Examining the Racist Roots of Educational Psychology Theory and Research

• In Event: Roots, Religion, and Paradoxes: Race in Education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the trajectories and roots of the field of educational psychology and how they are entangled, in implicit and explicit ways, with white supremacist ideologies. We draw on critical theory to frame our tracing of the origins of the field. We discuss the founders of the field within four subfields: generalists, behaviorists, psychometricians, and cognitivists. Two viewpoints were evidence in the work of the field’s founding scholars: beliefs about social and genetic inferiority of Black people, Indigenous people, and other People of Color. We challenge educational psychologists and those who make use of educational psychology research and scholarship to grapple with these histories in order to grow a more equitable future.

Authors

• Kamden Strunk, Auburn University

• Payton Hoover, Auburn University

• Carey E. Andrzejewski, Auburn University