Building an Evidence Base for Professional Learning in Prejudice Reduction, Racial Bias, and Antiracism in Schools: Slow Motion is better than No Motion

Abstract

The field of school psychology is beginning to grapple with issues of racism, prejudice, racial bias, and antiracism in schools. Within the contemporary context, it is particularly important to identify science and further develop research that informs the roles and responsibilities of participating in, delivering, leading, and evaluating professional development in schools to advance practice in antiracism and mitigate bias and prejudice. Recent research reveals that the evidence base for prejudice reduction, antiracism, and racial bias educator professional learning and development is in its infancy. This article presents recommendations for advancing school psychology in the training and preparation of school psychologists to lead these efforts in their daily practice. It also includes suggestions for incremental research necessary to advance the development of measures and professional learning in prejudice reduction, antiracism, and racial bias training for educators.

Impact Statement

Promoting antiracism professional development in schools is an important role for school psychologists. With limited empirical investigation of such efforts in the schools, further emphasis among scholars and practitioners is warranted. Contemporary articles featured in School Psychology Review provide further guidance for the field of school psychology.

Keywords:

• Antiracism
• prejudice reduction
• professional development
• consultation
• racism
• racial bias

The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, along with numerous additional incidents of police-sanctioned violence with unarmed Black persons in the last 5 years, produced a watershed moment in the United States and across the world at the time. These tragedies, coupled with violence, victimization, and racism toward BIPOC, and other students, have served as catalysts for the field of school psychology to take a very difficult yet important look at how anti-Blackness and additional forms of racism are interwoven into all aspects of society, specifically within schools (García-Vázquez et al., 2020; Proctor et al., 2021; S.A. Williams et al., 2020). Racism and bias against Black students often play out during interchanges with school resource officers leading to school-based arrests (Gleit, 2022; Tocci et al., 2023; Zirkel, 2019). Anti-Blackness infiltrates and disrupts student-teacher interactions, resulting in 5 decades of racial disproportionality for Black students in exclusionary discipline through suspensions and expulsions (Sobti & Welsh, 2023).

In response to these highly visible acts of anti-Blackness, the major professional associations in school psychology (e.g., APA Division 16, Trainers of School Psychologists, Council of Directors of School Psychology Programs, Society for the Study of School Psychology, the American Board of School Psychology, and the National Association of School Psychologists [NASP]) issued a joint statement “to reaffirm our commitment to ensure current and future school psychologists are empowered to be antiracist agents of change” (García-Vázquez et al., 2020, p. 210), which included concrete actions for moving forward. Whereas these aspirational goals are a step in the right direction, the field has a long way to go in carrying out demonstrable actions in antiracism. School psychology continues to wrestle with how racism shapes the field’s primary theoretical approaches to practice and service delivery (Sabnis & Proctor, 2022). Beyond tackling anti-Blackness and other forms of racism through a theoretical and abstract lens, school psychology must also deeply consider how racism impacts daily educator practices, experiences, and exchanges with minoritized students. At this juncture, many school psychologists and faculty who prepare school psychologists may not have sufficient preparation, background, experience, and knowledge to engage meaningfully in antiracism professional development with educators to bring about real change in bias and prejudice within classrooms and in schools.

Relatedly, there is limited scientific study and knowledge on how the current generation of P-12 students, who continue to observe race-based violence play out directly and/or indirectly via their devices, are impacted or whether they are receiving the necessary social-emotional and mental health supports from educators to process what they are seeing (Anekwe et al., 2023; Tynes et al., 2019). There is ample evidence that young Black students endure the trauma of witnessing race-based police brutality, which has been associated with negative impacts on their mental health, wellness, and social development (Anekwe et al., 2023; Heard-Garris et al., 2021; Staggers-Hakim, 2016; Tynes et al., 2019). With few exceptions, the field has remained remarkably silent about Black students’ racial trauma, despite professional ethical standards in social justice and equity calling school psychologists to action in the face of racial injustice (NASP, 2020; Proctor et al., 2021). Many related questions remain unexplored; for example, how does direct and/or indirect exposure to race/racism developmentally accelerate P-12 students’ curiosity and understanding about it, stymie or propel youth’s racial identity development, harm minoritized students, or shape student interracial peer relations in schools?

