School psychologists in the political maelstrom

This article explores, first, the roles that school psychologists theoretic ally might adopt as change agent: non-change, technician, the social broker and the social interventionist. Then, we analyse data from a sample of pra ctising school psychologists to see the extent to which these roles are act ually manifest in their orientations toward serving as change agent. To ser ve as successful change agents, though, school psychologists must understan d the political context, since their stance toward change almost automatica lly injects them into the political arena. We use examples drawn from the p olitics of planning literature to note how the role adopted by a change age nt interacts with political structures to shape the odds of successful chan ge efforts. Techniques for the school psychologist to learn to better adapt to political circumstances are outlined.