TSP Summer Workshop

Please join TSP for our Virtual Summer Workshop on August 21, 2026 at 1:00 PM Eastern.

The link for the Workshop will be sent to registered attendees at 12pm Eastern on 8/21/26.

The three features sessions will center on advancing equity, diversity, and cultural competence in school psychology training and practice to address field-wide workforce challenges. Please see below for details.

The TSP Summer Workshop is sponsored by The Woodcock Institute. TWI is pleased to announce a call for two awards at the Annual TSP Conference: (1) Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentorship and Practice, and (2) Graduate Student Scholarship for Excellence in Assessment and Learning. Both awards will present $500 to the award recipient. The Institute also funds ongoing research through research grants ($25,000), dissertation grants ($5,000), and a Distinguished Research Fellowship ($100,000). Please visit the website for more information.

TSP Summer Workshop Schedule

Session 1: Innovative Recruitment Approaches for Rural and Indigenous School Psychologists (CE 1)

Gillian Michael & Anisa Goforth

1:00 - 2:00pm EST

Recruitment and retention of school psychologists is a challenge, particularly those coming from rural areas or who are racially minoritized. For Indigenous school psychologists, there are notable barriers to entering the field, such as the desire for community connection rather than leaving to attend university (Lee, 2015) and cultural differences between their background and the university (e.g., predominantly White universities; Larimore & McClellan, 2005). To address this, a federal grant-supported initiative from a Mountain West university aims to increase the quantity and quality of school psychologists, addressing challenges faced in rural and Indigenous communities. This presentation will describe the initiative’s efforts to recruit and retain school psychologists that target a) reducing barriers to entry into the profession, b) employing recruitment strategies in schools and university training programs, and c) effectively establishing relationships with rural and Indigenous communities. Attending this presentation will prepare trainers of school psychologists to think critically about how to recruit professionals from culturally diverse backgrounds to address their area’s workforce shortage, with a particular emphasis on serving rural and Indigenous students. Participants will be prompted to consider the barriers to career entry in their unique communities through guided discussion and practitioner collaboration.

Session 2: Promoting School Psychology Students' Cultural Competence through Cross-Cultural Dialogues (CE: 1)

Geremy Grant & Laura Henderson

2:15 - 3:15 EST

This study describes the impact of a cross-cultural dialogue assignment used in a cultural diversity seminar. The assignment required students to engage in a recorded dialogue with an adult volunteer who was culturally dissimilar in terms of race or ethnicity, and an additional cultural dimension (e.g., gender, financial status, age) to emphasize the importance of intersectionality in practice. Students answered pre-dialogue questions centering on their previous engagement in cross-cultural dialogues, anticipated challenges and benefits from engaging in a dialogue, and thoughts about how the dialogue is applicable to school psychology practice. Post-dialogue, students answered questions centering on their broaching skills, regulation of anxiety and discomfort, rapport building and maintenance strategies, perspective changes regarding their dialogue partner’s cultural background, and areas for continued growth. Thematic analysis will be conducted on the pre- and post-dialogue responses to identify key areas for continued professional development. Insights gained from this analysis can inform the development of targeted support strategies to improve school psychology training and curricula. The analysis will also explore the impact of this experiential activity on students’ multicultural understanding and ability to engage in critical self-reflection. This part of the analysis will help determine this assignment’s potential to augment traditional didactic approaches.

Session 3: Cultural Wealth and Workplace Reality: Voices of Practicing Asian School Psychologists (CE: 1)

Elaine (Hua) Luo & Jiayi Wang

As our field confronts workforce shortages and increasing expectations for culturally responsive practice, school psychologists of color contribute important cultural assets (e.g., bilingual skills, perspective taking, professional identity; Yang et al., 2025). However, their work experiences remain understudied. Guided by the Community Cultural Wealth framework (CCW, Yosso, 2005) and Organizational Justice Theory (OJT; Colquitt, 2001), we conducted thematic analysis of 15 interviews with practicing Asian school psychologists. CCW highlights the aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant capitals practitioners bring to their work, whereas OJT illuminates how workspace dynamics influence whether these assets are recognized, underutilized, or transformed into burdens through cultural taxation or exclusion. Integrating CCW and OJT, our findings showcased that Asian School Psychologists possess significant cultural wealth but frequently encounter workspace injustices that suppress their strengths and undermine their professional mission and sense of connection. These frontline narratives offer an evidence-based model for re-designing multicultural training in school psychology and illustrate the systemic challenges that novice school psychologists of color may encounter. Understanding how organizational structures nurture or constrain practitioner assets enables trainers to better integrate preparation for advocacy and leadership in order to equip future school psychologists to create more equitable, inclusive school systems.