However, less attention has been given to creating inclusive program environments to retain them in the profession (Malone & Ishmail, 2020; Proctor & Owens, 2019). Access to high-quality, liberatory mentoring is one possible way to support REM graduate students' success and retention. There is a need for clear research-based guidance for mentoring REM school psychology students. Based on the relevant research and scholarship, this article presents recommendations for using multicultural, feminist, and ecological mentoring approaches to promote REM student inclusion and retention.
The purported goal of social science research is to develop approaches and applications to the psychological study of social issues that allow us to know, accurately and inclusively, the lived experiences of all human beings. However, our current theoretical and methodological tools, while perceived as “objective,” were founded on ahistorical and context‐eliminating perspectives that privilege research designs and analytic strategies that reflect biased racial reasoning with roots in European colonial knowledge formations. By analyzing how the language of “rigor” is deployed within specific instances of social science research, we assert that it is conceptualized and operationalized to maintain a Eurocentric worldview and conception of the “human.” In exploring the ways that the language of “rigor” furthers a European conception of knowledge production as normative, this manuscript provides a critical analysis that seeks to redress ongoing epistemic colonial violence by decolonizing a key term in psychological scholarship.
In the 1960s, Black student protests of racism through sit-ins, building occupations, and demands for the resignation of university top administrators spurred the creation of ethnic studies and diversity programs on white university campuses in the United States. These efforts did not, unfortunately, dismantle entrenched structural racism. Black student activism continues to confront racial inequi-ties using digitized campaigns on social media platforms to reach a global audience. This study uses critical race theory to explore how Black students at a white-dominant university give meaning to their racialized experiences as communicated using the twitter hashtag campaign #Blackatpwi. The results illuminate the magnitude of anti-Black racism and conditions under which Black students are expected to learn, the myriad ways white institutions reproduce and reinforce white supremacy and the students' mobilization efforts to resist anti-Black racism. We provide recommendations to promote racial equity in higher education. ARTICLE HISTORY
School Psychologists are called to increase the well‐being of clients they serve. However, despite a focus on supporting academic and behavioral success, school psychology has been used to enforce Eurocentric standards of normalcy and behavior on students in schools, punishing and excluding those deemed different. “Othering” is rooted in a legacy of educational indoctrination and assimilation negatively impacting students from minoritized backgrounds and represents a “colonial present”. To evaluate the epistemic violence endemic to school psychology, we conducted a systematic literature review of the most recently published literature across five school psychology journals (n = 627) utilizing a decolonial framework. Articles were coded for demographic inclusion, empirical approach, disciplinary context, minoritized inclusion level, and acknowledgment of author situatedness and roles in maintaining colonialist structures. While, 81% of studies included some degree of minoritized inclusion, less than 5% of these articles utilized culturally responsive approaches or acknowledged colonialism or white supremacy. Recommendations for a movement toward a more decolonial approach to school psychology research are discussed.
As efforts to end systemic racism gain momentum across various contexts, it is critical to consider antiracist steps needed to improve psychological science. Current scientific practices may serve to maintain white supremacy with significant and impactful consequences. Extant research practices reinforce norms of homogeneity within BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) populations, segregate theories, and methods derived from BIPOC groups, apply disparate standards to the evaluation of research on white versus BIPOC populations, and discourage BIPOC scholars from pursuing research careers. Perhaps consequently, disparities persist on a range of psychologically relevant outcomes (e.g., mental and physical health). This article presents examples of how epistemic oppression exists within psychological science, including in how science is conducted, reported, reviewed, and disseminated. This article offers a needed contribution by providing specific concrete recommendations for different stakeholders, including those involved in the production, reporting, and gatekeeping of science as well as consumers of science. Additionally, a discussion of accountability steps are offered to ensure that psychological science moves beyond talk and toward action, with possible strategies to measure outcomes, stimulate progress, promote dialogue and action, challenge inequity, and upend the influence of white supremacy in psychological science.
Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic intervention that uses stories and narratives to offer insight about personal dilemmas, teach cultural traditions, and assist in fostering various facets of identity development. For adolescent Black boys, exploring stories with protagonists that look like them, who come from similar cultural backgrounds and contend with familiar social/emotional issues and systemic barriers, stimulates healthy discussions that can increase self-awareness and an understanding about the systemic barriers they navigate. This article provides clear, concise, step-by-step guidelines to assist practicing school counselors in effectively using bibliotherapy with adolescent Black boys.