The current workforce of teachers is mostly White and, thus, hold different racial/ethnic identities than Black and brown students who are most likely to be harmed by the race-based brutality and events to which they are routinely exposed. The percentage of Black teachers in educational spaces—essential for the educational growth of all students, but particularly Black and brown students—is dire. According to a 2021 national survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, 50% of Black teachers reported that they intended to leave their jobs; this statistic is much higher than the 25% of all teachers reporting such plans (Steiner & Woo, 2021). This is likely to exacerbate the critical context of 7% of the nation’s teachers being Black (based on data collected during the 2017–2018 school year), which is slightly below data collected over 30 years ago in 1987–1988 (Pew Research Center, 2021). Overall, there have been increases in the number of Black teachers over the last 3 decades; however, their percentage make-up remains low, as increases in percentages of minoritized teachers identifying as Hispanic//Latinx or Asian have risen (Pew Research Center, 2021). Of the Black teachers who stay in the field, many face racism, which is a reason they leave the field. In a survey of Black math teachers, microaggressions were the strongest predictor of their plans to leave education (Frank et al., 2021). Black teachers are frequently placed in the undue position of having to navigate their own direct/indirect experiences of racism, while often being placed in the role of navigating race-based conversations with students and supporting White educators at the same time. For example, Black male teachers are often pushed to adopt an authoritarian disciplinary role in their schools, despite having varying individual styles with which they prefer to interact with students (Brockenbrough, 2015). Examination of both the personal and professional impact of racism and race relations among P-12 educators of different racial/ethnic identities and whether the teaching force, writ large, is prepared to navigate these conversations in schools is worthy of serious consideration when looking at the current realities of today’s educational workforce.

Further, within the broader political context, some oppressive state laws are banning the mere mention of topics like race and racism (Schwartz, 2021), with serious consequences—including loss of employment—in many schools for educators who are perceived as violating such laws. Whereas it may seem that these state laws are new happenings, this is not the case. Since the inception of compulsory education, race and racism have a long history of being threatening topics to be avoided in P-12 curriculum and pedagogy. This long-standing avoidance is due to the unfounded prevailing belief that the United States is a post-racialized society in which talking about race is neither necessary nor appropriate in schools. While mounting racial tensions in society and recent legislation certainly present a new take on instructional challenges for contemporary teachers, there remain opportunities to discuss race and race relations with students to mitigate prejudice, given that students themselves are highly aware of race and racism (Priest et al., 2016; Seider et al., 2022; Staggers-Hakim, 2016). Concurrently, some state laws require public high school students to receive education in ethnic studies in order to graduate (e.g., AB101 in California, which goes into effect as of the 2024–25 school year) (California AB101, 2021). In 2019, Colorado passed a statute requiring public schools to provide instruction about the culture, contributions, and history of racial/ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ persons, religious minorities, and persons holding intersected identities (Colorado General Assembly, 2019). State educational laws and regulations on either restricting or expanding what is taught in schools related to race, racism, and prejudice reduction are in continual flux (USA Facts, 2023). School psychologists, administrators, and educators must remain vigilant to legislative efforts in the states in which they work, as there are ever-evolving sociocultural, political, and contextual factors that influence whether professional development is provided on these topics.

DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT TEACHING RACE AND RACISM

Teachers are well aware of the pervasiveness of societal racism, but many espouse colorblind pedagogy that is race- and power-evasive (Epstein, 2019; Neville et al., 2013). As such, teachers are often hesitant to share their common knowledge about racialization, prejudice, and discrimination with colleagues or apply it to the classroom, even when prompted by leadership and students to do so (Philip et al., 2016; Pollock, 2004; Wolkoff & Goodale, 2023). Teachers’ ambivalence to discuss race is motivated by multiple factors that contribute to failed opportunities for teachers to manage their comfort and hone their skills in leading such conversations (Priest et al., 2016; Wolkoff & Goodale, 2023). One concern which has fueled the momentum to pass oppressive laws in some states surrounding culturally salient curriculum is that discussions about race and racism might be developmentally inappropriate or somehow dangerous to students. This legislation appears to be particularly directed at the protection of White students to shield them from conversations of race/racism for fear that such dialogue is too negative, will incite emotional distress before White children are developmentally capable of managing it, or will result in children becoming racist (Abaied & Perry, 2021; Pahlke et al., 2012; Sullivan et al., 2021). There is no empirical evidence to support these notions, with adults sorely misjudging children’s capacity to process concepts of race and racism (Sullivan et al., 2021; Wu et al., 2022).

