School Psychology and Social Justice

Conceptual Foundations and Tools for Practice

David Shriberg, Samuel Y. Song, Antoinette Halsell Miranda, Kisha Radliff, David Shriberg, Samuel Y. Song, Antoinette Halsell Miranda, Kisha Radliff

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136326257
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

School psychology practice does not exist in a vacuum and is not value-neutral. As the role and function of the school psychologist continues to evolve and expand, social justice provides a needed real-world framework for school psychology students, practitioners, supervisors, and professors to guide their efforts. Culled from years of experience by experts working in a vast array of applied environments and appropriate both for practitioners and for graduate courses in multicultural school psychology and/or the role and function of school psychologists, this book takes the reader through a tour of common school psychology topics and functions through the lens of social justice. Utilizing case examples and concrete suggestions, a critical yet hopeful vision of ways in which school psychologists can work to achieve positive outcomes for students, families, schools, and society is provided.

one

Introduction

David Shriberg, Samuel Y. Song, Antoinette Halsell Miranda, and Kisha M. Radliff

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

(Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr)

School psychology is a field with a long and storied tradition. Inherent in the idea behind the need for school psychologists is the notion that all children have a right to an education and that it is the responsibility of adults such as school psychologists to bring their professional expertise and personal talents to bear to help all students to develop and achieve to their full potential.

At the aspirational level, this fundamental premise of school psychology (why have school psychologists if we are not committed to seeing children reach their full personal and academic potential?) is hardly controversial and to many it is likely inspirational. However, where the rubber often meets the road is not in the broad aspiration, but in translating this aspiration to practice. School psychology does not occur in a vacuum. School psychology is practiced in the United States—and throughout the world—within a context where some children, through no choice of their own, are advantaged and others are disadvantaged. We school psychologists work within a context where all of us are raised with our own personal biases and preconceptions that shape how we view others. We also work with other educators and with families that have their own personal and professional biases that work to some children's benefit and other children's disadvantage. Additionally, we school psychologists work within a societal context where entire communities are often left to suffer from a lack of adequate resources and a lack of political will to support these suffering communities, whereas other communities have an abundance of resources. School psychologists in the United States work within a context where racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transgendered oppression, ageism, ableism, and religious intolerance abound at all levels. On the positive side, school psychologists in the United States also work within a context where anything is possible and where there are numerous examples of individual, local, state, and national movements towards a more just society.

Contemporary school psychology is not for persons who have a narrow vision of practice. The field of school psychology sets a bold and broad agenda—promoting a vision of school psychologists as systemic change agents covering many specialty areas. Indeed, a quick perusal of the definition of school psychology put out by leading organizations in the field makes clear that school psychologists seek to have a broad impact on behalf of children in many areas. Consider, as one example, the following text taken from the website of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) on May 14, 2012 (www.nasponline.org/about_sp/whatis.aspx), under the heading “What Is a School Psychologist?”

School psychologists help children and youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. They collaborate with educators, parents, and other professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school, and the community for all students.

The website then continues (under the heading “What Do School Psychologists Do?”) to spell out 22 different ways that school psychologists work with students, families, teachers, school administrators, and/or community providers. There are numerous other examples across organizations of documents that describe a similarly expansive view of school psychology. As four school psychologists, we like that the field takes such a broad view of practice. It is this kind of thinking that has led the movement away from a reactive test and place model towards a model of practice that emphasizes prevention, systemic thinking, and leadership. However, all movements and change efforts come with potential opportunities and pitfalls. The primary opportunity that we see is the promotion of the view that schools have many needs and that school psychologists are therefore obligated to maximize their positive impact across a variety of domains related to the academic, behavioral, and social development of students. However, a potential pitfall is that if school psychology practice consists of 22 core tasks (or 30, or 40) covering so many different domains, it is vitally important that these domains of practice are linked to an overarching framework that ties these domains to a common purpose that reflects the social, cultural, educational, economic, and political realities of practice. This is why a social justice perspective is critical.

It is perhaps for this reason that over the past several years the major organizations connected with school psychology in the US (the American Psychological Association (APA) and NASP) have incorporated social justice in their organization's practice expectations. For example, in 2003 APA published its “Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists” (APA, 2003). The philosophical framework of these guidelines encourages psychologists to view themselves as leaders in social justice and as advocates for multiculturalism. Specifically, Principle 5 of the guidelines begins by stating, “Psychologists are uniquely able to promote racial equity and social justice” (APA, 2003, p. 382) and Principle 6 concludes by stating, “Psychologists recognize that organizations can be gatekeepers or agents of the status quo, rather than leaders in a changing society with respect to multiculturalism” (APA, 2003, p. 382). These guidelines have been followed by a flurry of scholarship on this topic, particularly within counseling psychology. Additionally, in 2010, Division 16 (School Psychology) of APA formed a “Social Justice and Child Rights Working Group” and the Presidential Address at the 2011 APA conference was titled “Psychology and Social Justice: Why We Do What We Do” (Vasquez, 2011). Within NASP, in 2007 a “Social Justice Interest Group” was established. In 2010, social justice was referenced multiple times as an aspiration in the four NASP Standards documents. Social justice was also the theme of featured NASP podcasts in June 2010 and June 2011.