School psychologists enter the third decade of the 21st century marked by mass protests against state-sanctioned violence against Black people, worsening economic and environmental crises, and a deadly pandemic that makes preexisting disparities worse. We argue that the profession can respond to the challenges children, families, and schools face ahead by taking a ‘critical’ turn. We delineate at least five lessons that can be learned from various critical theories and movements that—if intentionally, thoughtfully, and authentically engaged—have the potential to reshape our traditional ‘ways of being,’ and transform who we are as a field and subsequently our ability to advance social justice. We conclude by proposing a conceptual framework for a creative and dialogic site within school psychology that we call critical school psychology (CSP). CSP enables school psychologists to combat social injustice both within and outside school psychology, and work toward/for social justice by creating different kinds of knowledge and different kinds of spaces.
Impact Statement
Drawing upon various critical theories, we propose critical school psychology (CSP)—a conceptual framework to transform school psychology into a profession dedicated to combating social injustices and oppressive processes both within and outside of itself. We discuss how researchers, practitioners, graduate educators, and graduate students can play a role in this transformational work-in-progress by creating different kinds of knowledge and spaces.
Being a White ally goes beyond being merely “non-racist” and having good intentions. Meaningful allyship is behavioural and requires active participation in dismantling systems of oppression. The objective of this study was to ascertain the degree to which White individuals behave in an allied manner when provided the opportunity to do so by comparing observed racial justice allyship behaviour to self-reported allyship behaviours. Using a subsample (N=31) from a larger study, White participants took part in a laboratory behavioural task where they engaged in three 5-minute discussions with another White participant (a confederate) about racially-charged news stories in the United States while knowingly being watched by a Black RA via live recording. Stories represented different forms of racism towards Black people: the removal of a Confederate monument; the killing of an unarmed Black male college student by police after a car accident; and a fraternity party where members dressed up as Black stereotypes. Coders were asked to rate how they believed a Person of Colour would feel interacting with that participant using a 4-point Likert scale: 0 (absence of any supportive comments) to 3 (very explicit, unwavering support for non-racist and equity values and behaviour). Furthermore, a newly developed self-report questionnaire indicating interpersonal allyship (IRAS) was used to ascertain self-reported allyship. Results showed that when using a mean cut-off score of 2 as an indicator of allyship for each laboratory scenario (consistent support throughout the interaction), only 6.4% of participants met these criteria. Furthermore, only 3.2% of the participants were allies in all 3 scenarios, 9.7% were allies in 2 scenarios, and 16.1% were allies in 1 scenario. The results indicated that White people consistently showed a lack of allyship towards Black people. We discuss the challenges of allyship, and the difference between White allies and White saviors. Future research should expand on and explore the complexities and nuances of meaningful White allyship.
Black students attending historically White institutions of higher education experience racism, racial microaggressions, racial stress, and consequent racial battle fatigue (RBF; Franklin et al., 2014). We examined Black counseling and clinical graduate students’ (BGS) experiences of psychological, physiological, and behavioral RBF across their roles as students in class, advisees, and supervisees and differences in RBF experiences by gender and race. Participants were 57 counseling and clinical graduate students who identified as Monoracial, Biracial, or Multiracial Black. One-way, repeated measures analysis of variance results showed that BGS experienced the highest levels of RBF in their student-in-class role, and those experiences differed for women and men. Results suggest that the RBF framework has utility for measuring and further understanding how BGS’ student role and learning contexts influence their postsecondary experiences and how institutions can develop better supports for this student population.
In the face of unreplicable results, statistical anomalies, and outright fraud, introspection and changes in the psychological sciences have taken root. Vibrant reform and metascience movements have emerged. These are exciting developments and may point toward practical improvements in the future. Yet there is nothing so practical as good theory. This article outlines aspects of reform and metascience in psychology that are ripe for an injection of theory, including a lot of excellent and overlooked theoretical work from different disciplines. I review established frameworks that model the process of scientific discovery, the types of scientific networks that we ought to aspire to, and the processes by which problematic norms and institutions might evolve, focusing especially on modeling from the philosophy of science and cultural evolution. We have unwittingly evolved a toxic scientific ecosystem; existing interdisciplinary theory may help us intelligently design a better one.
