Strategies for Using Technology to Develop Novice School Psychology Consultants’ Multicultural Consultation Skills

ABSTRACT

With the growing diverse student population in U.S. public schools, an increased focus on cultural-related matters has surfaced in education. As a result, consultation training must prepare novice consultants with the knowledge and skills needed to provide multicultural consultation. Technology can be used to develop novice consultants’ multicultural consultation skills. This conceptual paper presents four strategies that can be used with technological applications to prepare novice consultants to deliver multicultural consultation services. Specific attention to how graduate-level training can infuse technology into existing educational practices, such as structured supervision, cross-university dialogs, video simulations, and virtual-based service learning to strengthen multicultural consultation skill development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kamonta Heidelburg

Kamontá Heidelburg, Ph.D., NCSP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University. Dr. Heidelburg’s research focuses on cultural adaptations to individual and systems-level interventions to promote Black students’ positive social, behavioral, emotional, and academic development.

Janise Parker

Janise Parker is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at William & Mary. She is also a licensed psychologist and nationally certified school psychologist. Her research focuses on culturally responsive services for school-age youth, positive Black youth development, and implications for supporting religiously/spiritually diverse youth. Dr. Parker has published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these topics. Currently, Dr. Parker is co-leading a community-based intervention that involves school mental health trainees (school counseling and school psychology students) providing academic, social, emotional, and behavioral support for K-12 youth (predominantly Black) through virtual services, and she is co-developing the emergence of a structured support program for early-career Women of Color in school mental health fields.

Julianna Casella

Julianna Casella is a Ph.D. student in counseling and school psychology at the University at Buffalo. She is also a research assistant at the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology with a minor in writing from Stony Brook University. She is interested in school crisis prevention and intervention, with an emphasis on promoting a positive school climate for all students.