Considerable research dispels the myths that conversations about race and racism are developmentally inappropriate for children or foster racism in children (Aboud & Doyle, 1996; Katz, 2003). In fact, growing research has revealed that students not only understand racism, but also have the capacity to engage in sophisticated conversations about the manifestations of racism (Priest et al., 2016). Preschool-age children exhibit race-based preferences (Katz, 2003; Waxman, 2021) that are independent of their parents’ explicit racial attitudes, but related to their parents’ implicit racial attitudes (Castelli et al., 2009; Pahlke et al., 2012; Vittrup & Holden, 2011). For example, young children use nonverbal cues of adult friendliness and uneasiness in interracial interactions to detect adults’ racial preferences, which in turn influences their own racial attitudes (Castelli et al., 2008). By age 8, children are able to recognize racial hierarchies based on status (Dukler & Liberman, 2022). But as children enter early adolescence (age 10–11), they are less likely to openly express and demonstrate their ability to classify people by race, even though they have the sociocognitive ability to do so (Apfelbaum et al., 2008). These findings confirm that at very young ages—even as early as 3—children have an awareness of race, display cognitive sophistication to interpret adult nonverbal behaviors associated with racial preference, and engage in racialization. Children’s early developmental awareness of race suggests that children are capable of engaging in thoughtful discussions of race at very young ages. Thus, contrary to public opinion and media depictions, conversations about race that align with children’s level of social cognition are developmentally appropriate (Doyle & Aboud, 1995; Quintana, 1998; C. D.Williams et al., 2020).

Through adult-driven race-evasive socialization, children are inadvertently informed that it is inappropriate to acknowledge race and racial differences. When elementary-age students were primed not to consider race and to adopt a colorblind ideology, they were less equipped to detect racial inequality and racial bias when observing acts of ambiguous and blatant discrimination, compared with students exposed to a race-conscious ideology (Apfelbaum et al., 2010). Indeed, it seems that race-evasive socialization does little to prepare youth for addressing racial injustice. Instructing children not to see race and avoiding discussions about racial differences might have unintended effects as some acknowledgement of racial differences is a necessary prerequisite to detecting inequitable treatment and engaging in antiracism actions.

To date, there is no evidence that explicit instruction on racism poses an immediate threat to children or leads to the adoption of a racist ideology (Hughes et al., 2007). Hughes et al. (2007) found that White elementary-age children who were exposed to lessons about historical racism and discrimination experienced by prominent African Americans at the hands of White people had more favorable racial attitudes toward African Americans and more favorable ratings in support of racial fairness following racism lessons, compared with children in the control condition. These findings were not maintained for African American children; however. African American children who received the same racism lessons were found to value racial fairness more strongly and to report greater satisfaction with the lessons than African American children in the control condition. There was no support that instruction about historical racism changed African American children’s racial attitudes. For White children, racial guilt and valuing of racial fairness emerged as critical mechanisms for promoting positive racial attitudes when they were taught lessons about racism. Although feelings of guilt may engender mild discomfort, guilt is a normative adaptive moral emotion that spurs prosocial behavior in children and adults (Tangney, 1998; Williams, 1998). For example, racial guilt in college-age samples is a powerful motivator for enacting civic action to promote racial equity (Dull et al., 2021). Research by Hughes et al. (2007) debunks the myth that teaching students about racism fosters racism in children. Importantly, their research and that of others implies that not discussing race and racism is more problematic for students than having these conversations and begs the question as to why conversations about race are not occurring in many schools.

BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO TEACHING ABOUT RACE AND RACISM

Children appear ready to talk about race and racism. Arguably, for myriad reasons, many educators are neither ready nor supported in leading these necessary conversations. As Gorski (2019) notes, “students experiencing racism can’t wait for schools to move at their own pace and comfort level” (p. 56). Teachers express worry that facilitating race talk with students will result in being labeled as racist (Pollock, 2004; Tropp & Rucinski, 2022), or they will face retaliation (Amos, 2016). It is typical for people who are motivated to suppress prejudice to experience anxiety about appearing racist. However, research has suggested that in interracial contexts, well-intentioned White adults who adopt a colorblind ideology and avoid talking about race when race is apparent are actually more likely to be perceived as racist by Black people (Apfelbaum et al., 2008). Thus, evading race in conversations when race is evident and salient might leave the opposite impression than what teachers intend. While teachers’ fear of retaliation for addressing race and racism in schools represents a real and present threat in the current political climate, it is also plausible that teachers’ reluctance to embark on racial dialogues with students is motivated by their own discomfort with critically reflecting on race and racism due to their limited racial literacy. Teachers lack self-efficacy in translating conversations about race and racism from surface-level abstraction, interpersonal racism, and cultural appreciation to a deeper focus on actionable strategies for upending structural racism and discrimination (Epstein, 2019; Priest et al., 2016). As a result of concerns teachers have about how they will be viewed and treated in the school, and given their self-efficacy once they are willing to move forward with discussions about race, they miss spontaneous and planned instructional opportunities to promote students’ racial literacy and adoption of egalitarian values. These missed instructional opportunities include instances in which teachers can model and instruct their students on how to initiate and manage discussions on race and racism appropriately, as well as provide students with appropriate language for labeling racial/ethnic groups. When warranted, teachers can condemn and reframe misguided racial stereotyping and acts of discrimination during societal and classroom-based situations of racial bias.

