Truth Seeking, Truth Telling, and Deep Listening: Disrupting Colonialism with Indigenous-Centered Frameworks in School Psychology Preparation

Abstract

Indigenous students face the continued presence of colonialist education which acts to disconnect, silence, and disrupt the strengthening of identity and cultural sovereignty. This article proposes a collaborative Indigenous-centered framework to prepare school psychologists to support the development of Indigenous students and address impacts of intergenerational trauma. Specifically, it argues that Indigenous-centered frameworks in school psychology training should include four critical domains: transformative learning, survivance, transformational resistance, and giving back to Indigenous communities. When that occurs, it positively impacts recruitment, retention, and graduation rates. The Native and Indigenous Scholars Project (NAISP) is analyzed as an example of how an interprofessional project (with school counseling) can be used to augment graduate training in school psychology using Indigenous-centered frameworks to facilitate critical conscious raising, evolution of identity, and advocacy via integration of Indigenous knowledge systems in evidence-based interventions, resilience strategies, and survivance while contributing to Tribal communities. Implications for school psychology training programs will be described..