Psychological science has been slow to incorporate intersectionality as a concept and as a framework for conducting research. This limits not only the potential for intersectionality theory, but also limits the potential impact of the research claiming to use it. Mennies and colleagues conducted a study of psychopathology and treatment utilization using a large racially diverse sample of youth and frame their work as intersectional because they compare across three social categories (race, sex, and social class) and consider social issues that may impact the groups studied. We argue that while this represents a preliminary step, it does not represent intersectionality theory and praxis. In this article we review intersectional theory and praxis, examine psychological science and its resistance to fully incorporating intersectionality, and highlight how research must shift to be truly intersectional. Finally, we issue a call to the field to integrate intersectionality theory and praxis and to resist the tendency to dilute and depoliticize intersectionality theory and disconnect from its social justice frame.
In the summer of 2020, the death of George Floyd – yet another unarmed Black man killed at the hands of police – thrust race and racism to the forefront of public attention in the United States. Across the country, demonstrators and protestors mobilized to end police brutality, one mechanism of systemic racism in this country’s history and present. As this paper explores, occupation too has played a role in the systemic racism against Black people in the United States. In recent years, occupational scientists have critiqued tacit assumptions regarding the qualities and effects of occupation. The following examination contributes to this growing body of critical literature and considers that occupation can be a vehicle for injustice as much as justice. By investigating the construction of race and the dissemination of racism, including its propagation through everyday living, the role of occupation in community formation and development is more fully understood. In pursuing this goal, we hope to reveal the real and often unacknowledged history of racism in the United States that must be recognized and confronted to move toward reconciliation, healing, and social transformation. This exploration uncovers powerful moments when occupation and everyday doing were conduits through which racism was constructed and calls upon occupational scholars to be reflective and critical in their research and practice in order to optimally support the people they serve.
Experiences of racism contribute to the mental health burden of Black individuals in the United States, and during emerging adulthood, these impacts may be especially intensified. The majority of research on racism captures individual-level experiences and utilizes frequency-based measures. This mixed methods investigation examines convergence and divergence between a measure of recent experiences of racism and a measure of worst experiences of racism at multiple levels (individual, cultural, institutional). A sample of 186 Black college-attending emerging adults (Mage = 19.36; 62.7% female) reported their recent experiences using a quantitative measure and their worst experiences via a qualitative open-ended response, which were analyzed via convergent parallel design. The results indicated that a majority of reported worst experiences had an institutional-level component. Although the quantitative measure of recent experiences corresponded with reports of individual-level worst experiences, the institutional- and cultural-level worst experiences were rarely fully captured by the recent experiences measure. Implications for the mental health of Black college-attending emerging adults are discussed.
This qualitative study explored factors contributing to the retention of students of color while pursuing a graduate degree at a predominantly White institution. Ten students of color (9 female; 23 to 31 years old) participated in the study. Eight were pursuing a doctorate in psychology. Two were pursuing a master’s degree in higher education and anthropology. Participants represented various U.S. geographical regions, including Pacific Northwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Southwest. Participants emphasized the important role racial identity salience played in their perception of the program environment and navigating challenges unique to their experiences as students of color. They indicated that program racial climate, availability and quality of social support within their program, access to resources and support outside of their program, and individual resilience each had a critical part in persistence toward degree completion. The results suggest that the following are key in retaining students of color: learning environments that are safe, inclusive, and acknowledge the multiple facets of their identities.
Black students are often tasked with negotiating racial microaggressions—subtle, racialized offenses—at historically White colleges and universities. Higher education scholarship has found that when Black students speak up in response to racial microaggressions, they tend to feel overburdened with having to educate the offending party. This article demonstrates how Black students used a more empowering strategy that they called beasting, where they utilized culturally affirming counternarratives to actively oppose racial microaggressions. In this process, Black students drew upon their own diverse knowledge base to contest and reframe dominant ideologies that stereotyped, dismissed, and devalued their racial group. These counternarratives included: (a) asserting Black intellect; (b) centering Black history, culture and perspectives; and (c) affirming the diversity within Black communities. These culturally affirming counternarratives serve as a powerful form of resistant capital for Black students. Moreover, the university context can facilitate the sharing of these narratives through Black student organizations, ethnic studies courses, and friendship networks. Black students can utilize this resistant capital in the future to navigate other historically White institutions that are critical to social mobility.
Lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the school psychology workforce has been a concern since the profession's inception. One solution is to graduate more racially and ethnically diverse individuals from school psychology programs. This structured review explored the characteristics of studies published from 1994 to 2017 that investigated graduate student retention and school psychology. An electronic search that included specified databases, subject terms, and study inclusion criteria along with a manual search of 10 school psychology journals yielded two published, peer‐reviewed studies focused primarily on graduate student retention and school psychology over the 23‐year span. Two researchers coded the studies using a rigorous coding process with high inter‐rater reliability. Findings suggest that mostly Black and White individuals served as participants, undergraduate students represented the largest group sampled, and key school psychology stakeholders’ views were missing. Additionally, programs interested in retaining racially and ethnically diverse students should have a commitment to multicultural issues, expose students to diverse professional networks and mentorship, and cultivate an inclusive program environment. Implications point to a need for more studies focused on school psychology graduate student retention in general and in specific relation to retaining racial and ethnic minoritized students.
Given the immense harm inflicted on individuals and groups of color via prejudice and discrimination, it becomes imperative for our nation to begin the process of disrupting, dismantling, and disarming the constant onslaught of micro- and macroaggressions. For too long, acceptance, silence, passivity, and inaction have been the predominant, albeit ineffective, strategies for coping with microaggressions. Inaction does nothing but support and proliferate biased perpetrator behaviors which occur at individual, institutional and societal levels. This article introduces a new strategic framework developed for addressing microaggressions that moves beyond coping and survival to concrete action steps and dialogues that targets, allies, and bystanders can perform (microinterventions). A review of responses to racist acts, suggest that microaggression reactions/interventions may be primarily to (a) remain passive, retreat, or give up; (b) strike back or hurt the aggressor; (c) stop, diminish, deflect, or put an end to the harmful act; (d) educate the perpetrator; (e) validate and support the targets; (f) act as an ally; (g) seek social support; (h) enlist outside authority or institutional intervention; or (h) achieve any combination of these objectives. We organize these responses into four major strategic goals of microinterventions: (a) make the invisible visible, (b) disarm the microaggression, (c) educate the perpetrator, and (d) seek external reinforcement or support. The objectives and rationale for each goal are discussed, along with specific microintervention tactics to employ and examples of how they are executed.
In the late 19th century, eugenics, a pseudo-scientific doctrine based on an erroneous interpretation of the laws of heredity, swept across the industrialised world. Academics and other influential figures who promoted it convinced political stakeholders to enact laws authorising the sterilisation of people seen as ‘social misfits’. The earliest sterilisation Act was enforced in Indiana, in 1907; most states in the USA followed suit and so did several countries, with dissimilar political regimes. The end of the Second World War saw the suspension of Nazi legislation in Germany, including that regulating coerced sterilisation. The year 1945 should have been the endpoint of these inhuman practices but, in the early post-war period, the existing sterilisation Acts were suspended solely in Germany and Austria. Only much later did certain countries concerned – not Japan so far – officially acknowledge the human rights violations committed, issue apologies and develop reparation schemes for the victims’ benefit.
The purpose of this study was to investigate ethnically and racially diverse school psychology students' experiences with racial microaggressions in school psychology graduate training. Through a national survey of ethnically and racially diverse school psychology students (N 5 228), the study examined if level of graduate training (i.e., interns versus noninterns) affects diverse ethnic and racial groups and their experience of workplace and school microaggressions. Although the experience of racial microaggressions was not found dependent on level of graduate training, there was a main effect for ethnic and racial group classification and the significant difference in the means of racial microaggressions were between Black and multiethnic participants. Across all groups, Black interns reported experiencing the highest frequency of workplace and school microaggressions. Implications for university-and field-based intern supervisors regarding addressing racial microaggressions are provided.
Scholars in special education and school psychology are engaged in renewed debate about the disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in special education following research and commentaries challenging long held assumptions that many students are inappropriately identified with special needs. A brief synthesis of disproportionality scholarship, federal policy, and related research, followed by discussion of the implications for school psychological practice from an orientation toward racial justice, is provided. A more deeply contextualized review of the special education research is offered, recognizing the relations of disproportionality to research on other educational inequities and the questionable effectiveness of both general and special education services for many students. A racial justice perspective is encouraged that reconciles these controversial literatures by emphasizing ecological orientation to understanding development and behavior, challenging the essentializing race and student performance, and focusing on professional efforts to improve preventative general education services and reliable identification of special needs.
