Advancing advocacy: Lessons learned from advocates in school psychology.

Although school psychologists are called on a daily basis to advocate for the needs of our nations' schoolchildren, little is known about the factors that contribute to effective school-based advocacy. This study involved face-to-face interviews with 21 award-winning school psychology advocates. They described what led them into advocacy, obstacles faced, successes experienced, mistakes made, strategies used, resources employed, skills needed, and changes observed. The advocates discussed their definitions of advocacy, how they find balance, their advice for newcomers, and how they empower others. Following a qualitative content analysis, their collective input yielded important findings, including indispensable advice for future advocates. Most suggested that beginners' build relationships with like-minded collaborators and the targets of their advocacy, devote time to building expertise, and be patient and persistent. Common obstacles included intransigence among school psychology colleagues who were reluctant to change their roles to reflect new developments in the field or who feared participating in advocacy would destabilize their positions. To fully embrace an advocacy role, most advised advocacy education and training for both existing school psychologists and newcomers to the field. Limitations and implications that inform a foundation for advancing advocacy within school psychology are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Advocates in public service settings: Voices from the field.

Numerous conceptual pieces addressing the importance of advocacy within psychology have been published over the last 20 years. Most recently, that chorus of voices has increasingly focused on the needs of historically marginalized populations (Burney et al., 2009; Garrison, DeLeon, & Smedley, 2017; Nadal, 2017). Despite this attention, a dearth of research has explored the experiences of seasoned advocates who work with such populations. The present investigation drew from an interdisciplinary group of award-winning advocates to reveal how they define and conceptualize advocacy; the motivators and barriers they've experienced; and their recommendations about how to support newcomers to advocacy. Through semistructured face-to-face interviews that were content analyzed qualitatively, the 14 advocates describe important lessons about advocacy work. Participants' desires to become an advocate were fueled mostly by personal interests and early formative experiences. They found collaborations and building networks (i.e., building relationships with people on all sides of an issue) to be their chief advocacy strategies, and stressed the importance of interpersonal and communication skills (e.g., taking initiative, making connections with those in power) in their skill repertoire. The main barriers encountered included psychological resistance (i.e., intentional blindness toward hidden populations), funding constraints, and various other negative obstacles. Although most found creating a work-life balance elusive, they were energized by mentoring advocacy newcomers, by successes achieved in legislative/policy/program advances, and by creating systems that provide needed services. They shared wisdom about a host of issues for a new generation of advocates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Ethnicity matters for undergraduate majors in challenges, experiences, and perceptions of psychology.

In this investigation of a national sample of undergraduate psychology majors, we directly compare the experiences and perceptions of students of color with those of European Americans. Our aim was to identify factors that might contribute to our discipline's educational pipeline, in which the relative lack of ethnic diversity is a recognized problem. We found that students of color and European American majors are similar in a number of ways but also different in others. Students of color are challenged by less encouragement from and interaction with faculty, perceive a lack of respect, and wish to see more attention to diversity in curriculum, research, faculty, and textbooks. It is not surprising that students of color were significantly less satisfied than European Americans with their studies in psychology.

Experiences and perspectives of African American, Latina/o, Asian American, and European American psychology graduate students: A national study.

A national, Web-based survey of 1,219 African American, Latina/o, Asian American, and European American psychology graduate students revealed both similarities and differences in experiences and perspectives. Mentoring was found to be the strongest predictor of satisfaction across groups. Academic supports and barriers, along with perceptions of diversity within the academic environment, were also important predictors of satisfaction. Students of color perceived less fairness of representation of their ethnic group within psychology than European American students, and a greater linkage between aspects of the graduate school experience and their ethnicity. Limitations of the study and implications for future research and action are discussed.

Exemplary multicultural training in school psychology programs.

This study examined the characteristics of school psychology programs noted for training students from a multicultural perspective. The program characteristics and training environment at 17 programs were studied through semistructured interviews with faculty and students, and reviews of prospective student application materials for multicultural content. Findings suggest that students at all programs were exposed to minority clients during applied fieldwork, 94% of the programs required a diversity issues course, 59% of the programs specialized in training with specific minority group populations, 31% of the students and 25% of the faculty represented a racial-ethnic minority group member, and 24% of the faculty were bilingual. Most programs used multiple multicultural curriculum models and employed a wide variety of recruitment and retention strategies specifically aimed at minority students. Faculty and students characterized their overall university training environment as supportive of programmatic initiatives regarding diversity issues, yet several reported uneven experiences with implementation.

Exemplary efforts in psychology to recruit and retain graduate students of color.

Many psychology departments are striving for a greater representation of students of color within their graduate preparation programs with the aim of producing a more diverse pool of psychological service providers, scientists, and educators. To help improve the minority pipeline in psychology, the authors identify and describe recruitment and retention strategies used at 11 departments and programs considered to be making exemplary efforts to attract and retain minority students of color. The strategies most consistently used included engaging current minority faculty and students in recruitment activities, offering attractive financial aid packages, having faculty members make personal contacts with prospective students, creating linkages with historical institutions of color, having (or approached having) a critical mass of faculty and students of color, offering a diversity issues course, and engaging students in diversity issues research. Despite the similarities, the programs and departments were each distinctive and innovative in their overall approaches to student recruitment and retention. Highlighting the strategies used at successful institutions may help others develop plans for improving the minority pipeline within their own departments and programs.