Promoting diversity through program websites: A multicultural content analysis of school psychology program websites

Abstract

The recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse students to graduate programs is critical to the overall growth and development of school psychology as a field. Program websites serve as an effective recruitment tool for attracting prospective students, yet there is limited research on how school psychology programs use their websites to recruit diverse students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether school psychology program websites include sufficient levels of diversity-related content critical for attracting diverse applicants. The website content of 250 professional psychology programs (165 school psychology training programs and 85 clinical and counseling psychology programs) were examined for the presence of themes of diversity and multiculturalism that prospective racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse students deem important for selecting a graduate program. Results indicated that school psychology programs had less diversity-related content on their program's website relative to clinical and counseling psychology programs.' Implications for improving recruitment of racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse students through websites are discussed. © 2016 American Psychological Association.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Diversity Recruitment professional psychology School psychology Websites

Index Keywords

human psychology Humans Vocational education curriculum university education economics United States organization and management Faculty academic achievement Education, Professional cultural diversity School Admission Criteria Internet Psychology, Educational standards statistics and numerical data Training Support Education, Graduate

Author Affiliations

Department of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States

Department of Counseling, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

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Promoting diversity through program websites: A multicultural content analysis of school psychology program websites

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