As marginalized graduate students and faculty, we have stories to tell about our experiences within school psychology. Many of these stories center our oppression, trauma, and exclusion but some of them also center our joy and resistance. The purpose of this collaborative autoethnographic project was to create a counterspace in which we, BIWOC faculty and graduate students, could come together to engage in storytelling and build community amongst one another as a way to survive and thrive in academia. As a result of the counterspace, we are able to provide critical feedback and recommendations for school psychology programs to better support marginalized students and faculty. And we also offer critical hope and knowledge to marginalized graduate students and faculty who are currently in the field.
Objective:
This study assessed perceptions of Clinical Psychology doctoral programs' efforts to recruit and retain faculty and graduate students of color, as well as differences in perceptions based on participants' position within their program (i.e. graduate student versus faculty) and race.
Method:
Participants (n = 297; 35% people of color; 79% female; mean age: 32) were graduate students and faculty from Clinical Psychology doctoral programs who completed an anonymous online survey about their programs' efforts to recruit and retain graduate students and faculty of color; sense of belonging and perceptions of racial discrimination within programs; and experiences of cultural taxation and racism within programs.
Results:
Faculty (n = 95) reported significantly greater perceptions of recruitment and retention efforts and fewer perceptions of racial discrimination than did graduate students (n = 202). Asian (n = 31), Black (n = 25), and Latinx (n = 35) participants reported significantly fewer perceptions of recruitment and retention efforts, less sense of belonging, and greater perceptions of racial discrimination than did White participants (n = 192). Cultural taxation was common among participants of color, and approximately half (47%) reported they have considered leaving academia - and approximately one third (31%) have considered leaving their program - due to experiences of racism in their program or field.
Conclusions:
Cultural taxation and racial discrimination were common among scholars of color in this sample. Whether intentional or not, these experiences contribute to racially-toxic environments and negatively impact the racial diversity of the mental health workforce.
Each year the Graduate Education Committee of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) administers the National School Psychology Program Database Survey. Data regarding the status of graduate education in school psychology have been collected annually for both specialist and doctoral programs since 2010. This report for the 2017-2018 academic year summarizes data collected from the directors of all known school psychology programs and provides estimates regarding selected outcomes for those programs. During the 2017-2018 academic year, an estimated 10,121 current students (including interns) were enrolled in school psychology programs. Furthermore, an estimated 3,116 first year students were enrolled, whereas an estimated 2,708 students (2,198 specialist-level and 510 doctoral-level) graduated from school psychology programs. Approximately 90% of specialist-level program graduates work in schools. In contrast, approximately 60% of doctoral-level program graduates work in schools, while 14% of doctoral graduates work as faculty members within a university setting. Additional data include information regarding credit hour requirements, financial support, enrollment, internship placement, and student outcomes. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) has periodically collected data regarding graduate education in the United States since the mid-1970s, allowing for the monitoring of trends that impact the health of school psychology. These data summarize current year enrollment, program availability, student outcomes, access to financial aid, and shifts in graduate education requirements. Reporting information concerning enrollment (including minority enrollment), financial support, and other data regarding graduate education supports NASP in responding effectively to the strategic goal of addressing shortages in school psychology. These data can also provide an important frame of reference to facilitate self-evaluation of graduate programs. Additionally, prospective students can utilize these data
In this commentary, I argue that the systemic inequities driving and resulting from the wide-ranging immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19 are the key issue around which our field should rally as we reconceptualize school psychology in the 21st century. I offer this commentary as complementary to the growing body of scholarship describing reforms and practices to address the current and long-term challenges of COVID-19, as well as to broader calls to address systemic racism wherein critical consciousness and interrogation of the roles of systematic racism in the field are prerequisite to action and sustained practice change. I first enumerate the multisystem, intersectional complexities of the COVID-19 disaster, synthesizing scholarship on how it has been particularly detrimental to minoritized communities and students, as a basis for fostering critical awareness. I then propose three core ideological shifts as the basis for expansive reflection and re-envisioning across all areas of professional activity. I conclude with implications for graduate educators and scholars to support fieldwide transformation as the field endeavors to rise to the challenge of this historic unfolding and advance social justice and antiracism.
Impact Statement
COVID-19 as more than a matter of health or disparities thereof—indeed, it is a disaster—because of the consequences across all domains of life and social systems. School psychology’s short and long-term responses to COVID-19 and advancing social justice and antiracism should be grounded in ideological shifts foundational to lasting change in rhetoric and other practices. These include centering the most marginalized, uprooting white supremacy in our field, and conceptualizing trauma and associated professional responses intersectionally.
