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Anticolonial Learning Spaces: Moving from Critical Consciousness to Advocacy

  • Stephanie D’Costa
  • , Monica E. Romero
  • , Patrice Leverett
  • , Lisa N. Aguilar
  • , Stephanie Grant
  • , Rachel Fidler
  • , Stephanie Campbell

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Developing critical consciousness through an Anticolonial framework is vital to transforming school psychology and challenging colonial and capitalist systems in education. The Anticolonial School Psychology Learning Collaborative (ACSPLC) was created to foster community, reflection, and collective resistance among school psychology professionals and trainees. This mixed-methods study examined whether participation in the ACSPLC influenced participants’ critical consciousness, anticolonial knowledge, and advocacy practices. The manuscript also explores how engagement in the collaborative inspires advocacy by illuminating the discipline’s colonizing behaviors and centering Indigenous visions of the future. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that participation deepened understanding of systemic oppression, fostered the application of anticolonial frameworks, and reduced feelings of isolation. Results highlight the importance of community-building and Indigenous-centered reflection in sustaining justice-oriented, advocacy-driven school psychology practice. Impact Statement This mixed-method study advances school psychology by examining an intervention designed to cultivate critical consciousness through an anticolonial framework. Findings reveal that participants were more likely to take action to address colonization and oppression in educational contexts. By disrupting colonial and capitalist ideologies that shape schooling, this work highlights the transformative potential of relational, decolonial praxis to shift school psychology toward justice-oriented practice. The study underscores the need for school psychologists to engage in self-reflective practice and community-supported activism for all families and to promote educational systems that confront bias, foster equity, and center the voices of those historically marginalized by dominant structures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalSchool Psychology Review
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 National Association of School Psychologists.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 4 - Quality Education
    SDG 4 Quality Education
  2. SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
    SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Keywords

  • Anticolonial framework
  • advocacy
  • critical consciousness
  • indigeneity
  • mixed methods
  • school psychology
  • social justice

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