School Psychology in Italy: Current status and challenges for future development.

Abstract

As ISPA President Jimerson noted in his President’s Letter in the March 2017 edition of World-go-Round: “services provided by school psychologists vary within and between countries in response to a country’s history and needs” (Jimerson, 2017, p.1). The current development of school psychology in Italy continues to respond to the country’s history and needs; however, we are finding that almost 10 years after the publication of the Handbook of International School Psychology (Jimerson et al., 2006), where Italy was identified as a country where school psychology was at the initial stages of self-identity, Italian school psychologists still struggle to be recognized as “uniquely qualified members of school teams that support students' ability to learn and teachers' ability to teach, as defined by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)”. Such a lack of professional identity is mainly due to the non-existence of a definitive national regulation governing the general practice of psychology in schools, as well as the absence of a licence for “school psychologist” in order to work within the school context. This contribution reviews school psychology in the Italian context, aiming at both updating and promoting the understanding and advancement of school psychology around the world.