Educational Psychology in New Zealand

Abstract

The International School Psychology Survey (ISPS) was used to gather information about New Zealand educational psychologists’ characteristics, training, roles, activities, preferences, research interests and the challenges they experienced in their work. The results of this survey were considered in relation to the social and cultural context of educational psychology practice in New Zealand and were compared with the findings from ISPS surveys in other countries. The composition of the New Zealand educational psychology community resembled that found in previous surveys of school psychologists in other countries in terms of gender and level of qualifications. The educational psychologists indicated, as in most countries surveyed previously, that the greatest proportion of their work involved consultation with students, teachers and families. One point of difference between results of the New Zealand survey and previous ISPS studies was the predominance of contextual information over standardized measures in assessment.