Practitioner Perspectives on Social Justice and Systems-Level Indirect Services

Via individual interviews, we investigated school psychology practitioners’ ( N = 8) perspectives on implementing systems-level indirect services using a social justice lens. Practitioners participated in interviews where we prompted them to consider how their practice includes Domains 5–7 of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services (i.e., school-wide practices to promote learning, services to support safe and supportive schools, family, school, and community collaboration) and how social justice principles are infused in these practices. Qualitative analyses indicated that practitioners encounter several barriers in implementing socially just indirect services. Some identified issues included role capacity, understanding social justice definitions, and community involvement and influence. Given our findings, we offer recommendations for practitioners including the importance of following NASP position statements, involvement in policy work, and embedding multicultural, liberation, and anti-racist theories and practices in school psychology training.