There has also been increasing scholarship in school psychology related to social justice. First, in 2008 a special topic issue of School Psychology Review on “Promoting Social Justice” featured an opening piece by the journal's editor identifying social justice as a positive direction for school psychology (Power, 2008). Power's article was followed by two full-length empirical articles (McCabe & Rubinson, 2008; Shriberg et al., 2008) and two commentaries from leading multicultural/ social justice scholars in school psychology (Nastasi, 2008; Rogers & O'Bryon, 2008). In 2009, a chapter on social justice (Shriberg, 2009b) appeared in NASP's The Psychology of Multiculturalism in Schools: A Primer for Practice, Training, and Research (Jones, 2009). We also saw in 2009 the publication of two special topic issues related to social justice in journals widely read by school psychologists. First, Journal of Educational & Psychological Consultation published a special topic issue entitled “School Consultants as Agents of Social Justice: Implications for Practice.” This issue contained an introductory piece by the guest editors (Shriberg & Fenning, 2009), four core articles related to the intersection of consultation and social justice (Clare, 2009; Li & Vazquez-Nuttall, 2009; Pearrow & Pollack, 2009; Roach & Elliott, 2009), and a commentary from two leading social justice scholars in counseling psychology focused on ways in which school psychology might pursue a more robust social justice agenda (Speight & Vera, 2009). Also in 2009, the peer-reviewed journal Trainers’ Forum, published by Trainers of School Psychologists, published a themed issue entitled “Teaching for Social Justice in School Psychology Graduate Programs: Strategies and Lessons Learned” (Shriberg, 2009a). This issue contained three examples (Briggs, McArdle, Bartucci, Kowalewicz, & Shriberg, 2009; Li et al., 2009; Radliff, Miranda, Stoll, & Wheeler, 2009) of ways in which school psychology graduate programs incorporate social justice into their training. Finally, in 2011 the results of a national study of school psychologists regarding their perspective on social justice were published in a leading school psychology journal (Shriberg, Wynne, Briggs, Bartucci, & Lombardo, 2011).

This recent recognition of the import of social justice to practice and to scholarship reflects the continuing evolution of multicultural movements that seek to situate the goals of applied fields within the broader societal context in which this applied work is practiced. However, despite the recent work described above and despite the efforts of numerous individuals who have pushed a social justice agenda for decades, school psychology is clearly lagging behind related fields in terms of the depth and scope of its social justice efforts (Shriberg, 2009a). This is a missed opportunity. Given the unique combination of psychological training and access to the broader ecology of a school that school psychologists often have, and given the myriad justice issues (resource allocation, biased and/or outdated assessment procedures, overrepresentation of minority group members in special education and school discipline procedures, and institutionalized racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia, to name but a few) prevalent in schools that directly impact practice, there seems to be a natural connection between school psychology and social justice (a point that is further developed in all chapters of this book). Whereas recent years have seen multitudes of primers on social justice in related fields (e.g., Adams et al., 2010; Frattura & Capper, 2007; Marshall & Oliva, 2009; Toporek, Gerstein, Fouad, Roysircar, & Israel, 2006), to date there are no comprehensive books that speak directly to school psychology practice from a social justice perspective. This book seeks to fill this critical void—and in the process to further school psychology's voice in the emerging social justice paradigm.

Defining Social Justice

Social justice is not easily defined, but is associated in education with the idea that all individuals and groups must be treated with fairness and respect and that all are entitled to the resources and benefits that the school has to offer (North, 2006). To date, there have been two studies seeking to define social justice from a school psychology perspective. First, Shriberg, et al. (2008) conducted a Delphi study with 17 multicultural experts in school psychology. The participants in this study most strongly endorsed a definition of social justice centered on the idea of “protecting the rights and opportunities for all.”

More recently, Shriberg et al. (2011) surveyed 1000 randomly selected NASP members regarding their opinions related to social justice. As one component of this study, participants (n = 214) were asked to respond to the statement, “The primary goal of this study is to obtain information about how school psychology graduate students and professionals define social justice. Seven possible components that may contribute to the definition of social justice are listed below. Please rate the following seven elements on the scale below with (1) indicating ‘unimportant to the definition’ and (7) indicating ‘critical to the definition’.” As seen in Table 1.1, respondents rated ensuring the protection of educational rights and opportunities and promoting nondiscriminatory practice significantly more critical to the definition than all other items, except each other (p < 0.001).

TABLE 1.1. Respondents’ mean ratings regarding possible components of the definition of social justice

Item	M	SD
Ensuring the protection of educational rights and opportunities for all students^*	6.70	0.66
Promoting nondiscriminatory practice^*	6.67	0.67
Advocating for individuals or groups of students who may not be able to advocate for themselves	6.47	0.81
Being culturally responsive in service delivery	6.36	0.87
Preventing the over identification of minority groups for special education	5.98	1.22
Working to eliminate the achievement gap	5.66	1.50
Connecting students and families to community resources	5.50	1.36

Notes 1 = unimportant to the definition, 7 = critical to the definition. ^*Items rated significantly higher than all others (except each other), p < .001. Reprinted with permission.

In terms of the applicatio...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• School Psychology and Social Justice
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• CHAPTER 1—Introduction
• PART 1 —Foundations
• PART 2 —Major Issues that Affect Practice
• PART 3 —Roles and Functions of School Psychologists
• Index