Reflection Essay

While earning my M.Ed. in child studies at Vanderbilt University, I have worked on two school-based prevention studies and researched intervention services for children with disabilities. These experiences have motivated me to pursue a career in school psychology and have refined my research and professional interests, which are shaped by developmental systems and ecological context theories. School psychologists are avid creators and consumers of evidence-based practices intended to support the positive development of social, emotional, and academic skills of all children in the school environment. In particular, school psychologists have a deep knowledge base in psychology and education grounded in the social-justice principle that all children

Catherine Corr, an interventionist and research associate at Vanderbilt, that would allow me to uniquely contribute to the spirit of social justice and diversity at the University of Kentucky. In this lab, I learned about the unfair discipline of male students and students of color in schools. We collaborated to write a literature review on preschool expulsion and therapeutic preschools, which are alternative preschools for children who exhibit high levels of challenging behaviors. While writing this review, I was not only struck by the disparate disciplinary actions taken towards certain children, but also by the fact that many of the children who exhibited challenging behaviors had reported experiences of trauma. Through writing this literature review, I became more aware of the importance of understanding each child within their greater ecological context. If we view the children in our schools exclusively based on their behaviors while at school, we may fail to recognize some of the important familial, environmental, cultural, and broader ecological factors that are impacting their behaviors and our perceptions of their behaviors. I will incorporate this perspective into my future studies because I believe that we have to celebrate the diversity that exists among people to better meet the needs of children in our