In the United States, White samples are often portrayed as if their racial identities were inconsequential to their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and research findings derived from White samples are often portrayed as if they were generalizable to all humans. We argue that these and other practices are rooted in a “White = neutral” framework (i.e., the conceptualization of White samples as nonracial). First, we review existing data and present some new data to highlight the scope of the White = neutral framework. Second, we integrate research from across psychological science to argue that the continued use of the White = neutral framework will prevent psychology from becoming a truly objective and inclusive science for at least three reasons: (a) Research with White samples will be valued over research with samples of color, (b) norms that maintain White neutrality will remain unchallenged, and (c) the role of White identity in psychological processes will remain underspecified and underexamined. Third, we provide recommendations for how to move beyond the White = neutral framework in hopes of encouraging all psychological scientists to move toward a White ≠ neutral framework in which all samples are identified for the unique and diverse perspectives that they bring to the world.
This study used an exploratory case study approach to explore the race-related experiences of a Black male specialist level school psychology graduate student. We used the CRT tenets of racism as normal and permanent and intersectionality and antiessentialism to help us make sense of the findings. Findings revealed that race and racism did not negatively impact the case study participant’s experiences within his school psychology program at the university. However, racism was pervasive during his internship year, as it influenced interactions with white teachers and parents. Implications for school psychology graduate education are discussed, including the need for school psychologists to actively engage behaviors that disrupt systems of oppression like racism if the profession is to meet its antiracist aims.
Impact Statement
This case study uses Critical Race Theory to help us make sense of a Black male’s experiences in a school psychology program. Findings showed the participant did not perceive his race or racism as a barrier to relationships with program peers or faculty, but racism negatively impacted his experience at his field-based internship sites. Implications suggest the need for school psychology graduate programs to enroll students who are inclusive and open to engaging racial issues, faculty who engage culturally-responsive mentoring practices, and the presence of school psychologists of color as university professors and supervisors in PK–12 schools.
This article reflects on key ideas in Graves (2009) that are relevant to recruitment, retention, and inclusion of Black people in school psychology. The article begins with a critique of the field's lack of engagement with the ideas Albert Beckham introduced in the 20th century. Then, the article discusses issues that Black school psychologists are engaging today through their research and practice to illustrate the critical need for inclusion of Black thought and Black people in school psychology. Next, the article offers a brief review of extant research related to the recruitment and retention of Black people in school psychology. The article concludes with implications for the recruitment, retention, and inclusion of Black people in school psychology.
Social justice is a term that has grown in prominence in school psychology over the past several years. This increased emphasis on social justice heightens the need for empirical research that speaks to the application of social justice principles to school psychology practice. In this study, nine school psychologists across three states were interviewed regarding their views and experiences as related to social justice. Key findings include an emphasis on equity both at the individual and systemic levels. Participants indicated a personal commitment to social justice, but indicated mixed success in translating this practice to their work, noting several barriers both in terms of their own knowledge and skills as well as institutional barriers. Results highlighted: (a) the importance of taking personal responsibility for bringing social justice principles into practice, (b) modeling what one preaches, (c) educating others, (d) navigating political structures within schools, and (e) a call for greater professional development opportunities oriented towards social justice, beginning with graduate studies.
Impact Statement
This is the first known multistate study of what bringing social justice principles into practice might look like from the perspective of school psychology practitioners. This study contributes both to further developing the conceptual underpinnings of social justice in school psychology, as well as articulating applied numerous action steps, such as diversifying the field, a commitment to self-growth, educating others, modeling what one preaches, and using one’s professional toolbox and political savvy to navigate school structures.
This photovoice study engages a Black feminist thought lens to identify the sites of oppression that posed barriers to the well-being of 22 graduate Students of Color (GSOC) enrolled at Clemson University and their subsequent mechanisms of resistance. Findings point to individual, cultural, and institutional forms of domination and students’ resistance tied to community networks, healing, and activism as campus leaders. This paper ends with implications for practice for campus agents who serve GSOC.
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, published in 2009, was designed to help systematic reviewers transparently report why the review was done, what the authors did, and what they found. Over the past decade, advances in systematic review methodology and terminology have necessitated an update to the guideline. The PRISMA 2020 statement replaces the 2009 statement and includes new reporting guidance that reflects advances in methods to identify, select, appraise, and synthesise studies. The structure and presentation of the items have been modified to facilitate implementation. In this article, we present the PRISMA 2020 27-item checklist, an expanded checklist that details reporting recommendations for each item, the PRISMA 2020 abstract checklist, and the revised flow diagrams for original and updated reviews.
