An ecological analysis of the supervisory activity of 31 New Zealand school psychologists examined simultaneously the theories of school psychology, supervision practices, and the contextual qualities that mediated participants' supervisory actions. The findings indicated that the school psychologists worked to achieve the supervision goals of support, knowledge, and accountability through reciprocal interaction in multiple relationships within and outside of their professional community. With the notion of supervision broadened to include all activity undertaken to meet the supervisory goals, greater levels of participation and satisfaction with supervisory provision were shown than in many previous studies. The school psychologists utilized various opportunities for supervision support in their day-to-day practice rather than relying solely on traditional dyadic or fixed-group forms. Supervision practices of the school psychologists were situated within the activity of a networked community of supervision practice. Implications for conceptualizing supervision as a broad, situated activity are discussed.
The International School Psychology Survey (ISPS) was used to gather information about New Zealand educational psychologists’ characteristics, training, roles, activities, preferences, research interests and the challenges they experienced in their work. The results of this survey were considered in relation to the social and cultural context of educational psychology practice in New Zealand and were compared with the findings from ISPS surveys in other countries. The composition of the New Zealand educational psychology community resembled that found in previous surveys of school psychologists in other countries in terms of gender and level of qualifications. The educational psychologists indicated, as in most countries surveyed previously, that the greatest proportion of their work involved consultation with students, teachers and families. One point of difference between results of the New Zealand survey and previous ISPS studies was the predominance of contextual information over standardized measures in assessment.
A review of recent school psychology publications was conducted to discover the espoused theory of contemporary school psychology, as distinct from school psychology practice. We considered that identification of the espoused theory of school psychology, the story of school psychology, would support professional reflection and the identification of factors that mediate theory and practice. To distinguish the espoused story of school psychology from practice we considered what school psychologists said about professional practice, rather than what they did or said they did. The findings suggested that contemporary school psychology endorses practices that are relevant to and effective in a rapidly changing world. The profession has built on strong foundations to construct models of practice that consider, value, and benefit from the multiplicity of an increasingly globally-connected community. Recurrent themes were identified that, together, formed an espoused story. This story of contemporary school psychology comprised recognition of the interactive context of child development, ecological analysis, multi-systemic approaches to practice, inclusion, and respect for diversity, positive psychology and evidence-based, theoretically driven practice.Keywords contemporary school psychology, diversity, ecological analysis, espoused theory, evidence-based practice, inclusion, interactive perspective, multi-systemic approach, positive psychologyReflecting on the practices of school psychologists in the 39 countries represented in the Handbook of international school psychology (Jimerson, Oakland, & Farrell, 2007), Hart (2007) suggested that the diversity and debate currently existing within the profession reflected incompleteness of its establishment. (School psychologist
Educational psychologists' work routinely involves facilitation of teams in which participants hold diverse points of view. In this article, the authors discuss diversity in team work and its place in the development of shared goals. They describe, as an example of educational psychologists' work team interaction, the structure and functioning of communities of practice. Particular attention is paid to the tension between commonality and diversity of team-member knowledge in determining the course of professional practice. The authors consider a particular aspect of diversity regularly encountered by educational psychologists: differing beliefs regarding the reasons for, and origins of, child behaviour. They suggest that educational psychologists can support effective interventions by recognizing, understanding and utilizing the diverse views of the people involved in their consultation work. A matrix of common perspectives of human development illustrates a range of diverse views and shows how fluid beliefs about the contexts of learning and behaviour problems influence interpretations of events and the nature of interventions. The authors illustrate, with reference to case examples, how the matrix can illuminate the nature of diverse viewpoints and support educational psychology teams to utilize difference to construct applicable interventions.
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