The invisible work of persisting: BIWOC students in school psychology doctoral programs

There are growing calls to diversify the ranks of school psychology practitioners, graduate educators, and researchers by recruiting more students of color in school psychology doctoral programs. Past research on retention across many fields in higher education indicates that Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC) students entering doctoral programs encounter isolation, lack of support, and microaggressions. Although this literature has illuminated how doctoral programs can push out BIWOC students, it has been critiqued for overlooking the creative and strategic means they use to stay in their programs. We analyzed 12 focus group interviews conducted with 15 BIWOC students in school psychology doctoral programs across the United States. Using the analytical construct of agency, we coded the transcripts to identify agentic actions of BIWOC that went beyond standard graduate school demands. We identified six types of actions that BIWOC carried out to combat the systemic barriers they encountered: teaching, protecting others, self-advocating, organizing, searching for community, and self-editing. Given that these actions were in addition to the basic program requirements, we argue that they are instances of the invisible work that BIWOC students did to persist in their doctoral programs. We discuss the implications of this invisible work and provide various recommendations for school psychology doctoral programs to reduce the burden of invisible work on BIWOC students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).