Examining Diversity Research Literature in School Psychology From 2004 to 2010

Abstract

One indicator of school psychology's capacity to provide culturally responsive practice is the percentage of articles in leading school psychology journals that have a “significant diversity focus.” To date, there have been three published empirical studies (Brown, Shriberg, & Wang, ; Miranda & Gutter, ; Rogers Wiese, ) that have defined and examined this construct. These three articles collectively provide empirical data on the percentage of articles appearing in leading school psychology journals that met criteria from a time period spanning 1975–2003. This manuscript provides the results of the most recent iteration of this study, covering the years 2004–2010. In this study, 15.5% of articles met criteria, up from figures found from 1975–1999, but a decline from the 2000–2003 figure of 16.9%. Several potential implications of this ongoing lack of empirical and theoretical scholarship are offered.

Does context matter? An analysis of training in multicultural assessment, consultation, and intervention between school psychologists in urban and rural contexts

“…The results indicated urban and rural school psychologists had little to no training on how to provide services to linguistic, racial, and economic minorities. These data reflect the multiple studies that have found most research in school psychology do not include minorities in the sample (Brown, Shriberg, & Wang, ; Gruenwald et al., ; Miranda & Gutter, ). Therefore, there were no statistically significant differences in the training between urban and rural school psychologists.…”

The Good Behavior Game for Latino English Language Learners in a small-group setting

“…To address this need, researchers and educators should consider behavior interventions that would target both social, emotional, and behavioral needs, as well as cultural roots of behavior differences, while reinforcing positive, expected behavior. A review of school psychology research published from 2004-2010 found that 15.5% of articles addressed racial, cultural, linguistic, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic diversity (Grunewald, et al, 2014). Of these 222 published reports, 15.3% addressed prevention or intervention for academic, behavioral, or social-emotional needs.…”

School psychologists’ supporting American Indian students on the path to academic success: a community cultural wealth approach

“…Their analysis of five school psychology journals – Journal of Applied School Psychology , Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools , School Psychology Quarterly and School Psychology Review – found that 16.9% of the published research focused on diverse populations and of that, 2.9% focused on American Indian youth. Most recently, Grunewald et al (2014) content analyzed research published 2004 to 2010 using the same pool of school psychology journals as analyzed in Brown et al (2007) in addition to two more journals: Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation and School Psychology Forum. They found just 0.9% of published research focused on American Indian youth, and like Brown et al , no mention of student strengths as a central subject of the research.…”