In light of teacher ambivalence and concern about facilitating conversations about race in the current political landscape in which retaliation is a real concern in many states, teachers need significant support to lead classroom discussions about race and racism that are grounded in scientific evidence. Whereas educators have a number of informative resources and professional opportunities available to them (e.g., Singleton, 2021), surprisingly few evidence-supported resources are available to assist teachers with comfortably and competently leading discussions about race with their P-12 students while also processing and coming to terms with their own understanding of race and racism. Moreover, few evidenced-based resources within the P-12 educational context address and assist educators with how to acknowledge and process the emotional labor required to facilitate conversations with their students and colleagues about race relations in America. This is especially the case for Black teachers who are often handed this undue labor at a great personal and professional toll.

BUILDING AN EVIDENCE BASE FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN PREJUDICE REDUCTION, RACIAL BIAS, AND ANTIRACISM

Professional development is a key mechanism for enhancing educators’ professional learning and providing a space for teachers to hone their pedagogy and learn new instructional skills or enhance existing ones. Considering professional development as a bridge to educate, coach, and empower teachers, the primary purpose of this special topic section of School Psychology Review is to identify if and how professional development is used in P-12 settings to combat prejudice and racism and to engage in antiracist classroom practices. The articles featured in this special topic section identify promising points of intervention within teacher professional learning to prepare teachers and other educators to address racism and prejudice in schools. However, they also reveal that this line of research is in its infancy within school psychology as well as other related social science fields (e.g., education, developmental science, and social psychology). Thus, significant theoretical work and empirical investigation is required before strong conclusions can be made about the effectiveness of P-12 professional development for enhancing teacher knowledge of and ability to address prejudice and racism in their classrooms.

Two of the articles in this special issue provide a landscape of the current state of the teacher professional development literature related to diversity (Ash & Maguire, 2023) and antiracism (Fallon et al., 2023). Through a scoping review of diversity training with both preservice and in-service teachers, Ash and Maguire (2023) offered a broad lens on the diversity training literature in education related to race, body size, sexuality and gender, disability status, and English language learners. Given that most of the diversity training literature in education samples preservice teachers, Ash and Maguire’s scoping review yields insight into the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs in training preservice teachers to address multiple forms of diversity. Teacher preparation programs have served as the bedrock for multicultural training and the promotion of culturally responsive practices in education. Thus, Ash and Maguire’s (2023) scoping review provides­provide a historical and broad assessment of efforts by teacher education programs to prepare teachers for engaging in culturally-sustaining and responsive practices. Fallon et al. (2023) extend the findings of Ash and Maguire by providing a more focused look at the preparation of White in-service teachers to tackle racism. However, evidence on the effectiveness of antiracism professional learning in schools is not well understood. Fallon et al.’s systematic review illustrates how antiracism professional development demonstrates promise for facilitating critical consciousness, improving teacher racial literacy, and fostering teacher interest in culturally responsive practice implementation. Both articles (Ash & Maguire, 2023; Fallon et al., 2023) provide a roadmap for the evaluation and development of future P-12 professional development in prejudice reduction, antiracism, and racial bias. They offer multiple recommendations for the role of school psychologists in utilizing schoolwide systems when designing diversity training, supporting the implementation of diversity professional development through consultation practices, and evaluating outcomes with a focus on the direct impact professional development trainings have on P-12 students.

The remaining two articles (Banks et al., 2022; Goforth et al., 2022) in the special topic section elucidate the importance of readiness and the earlier stages of implementation science (e.g., exploration and adoption) when preparing for equity-focused professional development implementation, which has received limited attention in school psychology apart from the consultation literature (Fixsen et al., 2005; Forman, 2019; Forman et al., 2013; Nellis & Fenning, 2023). In their article “Cultural Adaptation of an Educator Social-Emotional Learning Program to Support Indigenous Students,” Goforth et al. used community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to culturally adapt a social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum for educators. Goforth et al.’s participatory process offers a guiding framework for including community and educators in the training development process. Given that the Indigenous identity in the United States is “not a racial—but a legal and political identity”—Goforth et al.’s work provides a practical example of what form decolonization can take in schools through the centering of Indigenous community members and educators’ voices in the content formation of professional training. Community-based participatory research is central to integrating a racial equity lens into implementation science as this approach ensures that training content will be acceptable and relevant to the targeted community of interest (Shelton et al., 2021). Moreover, publications like Gorfoth et al.’s that explain how training and interventions are developed, adapted, and refined represent an important case study application of implementation science in school psychology that is needed (Forman, 2019). Publications that focus on process, relationship-building with community partners, and intervention development can foster study replication as well as dissemination and evaluation of evidence-based resources and interventions in schools. Such deep work with partners, particularly those with minoritized identities, can shed light on the theory of change and mechanisms that are purported to underlie teacher- and child-directed school-based interventions, resources, and strategies.

