Racial/ethnic minority research in school psychology

Abstract

The present investigation analyzed the content of all school psychology research published between 1975 and 1990 in terms of racial/ethnic minority topics. All articles from the three major school psychology journals, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, and School Psychology Review, were reviewed to see whether they contained minority issues information. The qualifying articles were systematically analyzed with regard to specific minority group studied, geographic area and population sampled, subject area addressed, and total number of articles published. Two hundred twenty‐five studies were included in the analysis. An examination of the data suggests that (a) African American children and youth were sampled most frequently (64%), followed by Mexican‐American youngsters (20%); (b) the majority of samples were drawn from southwestern populations; (c) most empirical studies (77%) dealt with psychoeducational assessment issues. Implications for training and practice in school psychology are discussed.

School Psychology and Cultural Competence: Room to Grow?

“…Its multicultural roots were associated primarily with legal precedents (e.g., Diana v. California Board of Education , 1970; Larry P. v. Riles , 1979), thereby giving way to an emphasis on nondiscriminatory assessment and concerns for test bias and the overrepresentation of minority students in special education. Research in school psychology devoted a small percentage (7.50%) of articles to multicultural issues in the latter half of the 1970s, and although this percentage increased in the next decade, most of the focus was on bias in assessment practices (Rogers Wiese, 1992). In the past two decades, however, the emphasis on cultural competence increased as evidenced by the development of recommendations for the broad delivery of psychological services to racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students (Rogers et al, 1999) and followed by promulgation of cross-cultural school psychology competencies (Rogers & Lopez, 2002).…”

Decolonizing school psychology research: A systematic literature review

“…Previous research has examined the trends in diversity‐focused publications in school psychology over the past 45 years. Starting with Wiese (1992), researchers have attempted to quantify the extent to which the knowledge produced in school psychology considers issues of diversity. Using similar definitional categories, albeit with some expansion of focus that reflects shifts in popular conceptualizations of diversity (in the field), several studies have considered the extent to which diverse populations are included in scholarly research (Brown et al., 2007; Grunewald et al., 2014; Miranda & Gutter, 2002; Wiese, 1992).…”

Introduction to Critical Training Topics Series: Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Nation

“…Scholars within school psychology have been advocating for increase research into diversity topics for over 25 years (Wiese, 1992 ). Many of these calls have likely been brought upon by the nation’s demographic changes, our profession’s stated social justice strategic goal, and our need to serve all students.…”

“…The authors found that, overall, participants felt that the study abroad experience had a significant impact on their cultural competence (Irwin, et al, 2020). Unfortunately, when discussing diversity topics, researchers have generally focused on racial and ethnic minoritized populations (Miranda & Gutter, 2002;Noltemeyer et al, 2013;Wiese, 1992). Much less is known regarding LGBTQ + and religion and spirituality as diversity topics (Graybill and Proctor, 2016;Parker et al, 2020).…”