Use of Critical Theory to Develop a Conceptual Framework for Critical School Psychology

Abstract

School psychologists enter the third decade of the 21st century marked by mass protests against state-sanctioned violence against Black people, worsening economic and environmental crises, and a deadly pandemic that makes preexisting disparities worse. We argue that the profession can respond to the challenges children, families, and schools face ahead by taking a ‘critical’ turn. We delineate at least five lessons that can be learned from various critical theories and movements that—if intentionally, thoughtfully, and authentically engaged—have the potential to reshape our traditional ‘ways of being,’ and transform who we are as a field and subsequently our ability to advance social justice. We conclude by proposing a conceptual framework for a creative and dialogic site within school psychology that we call critical school psychology (CSP). CSP enables school psychologists to combat social injustice both within and outside school psychology, and work toward/for social justice by creating different kinds of knowledge and different kinds of spaces.

Impact Statement

Drawing upon various critical theories, we propose critical school psychology (CSP)—a conceptual framework to transform school psychology into a profession dedicated to combating social injustices and oppressive processes both within and outside of itself. We discuss how researchers, practitioners, graduate educators, and graduate students can play a role in this transformational work-in-progress by creating different kinds of knowledge and spaces.

Keywords:

• antioppressive
• critical theory
• diversity
• school psychology
• social justice

ASSOCIATE EDITOR:

• Amanda Sullivan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Dr. Sara M. Acevedo Espinal for her feedback on the manuscript.

DISCLOSURE

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Notes

1 Disability justice activists and scholars call for the use the identity-first language of “disabled person” over the person-first language of “person with disability” as a way to foreground disability as a social category and a political identity rather than a medical diagnosis (Erevelles, 2002).

2 Although critical race theorists have traditionally used “colorblindness” to describe the practice of ignoring race, this term has been criticized for perpetuating ableism by using a disability as a metaphor for a deficit or a flaw. Annamma et al. (2017) suggested the term “color-evasiveness” as an effective alternative. We use color-evasiveness in this article instead of colorblindness.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sujay V. Sabnis

Sujay V. Sabnis received his PhD in School Psychology from the University of South Florida. He is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP). Sujay’s research interests include critical race theory, critical qualitative methodologies, consultation, and policy analysis in K–12 public education. He is an assistant professor at Miami University and teaches courses on consultation, multiculturalism, and school psychology practicum.

Sherrie L. Proctor

Sherrie L. Proctor received her PhD in School Psychology from Georgia State University. Sherrie’s research interests include recruitment and retention of graduate students of color; application of critical theories to school psychology teaching, research, and practice; and preparation of school psychologists to support Black students exposed to police violence. She is an associate professor at Queens College, City University of New York, and teaches courses in exceptionality, multicultural issues, and academic intervention.