Drawing from research by Nir and Bogler (2008) that suggests that perceived training utility and satisfaction influences teachers’ value of professional learning, Banks et al. (2022) examined which factors predict teacher’s satisfaction with a professional development on microaggressions. This research is highly salient to the study of prejudice reduction, antiracism, and racial bias professional learning for educators. In light of the resistance that teachers exhibit to diversity training involving race-based equity (Gorski, 2019), Banks et al.’s (2022) findings pointed to the importance of evaluating individual determinants in teacher-directed interventions to assess acceptability of teacher professional learning and to reduce barriers to implementation that plague diversity-related trainings (Forman et al., 2013; Leeman et al., 2017). The assessment of factors that contribute to whether teachers view diversity training as beneficial represents an important component of process evaluation that is necessary for establishing the evidence base for racial equity professional development in schools (Lee et al., 2013).

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The focus on this special topic underscores the infancy of the work in the field of school psychology. It is our hope that this scholarship and the contributions of its authors can begin to inform and invigorate necessary dialogue on the critical topics of antiracism, prejudice reduction, and discrimination in school-based professional development. We offer the following considerations as the field grapples with where we are and where we would like to go in this work.

Is School Psychology Ready to Engage in This Work?

A key question we must honestly examine is whether most school psychologists are adequately prepared to engage in the discussions of race necessary to provide effective professional development in prejudice reduction, antiracism, and racial bias to others. The field aspires to have expertise in social justice and equity (NASP, 2020); however, presently there does not appear to be a sufficient workforce of school psychologists and faculty who provide training on these topics. It is important for us to take a hard look at our own preparation in the field before we are positioned to lead such efforts. The field is not immune from real barriers, such as lack of graduate training on these topics, individual personal biases, and lack of understanding of structural and systemic racism, particularly among those who hold White privilege. In the wake of unspeakable acts of police brutality carried out against unarmed Black persons and the national racial reckoning in response to protests of racial injustice, it appears that school psychology writ large has begun to awaken to our collective complicit role in racism and disregard for the thinking and contributions of Black leaders, starting with acknowledgment of the first Black school psychologist and researcher, Dr. Albert Beckham, who practiced in the Chicago Public Schools from 1935 to 1964 (see Graves, 2009; Proctor, 2022). Scholars of color have shouldered an undue burden in advancing the field of school psychology to be less racist and more equitable, so that school psychologists are adequately prepared to deliver authentic professional development in P-12 schools to mitigate racism, bias, and other inequities. As noted in Trainers of School Psychologists (2022), a recognition of Black leaders in school psychology, innumerable Black scholars and leaders have dedicated their professional lives to advancing racial equity and social justice. However, this dedication may result in “racial battle fatigue” (Smith, 2009, p. 298), the toll exacted on people of color who must navigate and combat racism in every fabric of life. Racial battle fatigue has serious health implications for Black educators, particularly when navigating white-centered spaces (Pizarro & Kohli, 2020). School psychologists of color may be particularly prone to racial battle fatigue, given that it is a predominantly white field (Goforth et al., 2021). To advance the field by asking critical questions, Sabnis and Proctor (2022) offered a path forward by demonstrating how critical theory can be used to reimagine and reconceptualize school psychology so that the field is better positioned for professional development with educators related to equity and antiracism. We propose that applying critical theory, as articulated by Sabnis and Proctor, can direct the field to build a workforce of school psychologists who are prepared to deliver critical professional development in racism, prejudice, and bias reduction that moves beyond leaning on scholars of color who have shouldered the undue burden of this work since the inception of the field.

Indeed, scholars have called on the field to focus on training a workforce of school psychologists who are positioned for this work through embedding social justice into graduate preparation (Grapin, 2017; Shriberg et al., 2017) and to diversify the field of school psychology which has remained largely white and female for decades (Blake et al., 2016; Goforth et al., 2021). Unfortunately, school psychology remains a field which has largely dismissed the thinking of Black scholars going back to the origins of the field to the present day (Graves, 2009; Proctor, 2022) and continues to marginalize, tokenize, and oppress students of color who are recruited into it (Proctor & Owens, 2019; Sabnis et al., 2023). Strategies that focus on both recruitment and retention efforts with persons of color into the field are necessary, such as creating racially and culturally affirming climates with graduate students of color; implementing graduate program efforts to mitigate daily microaggressions and racism in university courses, practica, and internships; and having mentorship and support systems as graduates of color enter practice (NASP, 2016; Proctor & Owens, 2019). It is important also for white colleagues to do the personal and professional work required if the field is to advance beyond performative allyship toward more authentic allyship (Domínguez & Bertrand, 2023; Sabnis et al., 2023). School psychology must fully commit for the long haul as these systemic structural changes will take time yet are necessary to support a future professional workforce that is truly positioned to engage in authentic professional development in prejudice reduction, bias reduction, and antiracism.

