The Perceptions of Nova Scotia School Psychologists regarding their Roles
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Date
2010-04-14T14:22:02Z
Authors
Hasiuk, Maria
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Abstract
For a number of years, it has been proposed that the scope of school
psychological services be expanded beyond assessment to include other activities such as
consultation, prevention, and research. Despite school psychologists' reported desires to
expand their roles, change in this direction has been slow (Braden et al., 2001; Fagan,
2002). Many practitioners have found their roles restricted to that of "testers" and
reported discrepancies between their actual and desired practice (Curtis et al., 2002;
Desimone, 1999; Hanson, 2004; Jones-Wilson, 1994; Levinson, 1990; Reschly &
Wilson, 1995).
This study was conducted to examine the perceptions of psychologists practicing
in Nova Scotia schools regarding their actual and desired role functioning, the
establishment of their activities, the challenges to achieving their desired practice, and the
influence they feel they have over the activities in which they engage. The intent of this
research was to provide insight into the current practices and perceptions of school
psychologists in the province.
Thirty-four psychologists responded to this study, a 63% response rate, resulting
in 32 usable surveys. Findings suggest that many factors influence how school
psychologists enact their roles, such as the needs of different schools, school teams,
school administrators, the prioritization of psychoeducational assessment, and
individual school culture. Respondents spent the most time engaged in
psychoeducational assessment, followed by report writing, behaviour assessment, and
consultation. Significant differences were found between actual and desired role
functioning, with psychologists wanting more time for counselling, inservicing, and prevention oriented activities and less time conducting psychoeducational assessments,
writing reports, and travelling. Respondents identified a number of barriers/ challenges
to their desired functioning, including heavy caseloads, others' lack of awareness of
psychologists' expertise, the focus on psychoeducational assessment, and issues
associated with working in a non-psychology environment. They also described
strategies that enable them to gain some control over their activity allocation, such as
open communication/ negotiation, educating others, and participating on school teams.
Respondents reported having a wide range of influence over their activity allocation,
from very low to very high.
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Keywords
School psychologists , School psychology , Nova Scotia , Public opinion