A Coherent Framework for the Application of Psychology in Schools

A coherent and integrated theoretical model for the application of psychology in schools will serve two major purposes. Firstly, it will allow practitioner educational psychologists (EPs) to represent the extent of the work they carry out with schools to research-based psychologist colleagues. This in turn could reveal the rich research agenda that awaits creative combinations of practitioner experience and academic research skills. Secondly, a coherent framework will allow all those seeking to apply or draw on psychology when working in schools to explicate that psychology in order to promote a productive dialogue with professional colleagues, be they teachers, researchers or other psychologists. The framework proposed in this article draws mainly on practitioner-directed research within educational and organisational psychology, supplemented by related university-based research. In particular, the model highlights the need for those who seek to apply psychology in schools, to appreciate the relationships between both the formal and informal aspects of school staff, pupil, and family subsystems, and the ways in which different interventions impact upon different areas of this psycho-social framework.