How Can School Psychology Support School Psychologists across Their Careers in the Engagement of This Work?

An important consideration in creating a workforce of school psychologists prepared to engage in professional development on these topics is that even with graduate training grounded in authentic social justice and equity, early career school psychologists may face many obstacles in enacting real systemic change as they enter the field. They may not be taken as seriously as the field would like and have their work circumvented in many ways. In particular, it is a real risk for school psychologists of color to work on dismantling systems of racism and oppression because they are much more likely to be marginalized and have their employment put at risk. How and in what ways early career school psychologists can be authentically supported by mentors, graduate trainers, colleagues in the field and professional associations like NASP and APA are important areas for further exploration.

Whereas graduate training and preparation of early career school psychologists are necessary, we argue that they are not sufficient to advance the necessary changes. Mid-career, later-career, and retired school psychologists have social capital in their buildings and among their professional networks, and many could be well-positioned to do this work on the ground. Whereas there is an increased focus on social justice models and application of them in school psychology (Grapin, 2017; Shriberg et al., 2017), the reality is that centering social justice and equity is a relatively recent phenomenon in the field. Therefore, school psychologists who have been practicing for more than 8 years have likely missed out on newer approaches to graduate preparation and training in social justice (Cooper et al., 2021; Shriberg et al., 2017). Fortunately, increasingly recent content is available and accessible to practitioners, such as the NASP SP4SJ Series Podcast and Google Hangout Series, which feature topics relative to race, racism, and race talk (NASP, n.d.). There are also numerous articles discussing key aspects of social justice, race, and equity within the many roles and responsibilities of school psychologists, which are presented in School Psychology Review; these are accessible to all NASP members, and many are open access. It remains vital to center discussions explicitly on race, racism, and race talk. If race is not at the center, then the field runs the risk of continuing to be race-evasive and engaged in racial-equity detours, as described by Gorski (2019). This is particularly important for white school psychologists who comprise the majority of the field and do not have lived experiences of racism to draw upon, but have benefited greatly from the enormous contributions of BIPOC scholars who have borne the burden of mitigating racism placed squarely on their shoulders for decades.

Individuals at mid- and late-career stages are the most likely to be practicum and internship supervisors, so university faculty would likely have existing relationships that could be leveraged to support this work. At this point, the field does not know a great deal about the level of training and comfort of professionals at these advanced career stages for either engaging directly in this work or supervising others who are engaged in professional development in mitigating racism, bias, and prejudice. The explicit preparation of mid- and late-career psychologists in equity and prejudice reduction strategies to support supervision of practicum, interns, and early career school psychologists is an important and fruitful area of investigation. While multiple models of supervision are available for supervisors rooted in social justice and equity that can be used for graduate students in training and for already practicing school psychologists (Simon & Swerdlik, 2023), only limited research is available to guide the development of continuing professional development in antiracism and prejudice reduction necessary for mid- to late-stage career practicing school psychologists. It is also important for the field to speak more explicitly about cross-race supervision because most supervisors are white and may not recognize the individual biases they bring to the supervision of graduate students of color, nor do they have the opportunity to work through them when identified. Supervision models rooted in equity can provide a framework for professional development (Simon & Swerdlik, 2023), but more explicit applied and basic research is needed in the translation of these models to develop content that enhances the psychologists’ knowledge, application, and transmission of antiracism and prejudice reduction strategies.

Some future directions for the field to undertake immediately include the creation and dissemination of need assessments for middle- and advanced-stage school psychologists to determine their desire, preparation, self-­efficacy, and perceived facilitators for and barriers against implementing and supporting school psychology trainees and early-career school psychologists in the delivery of prejudice reduction and antiracism professional development to school professionals on their campuses. However, we must be careful that this work is not stymied by the problem identification stage that never leads to the development of evidence-based training and professional development for advanced practicing school psychologists (Blake & Barringer, 2023). While there may not be extensive research on this specific topic, we have enough information to know that those who have been practicing for some time may not have been offered graduate training in equity and social justice, simply given how NASP standards have evolved over time to become more inclusive of social justice and equity language with an explicit focus on mitigating multiple systems of oppression, including racism (see Domain 8 “Equitable Practices for Diverse Student Populations” in NASP, 2020). Moving forward, research on the development and evaluation of training preparation and continuing education materials that involve explicit instruction on interdisciplinary theory on racism, bias, and prejudice reduction strategies and best practices for facilitating professional development in these areas will be critical for positioning school psychologists to lead prejudice-reduction professional development. Looking to other fields, such as counseling psychology (DeBlaere et al., 2019; Vera & Speight, 2003), which has often included an emphasis on social justice in graduate training, would be an avenue for the field of school psychology to explore.

