Is Educational Psychology Alive and Well in the New South Africa?

Abstract

Educational psychology in South Africa has been defined in the past as an interventional and helping profession, mainly focused on the alleviation of educational problems such as learning disability or emotional issues that interfere with the educational process. Educational psychologists, apparently by predeliction, have had little to do with the general processes of learning and schooling, nor have they been concerned with educational policy issues. This may be partly to do with the fact that the training of educational psychologists in South Africa is generally light in the theory of cognitive development, instructional psychology and school psychology. This article invites discussion about the nature of the future roles for educational psychologists in the new South Africa, suggesting that their involvement in ordinary processes of schooling, and in assisting in the planning of educational systems will be primary. Appropriate changes in the nature of the training of educational psychologists require broad consultation. The need for change follows from the facts that: (1) paucity of future financial resources will necessitate the work of professional psychologists becoming more advisory, instructional and research oriented, rather than being individually focused; (2) the nature of the problems to be faced in social reconstruction will demand a more research-oriented approach than in the past; and (3) the present disarray of educational services requires the re-thinking of the most basic principles on which the formal education of children rests.