Training While Black: Exploring The Experiences of Black Trainee Educational Psychologists

There is a limited body of research that centres Black trainee educational psychologists’ (TEPs) experiences within professional training, and a particular paucity of work that examines these experiences through a psychosocial lens. While existing studies in educational psychology (EP) have addressed diversity and inclusion, they have often attended to race at the level of policy, representation, or individual encounter, rather than as a cumulative, relational, and intrapsychic process. This thesis responds to this gap by exploring how Black TEPs make sense of their training experiences within institutional contexts shaped by racialised power. This thesis reports on a qualitative psychosocial study examining the experiences of Black TEPs undertaking doctoral training programmes in England. The study employed principles from the Free Association Narrative Interview Method (FANIM), generating twelve in‑depth interviews across two phases with six qualified Educational Psychologists, reflecting retrospectively on their training experiences. Analysis was conducted using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, informed by psychodynamic theory. As a Black TEP undertaking the research, I adopted a reflexive stance, acknowledging the co‑constructed nature of the research encounter and the researcher’s interpretive role in meaning‑making. Via the analysis, a series of themes were developed that illuminate how training was experienced and negotiated at intrapsychic, interpersonal, and systemic levels. These comprised Assimilated Histories, Model(ling), Self–Other Management, Other–Self Responsibilisation, Speaking the Problem, Progress(iveness), Lone(ly) Souls, Tough Gratification, and Seeking Solidarity. The thesis contributes to educational psychology by extending what is thinkable about Black experiences of EP training. It offers a psychosocial interpretive lens for engaging with what may lie beneath the surface across individual, relational, and systemic levels, shaping racialised experience. The findings carry implications for how Black TEPs navigate self‑in‑role, highlighting the ongoing and unresolved work of attending to these experiences within institutional contexts.