HOW CAN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTE TO SCHOLARSHIP AND RESEARCH ON PREJUDICE REDUCTION, RACIAL BIAS, AND ANTIRACISM?

To combat and mitigate racism that plays out in daily educational practice, many school districts are engaged in professional development on race talk, antiracism, and equity with educators. For example, Courageous Con­versations offer educators a framework using four shared agreements to have critical dialogues about race and racism (Singleton, 2021). School psychologists can establish a research agenda in which professional development outcomes are measured that move beyond self-report satisfaction surveys of professional development. There is a risk of bias and social desirability when relying primarily on participant reports. There is limited knowledge to date about the actual impact of professional development on the lives of P-12 students, particularly racially/ethnically diverse students who are the most likely to be harmed by prejudice, racism, and discrimination. Observational research designs, while more time-consuming to implement, have the potential to offer more information about the true impact of professional development in these topics on the real lives of P-12 students.

Specifically, tools that measure whether exposure to professional development actually impacts educator practices, such as whether classroom interchanges with minoritized students are more culturally affirming, antiracist, and less biased as a result of professional development efforts, are an important direction for the field. Observation tools that assess classroom interchanges between teachers and students could be helpful in determining key moments in which biases are occurring, drawing on research analyzing such interactions (Vavrus & Cole, 2002). These tools could be used in conjunction with recently developed measures which assess teachers’ self-reported culturally responsive classroom practices and the types of professional development they want to have (Fallon et al., 2023).

Teacher resistance to diversity-related professional development continues to be well documented and is an individual determinant that could serve as a barrier to racism and racial bias-focused training (Fallon et al., 2023). Building off the work of Banks et al. (2022) and implementation science literatures (Fixsen et al, 2005; Forman, 2019; Forman et al., 2013; Sanetti & Collier-Meek, 2019), school psychologists should develop tools that assess teachers’ readiness to participate in diversity training, particularly in training around race, racism, and prejudice grounded in theories of health behavior change (Malone, 2020). Research has increasingly revealed that despite teachers’ contact with minoritized students, teachers in the United States do not differ from the general population in terms of their level of implicit racial bias (Chin et al., 2020). Further, white teachers are less likely to support racial equity ideology than minoritized adults when those ideals conflict with freedom of speech that involves the protection of racist views (Quinn & Stewart, 2019). This research supports that not all teachers hold positive racial attitudes and embody egalitarian values that are the foundation of education. Given that teachers are not monolithic, it is anticipated that many teachers will differ in their willingness and readiness to engage in diversity-related professional learning for a variety of reasons. Measurement tools that assess teachers’ level of comfort, interest, time, and motivation to engage in diversity-­related training will be critical for evaluating the degree to which prejudice reduction and antiracism professional learning is effective and will be supported by teachers. Such tools will also help facilitators identify realistic goals for teacher engagement in diversity-related professional development that can also aid in professional learning planning. These tools could be administered to assess educators’ readiness for change as part of an implementation science approach to evaluate the systemic and structural changes necessary for embedding meaningful professional development in racism and race in schools (Fixsen et al., 2005). School psychology researchers can also draw on the scholarship of Bryk et al. (2010) network improvement communities (NICs), through which teams identify a problem of practice and then engage in implementation of an intervention to address it, followed by data collection that provides quick feedback on what is working and what is not. Often, the work of NICs involves Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles (Tichnor-Wagner et al., 2017), which allows for rapid implementation and adjustment of efforts using data collected through continuous improvement strategies (Bohnenkamp et al., 2023).

