School stakeholders do not “just leave their religious beliefs at home”: An exploratory study of school psychologists’ professional experiences

ABSTRACT

Psychology scholars developed sixteen religious/spiritual practice competencies to guide psychologists’ professional endeavors. Though school psychology is a relatively unique subfield of practice, scholars have not examined the practical application of the competencies within school psychological service delivery. We explored how the practice competencies were reflected in school psychologists’ professional experiences by examining archival data from a larger qualitative study. Fifteen school psychologists were interviewed for the larger study. However, we analyzed the experiences of the ten school psychologists who referenced religion/spirituality during their individual interviews using secondary data analysis. Given that the original study was centered on school-based consultation, we also used elements of the Multicultural School Consultation framework to understand aspects of the participants’ professional experiences that were not aligned with the sixteen religious/spiritual competencies. Findings show that several competencies were reflected in the participants’ descriptions of their interactions with spiritual/religious students, whereas some of their experiences (e.g., consulting with religious teachers) were less connected to the established competencies and more connected to Ingraham’s MSC framework. Hence, we discuss the utility of the current competencies in the field of school psychology and provide directions for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Religiosity
• spirituality
• school psychology
• practice competencies
• consultation

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the school psychologists who participated in this study, as well as the following members of our research team who assisted with data collection: Jose Castillo, Sujay Sabnis, and Julie Daye.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janise S. Parker

Dr. Janise S. Parker, LP, NCSP, is an assistant professor in the school psychology program at William & Mary. Her research focuses on culturally responsive practice in school psychology, academic self-determination among African American adolescents, and implications for supporting spiritual/religiously diverse youth in public school settings.

Patricia Hanson

Patricia Hanson, M.A., is a graduate student in the school psychology program at the University of South Florida. Her research interests include positive psychology, pediatric psychology, adolescent development and strategies for best servicing students of color and students from the LGBTQ+ community.