Canadian School Psychology and Indigenous Peoples: Opportunities and Recommendations

Abstract

School psychologists play important roles in working alongside Indigenous Peoples within Canada; however, a large gap exists between the discipline’s actions and the recommendations set forth by Indigenous Nations and governmental working groups. In this conceptual article, we seek to highlight the need for further Indigenous representation and engagement in the field of school psychology, as well as present key areas of relevance. We first briefly contextualize the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and school psychology, followed by the results of a brief survey concerning Indigenous representation and engagement across five school psychology doctoral programs in Canada. Next, we discuss nine key areas of consideration for school psychologists based on the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Each area of consideration provides school psychologists with a starting point for concrete actions when working with Indigenous students, families, and communities.

Introduction to the Special Issue–School psychology and Indigenous Peoples: Critical Perspectives and Indigenous-led Approaches

“…In the aftermath of the TRC report, there has been a clear uptick in research and conceptual articles in the context of psychology generally or focused on counseling psychology (Ansloos et al, 2019(Ansloos et al, , 2022; Canadian Psychological Association and the Psychology Foundation of Canada, 2018;Fellner et al, 2020). However, the Indigenous-focused school psychology literature within Canada has been extremely sparse, likely a reflection of the field's history, a lack of Indigenous scholars and students, and perhaps naive assumptions about the transferability of school psychology research to Indigenous contexts (Bernett et al, 2023).…”

“…This first issue consists of five articles that collectively provide a helpful overview concerning the relationship between school psychology and Indigenous Peoples. First, Bernett et al (2023) provide a conceptual overview of school psychology's historical and ongoing inadequacy in addressing Indigenous context within Canada. The authors include results of a survey from directors of Canadian school psychology doctoral programs, which provides a snapshot of programmatic efforts and shortcomings (most notably, an absence of Indigenous core faculty).…”

“…In this and other ways, the profession has surely contributed to the greatly disproportionate number of Indigenous children in the child welfare system, through a misuse of psychological and parenting capacity assessments (see Caldwell & Sinha, 2020; Choate & Lindstrom, 2017; Wall-Wieler et al, 2018). These failures are in a context of tremendous disadvantage—inextricable from historical and ongoing colonial violence, theft of land, and coercive assimilation—endured by Indigenous children generally, along with a lack of appreciation among professionals about the sovereignty of Indigenous Nations and the strengths of Indigenous families and communities (Bernett et al, 2023).…”