The sensitive nature of race and racism, coupled with societal norms that mark these topics as taboo, suggest that scholars need to be intentional about the delivery of diversity-related professional development. Rapid feedback allowed by PDSA cycles as part of implementation science could be a fruitful direction for future research (Tichnor-Wagner et al., 2017). School psychology scholars should develop and evaluate the effectiveness of brief pre-trainings for diversity-related professional learning to scaffold teachers’ racial literacy, which could be a component of PDSA cycles connected with broader school improvement efforts. Implementation examples are available for the field in school-based mental health (Connors et al., 2022). Many adults are ill informed about the science of children’s developmental understanding of race and significantly overestimate when children’s racial awareness forms (Sullivan et al., 2021). This misperception fuels myths that discussions of race are developmentally inappropriate for children and, in turn, likely contributes to teachers’ ambivalence about instructing students on race and racism. Further, this misunderstanding also has the potential to dampen teachers’ willingness to engage fully in professional development that addresses racial bias. To dispel misinformation, school psychologists should devise a brief single session informational pre-training for educators that summarizes the developmental science of racial awareness as part of a larger diversity training professional learning plan. Sullivan et al. (2021) found that adults educated on the developmental science of race (e.g., the ages in which children identify and understand racial differences) became more accurate in their assessment of children’s racial awareness immediately following the single-session intervention. These findings are promising but require replication and extension.

Exposure to a brief pre-training on the developmental science supporting children’s racial awareness might reduce teachers’ resistance to engage in professional learning centered on racial equity and increase their readiness to engage in diversity-related professional learning. To devise this type of training, school psychologists should turn to developmental and social psychology literature to obtain foundational knowledge on when and how children process the race of others as well as their own race. The pre-training must align with best practices in teacher professional learning (Wei et al., 2009), but the ways in which other disciplines approach training development and knowledge dissemination should be consulted, such as the fields of health communication, medicine, political science, climate science, and public health. All of these disciplines have grappled with the anti-science movement and, thus, might be better positioned to offer guidance on communicating information that deviates from public opinion (Philipp-Muller et al., 2022). School psychologists will need to be intentional in presenting this information in a manner that does not undermine the credibility and trustworthiness of the research but is also objective and relatable to educators. Resources on the facilitation of diversity-related training focused on race and best practices for communicating messages related to racism should be consulted (Peek et al., 2020; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2023). It is important to reiterate that this pre-training would be the start of a larger diversity professional development plan and not a stand-alone professional learning opportunity for teachers, crafted to scaffold teachers’ racial literacy. To our knowledge, there has been limited investigation into how the sequence of diversity-related training impacts educator acceptability of the training, treatment integrity, and outcomes.

The purpose of this special topic section of School Psychology Review was to solicit empirically based manuscripts and research briefs in the form of pilot studies that address P-12 professional development devoted to prejudice reduction, antiracism, or multicultural competence and measures that assess multicultural competence, antiracism, and prejudice among P-12 educators. In addition to drawing on what is known to date in race and racism professional development with educators, we also assert that it is equally important to reflect on what is not known and carve a path in moving forward with science, research, practice, and policy efforts. We argue that formative interdisciplinary research is necessary to advance the field of school psychology, albeit incrementally, toward building an evidence base in antiracism, racial bias, and prejudice reduction in schools. For too long, the field of school psychology has been race-evasive and complicit in its avoidance of race and racism professional development in education, with the exception of BIPOC scholars whose historical and contemporary contributions are under-­recognized. The contemporary context presents an opportunity to engage and invest fully in this work. Despite some oppressive state laws trying to silence this antiracism and racial bias work, other states are recognizing the importance of and need for this work. Thus, it is essential to move forward to position ourselves through individual and systemic work to be prepared for this charge and truly align with our professional/ethical standards (NASP, 2020). We must move beyond a “paper implementation” to a “performance implementation” (Fixsen et al., 2005, p. 6). This means that it is time for the field of school psychology to evolve beyond adoption of paper statements and policy documents and produce a demonstrable benefit for racial/ethnic minoritized students who are the most directly harmed by inaction.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jamilia J. Blake

Jamilia J. Blake is a Professor at Texas A&M University and a licensed psychologist. She is the Director of the Center for Health Equity and Evaluation Research. Her research examines the developmental trajectory of peer-directed aggression, bullying, and victimization in socially marginalized youth and racial/ethnic disparities in school discipline. She currently serves as a Senior Editor for School Psychology Review. Twitter: @drjjblake.

Pamela A. Fenning

Pamela A. Fenning is a Professor, Associate Dean of Faculty Administration/Research, and a licensed school and clinical psychologist. Her research and clinical work focus on multi-tiered academic and behavioral interventions at the high school level, racial bias in exclusionary discipline and entry to the juvenile justice system, inequities in school discipline policy, evaluation of state-level discipline reform, and professional dev­elopment of school personnel in creating more equitable and inclusive school environments. She currently serves as a guest editor with School Psychology Review.

Shane R. Jimerson

Shane R. Jimerson is a Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist. His scholarship focuses on understanding and supporting the social, emotional, behavioral, academic, and mental health development of youth and understanding and advancing the field of school psychology internationally. Twitter: @DrJ_ucsb.