Graduation Year
2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
Psychological and Social Foundations
Major Professor
Jose M. Castillo, Ph.D.
Co-Major Professor
Vonzell Agosto, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Jennifer Wolgemuth, Ph.D.
Committee Member
William Black, Ph.D.
Keywords
multiculturalism, school psychology, critical psychology, social justice
Abstract
Although there is an increase in publications on the topic of cultural responsiveness in school psychology, the research literature does not interrogate the discourse around cultural responsiveness and the modes of practices it enables. Using a preexisting dataset featuring interviews with 15 school psychologists, I analyzed the discursive formations characterizing the talk about cultural responsiveness. Data analysis using the critical discursive psychology framework illuminated the presence of cognitivism in participant talk. Critical discourse analysis drawing on Foucauldian theory of power effects revealed the ways in which cognitivism both enabled and constrained the discursive production of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural responsiveness’. Culture became a primarily cognitive concept (beliefs, values, and tendencies of various groups), and cultural responsiveness came to be a rational non-discriminatory form of decision making process oriented toward individualistic and micro-level forms of practices that had institutional sanction. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.
Scholar Commons Citation
Sabnis, Sujay, "Cognitivism in School Psychologists’ Talk about Cultural Responsiveness: A Critical Discourse Analysis" (2019). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/7919