To address the rapidly increasing demand for culturally and linguistically diverse school psychologists and training needs for international school psychology students in the USA, this study was grounded in the risk and resilience framework and used semi-structured interviews to explore the nuanced experiences of Asian international trainees in school psychology programs in the USA. Participants included 11 Asian international students who were enrolled in or recently graduated from school psychology programs in the USA. Thematic analysis revealed that Asian international school psychology students identified some assets they have brought to the program, including their diverse perspectives and experiences, awareness and commitment to social justice, and the potential to diversify the school psychology workforce. Participants also identified several challenges they were facing, such as acculturative stress, microaggression and discrimination, training program-related issues, and working restrictions related to their visa status. Moreover, they identified some effective strategies (i.e., seeking resources and increasing internal strengths) they have used to cope with these challenges. The findings provide important implications for school psychology graduate programs in the USA to improve the training experiences and training outcomes for international students from Asia and other countries.
The extrajudicial killing of Black people, particularly unarmed Black boys and men, at the hands of police is one of the most pressing social and racial justice issues in the USA. The awareness of, and indirect exposure to, police killings of Black people has a detrimental impact on the academic achievement, school attendance, mental health, and social development of Black children and youth. Despite this, there has been silence from the school psychology profession regarding police violence against Black people and ways to provide school-based support to Black children and youth who are exposed to such violence. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore school psychology students’ and school psychologists’ knowledge about police violence against Black people, their experiences with graduate education preparation for providing professional support to Black students who are exposed to police violence against Black people, and their perceptions of training areas in which school psychology programs could improve. Findings indicated that participants gained knowledge about police violence against Black people from multiple sources, including personal and professional experiences; few discussed police violence or Black Lives Matter specifically in their programs; none had specific training to support Black students exposed to police violence against Black people; and most recommended programs improve multicultural training.
Race plays an important role in how people think, develop, and behave. In the current article, we queried more than 26,000 empirical articles published between 1974 and 2018 in top-tier cognitive, developmental, and social psychology journals to document how often psychological research acknowledges this reality and to examine whether people who edit, write, and participate in the research are systematically connected. We note several findings. First, across the past five decades, psychological publications that highlight race have been rare, and although they have increased in developmental and social psychology, they have remained virtually nonexistent in cognitive psychology. Second, most publications have been edited by White editors, under which there have been significantly fewer publications that highlight race. Third, many of the publications that highlight race have been written by White authors who employed significantly fewer participants of color. In many cases, we document variation as a function of area and decade. We argue that systemic inequality exists within psychological research and that systemic changes are needed to ensure that psychological research benefits from diversity in editing, writing, and participation. To this end, and in the spirit of the field’s recent emphasis on metascience, we offer recommendations for journals and authors.
This chapter applies and extends Weidman, Twale, and Stein’s (2001) socialization framework by incorporating sociocultural conceptions of learning (SCL) to more deeply explore how relationships and interactions with faculty can foster students’ socialization, learning, and process of becoming scientists. Interviews with seventeen Black and Latinx science graduate students suggest good mentors offer both opportunities to engage in community practices, or activities specific to the intended career (e.g., presentations, research), as well as focused guidance regarding how to engage in skills and behaviors that would allow them to become scientists. In addition, participants sought personal commitments and connections with their mentors that enhanced their ability to share their thoughts and engage in community practices with more confidence. Findings remind institutional leaders, faculty, and scholars that efforts to foster graduate student socialization must go beyond access to opportunities to learn or participate in community practices. They must also incorporate relational strategies such as guidance and care, which build students’ confidence as they engage in knowledge acquisition and deepen their commitments to science.
Nearly 50 years of research show persistent racial disproportionality in the identification of special education disabilities, but the underlying mechanisms for these disparities remain largely unexplored. Because ambiguous regulations defining disabilities may allow subjectivity and unlawful differential treatment (i.e., racial bias or discrimination) in the special education eligibility process, an important target of study is disparate treatment of students by race in evaluations required to determine eligibility. School psychologists have long been recognized as highly influential in this process and in schools' resultant decisions. We used a 3 × 2 mixed factorial experimental design in three studies with simulated case report data to measure the influence of race and assessment data on school psychologists' perceptions of students' eligibility for special education in cases centering on emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, or autism, respectively. Participants included 302 practicing school psychologists in three states across the three experiments. There was little evidence of racial disparity, but participants tended to render decisions unsupported by, and even contrary to, evaluation data. Implications for research, practice, and professional development are discussed.
