Correlates of social justice values in school psychology graduate students.

Abstract

School psychologists are well-positioned to serve as advocates for marginalized students to address educational inequities and challenge systemic barriers to well-being. However, if they do not personally endorse social justice values, they may be unwilling to take personal and professional risks to engage in social justice work. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which personal characteristics and multicultural competence are associated with social justice values in school psychology graduate students. A sample of 108 graduate students completed the Social Justice Scale, School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale, and Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Participants strongly endorsed having social justice values; however, they were less likely to report being in a context supportive of social justice work. There was no difference in reported social justice values based on gender or race; however, sexual marginalized students and those with very liberal political ideology reported more positive attitudes toward social justice. Students with very liberal political ideology also reported greater intent to engage in social justice actions in the future. Additionally, there were several positive correlations between social justice values and perceived multicultural competence. Multicultural competence accounted for most of the variance in participants’ perceived ability to engage in social justice actions and being in environments supportive of social justice, while personal characteristics explained most of the variance in participants’ intent to engage in future social justice actions. Notably, political ideology was the most consistent predictor of social justice values. Findings and implications for graduate education programs are discussed.