Use of Critical Theory to Develop a Conceptual Framework for Critical School Psychology

School psychologists enter the third decade of the 21st century marked by mass protests against state-sanctioned violence against Black people, worsening economic and environmental crises, and a deadly pandemic that makes preexisting disparities worse. We argue that the profession can respond to the challenges children, families, and schools face ahead by taking a 'critical' turn. We delineate at least five lessons that can be learned from various critical theories and movements that-if intentionally, thoughtfully, and authentically engaged-have the potential to reshape our traditional 'ways of being,' and transform who we are as a field and subsequently our ability to advance social justice. We conclude by proposing a conceptual framework for a creative and dialogic site within school psychology that we call critical school psychology (CSP). CSP enables school psychologists to combat social injustice both within and outside school psychology, and work toward/for social justice by creating different kinds of knowledge and different kinds of spaces. Impact Statement Drawing upon various critical theories, we propose critical school psychology (CSP)-a conceptual framework to transform school psychology into a profession dedicated to combating social injustices and oppressive processes both within and outside of itself. We discuss how researchers, practitioners, graduate educators, and graduate students can play a role in this transformational work-in-progress by creating different kinds of knowledge and spaces.