Reinvigorating psychoeducational assessment with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Youth

Australia’s increasing population includes Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) communities and educational psychology has the potential to promote inclusion and social justice with these groups. Culturally competent engagement is integral to this task. In particular, the capacity to deliver non-discriminatory assessments. Australian research exploring the learning experiences of CaLD students is limited, and there are presently no definitive professional guidelines for practitioners to follow when assessing CaLD students. To address this matter, educational psychologists have begun to formulate best practice assessment protocols (APS, 2023; Khawaja & Howard, 2020). However, consensus on what constitutes fair and just assessment is yet to be agreed. This paper contributes to current debates by examining CaLD assessment practices through the principles of ecologics (Corcoran, 2024). Specifically, it considers how ecologics support practitioners to think differently about learning and teaching and the need for culturally competent psychoeducational assessment to advance pedagogies of excellence and equity within Australia’s schools.