Mentoring has been identified as an essential component in the development and success of future faculty. As such, the purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the mentoring experiences of graduate students enrolled in school psychology programs. Additionally, we wanted to determine if differences were present in the mentoring experiences of self-identified racial minority students and their White peers given the lack of diversity among school psychology faculty. Quantitative analyses indicated that students enrolled in school psychology programs are fairly satisfied with their mentoring experiences. However, respondents who completed the open-ended questions indicated that they had difficulty accessing their mentor, they wanted more mentoring on careers in academia, and that they desired more support for conducting research and teaching. Therefore, there are several aspects of mentoring that need to be improved if the field of school psychology wants to increase the number of students who will peruse a career in higher education.
This qualitative study investigated eight African‐American specialist‐level students’ experiences with and perceptions of their retention and persistence toward degree completion in school psychology programs. Findings indicate that participants deemed the general supports faculty offered to all students and positive, supportive relationships with faculty as retention strategies they experienced as effective and access to diversity in support systems as a retention strategy they perceived would be beneficial. Participants described social engagement and reliance on family and classmates as persistence strategies they used. Based on these findings, the article provides recommendations for school psychology faculty interested in retaining African‐American students and African‐American students who aim to persist to degree completion.
Crenshaw outlines the history and basic tenets of critical race theory. While critical race theory does not have a coherent set of fundamental ideas, scholars of this school of thought typically share two primary interests. First is to understand how white supremacy is maintained and related to legal ideals. Second is to change this state of affairs. Based in Critical Legal Studies, Critical Race Theory challenges elitism and exclusivity in the law. It focuses on the law's racist aspects, particularly the changing trends in racism. For example, colorblindness is now seen as preferable to race-consciousness, despite the fact that colorblindness merely masks the power embedded in such an ideology. Critical Race Theory developed in two prominent ways. First, the student protest at Harvard Law School in 1981 began a new avenue of legal study. Second, the Critical Legal Studies National Conference on silence and race solidified the place of Critical Race Theory in Critical Legal Studies.
The current study investigated the intersection of race/ethnicity and two related factors, gender and bilingual status, and the experience of racial microaggressions in a sample of school psychology graduate students. We proposed that race intersects not only gender but also bilingual status, leading to significant differences in the frequency of experiencing racial microaggressions. Through a national survey of racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse school psychology graduate students (n = 228), the study examined the interaction of race/ethnicity, gender, bilingual status, and three types of racial microaggressions students might experience in school psychology graduate education: assumptions of inferiority, microinvalidations, and workplace and school microaggressions. Although bilingual status was not significant, our findings indicated that Black males were significantly different from all other groups in their experience of two types of racial microaggressions—assumptions of inferiority and school and workplace racial microaggressions. Implications for school psychology program recruitment and retention practices are discussed.
Mixed-race persons constitute a substantial and growing population in the United States. We examined multiracial college students’ experiences with prejudice and discrimination in college with conducted focus group interviews with 12 mixedrace participants and individual interviews with 22 mixed-race undergraduates to understand how they experienced prejudice and discrimination during their college careers. Analysis revealed 8 types of multiracial prejudice and discrimination which were confirmed by individual interviews: (a) racial essentialization, (b) invalidation of racial identities, (c) external imposition of racial identities, (d) racial exclusion and marginalization, (e) challenges to racial authenticity, (f) suspicion of chameleons, (g) exoticization, and (h) pathologizing of multiracial individuals. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
This study utilizes a critical race theory framework to explore the ways race and gender influence Black doctoral students’ socialization experiences. Themes about the varied roles and identities of important socialization agents emerged from the data. Managing expectations, engaging in help-seeking behavior, and developing fulfilling mentoring relationships, also proved instrumental to these students’ retention and persistence in doctoral study. Furthermore, their experiences offer insights about the complexity of navigating the various relationships, including, but not limited to the traditional mentor-protégé, student–advisor relationship in doctoral studies as Black students. Through their narratives, participants describe vivid experiences of fear, distrust, and betrayal that halted their development as scholars. They also share stories of support, care, and triumph as the potential of supportive relationships are realized. Implications for praxis, theory, and future research are discussed.