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Contemporary School Psychology

, Volume 23, Issue 4, pp 379–387 | Cite as

Navigating the Waters of Social Justice: Strategies from Veteran School Psychologists

  • Haley BiddandaEmail author
  • David Shriberg
  • Dana Ruecker
  • Devyn Conway
  • Garrick Montesinos
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Six school psychologist practitioners who self-identified as social justice change agents were interviewed for this study. Interview questions were informed by two central themes that were important to the understanding of school psychologists as change agents: defining social justice and potential application to school psychology practice. The interviews were coded via consensual qualitative research. Thirteen different themes emerged. Some of the most noteworthy findings related to being a social justice agent include taking personal responsibility to bring about change, using political savvy to navigate power structures, modeling the changes one is seeking to bring about, and working in a culturally responsive manner across differing perspectives.

Keywords

Social justice School psychology Advocacy Cultural responsiveness 
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Notes

Compliance with Ethical Standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Copyright information

© California Association of School Psychologists 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Loyola University ChicagoChicagoUSA

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