ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2624-7807
MSU Affiliation
College of Education; Department of Technology, Leadership and Design
Creation Date
11-30-2025
Creation Date
2026-06-08
Abstract
Deficit-laden language like ‘behavior problem,’ ‘not college material,’ ‘won’t fit in’, ‘not a cultural fit’, operates as a systemic form of implicit bias and microaggression in school settings. Despite decades of research on school belonging and well-being, school psychology has yet to integrate these exclusionary discursive practices into a coherent health-determinant model that also accounts for the current anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy environment. This conceptual paper proposes a testable framework linking deficit discourse and school-based microaggressions to student identity suppression, academic impostor phenomenon, and educator moral injury, with downstream effects on school mental health outcomes. We situate these mechanisms within the Work Determinants of Health framework (WDoH; Shuck et al., 2021), Psychological Safety Climate Theory (Edmondson, 1999), and Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000), and argue that equity infrastructure functions as a critical structural moderator. The framework has direct implications for school psychologists, building administrators, and policymakers. We argue that dismantling equity infrastructure in schools through anti-DEI legislation, elimination of culturally responsive curricula, and rollback of equitable policies, constitutes a measurable psychosocial hazard to marginalized students and school staff. Practical recommendations include adopting strengths-based ‘culture add’ frameworks, embedding psychological safety practices into Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and repositioning school belonging as a social determinant of student health. School psychology is well positioned to reframe equity infrastructure as evidence-based, health-preserving practice. This paper advances that reframing and provides five testable.
Publication Date
Summer 6-9-2026
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Oyewunmi, Modupe Mercy, "When School Culture Excludes: Deficit Discourse, Microaggressions, and the Mental Health of Marginalized Students – A Conceptual Framework with Implications for School Psychology Practice and Equity Policy" (2026). Publications. 683.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/works_publications/683
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