Date Presented 04/05/19
WFOT requires that OT curricula be contextually relevant, but it is not known how programs meet that requirement. This ethnographic case study demonstrated that educators used explicit and implicit methods to connect content to the local context. Educators modified instructional methods with the intention of linking the content, skill, or concept to the local context. This study provides a guide for programs aiming to meet the specific needs of a specific culture and context.
Primary Author and Speaker: Bill Roberts
Additional Authors and Speakers: Lesley Garcia
Contributing Authors: Barb Hooper
PURPOSE: Educators are implementing occupational therapy education programs worldwide in response to growing health needs (WFOT, 2016b). The World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) requires that approved education programs create curricula that are responsive to the local context (WFOT, 2016a). Many of these programs exist in places where the profession is emerging and must use resources such as texts and practice models that were created in different countries. These resources may represent contexts different from the place where they are applied and therefore influence the contextual relevance of the program (Hammell, 2013; Iwama, Thomson, & Macdonald, 2009). There is no scholarship describing the methods educators use to create programs that are suited to a specific context. This study examined the research question: What pedagogical strategies do educators in a new occupational therapy program in the Caribbean use to link the curriculum to the local culture and context?
DESIGN: The researchers used a qualitative ethnographic case study design to explore the research question. The occupational therapy program at the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) in Trinidad and Tobago was chosen as the case because it exists in a country where the profession is emerging, uses curricular resources developed in other contexts, and is striving to create a contextually relevant program.
METHOD: Over eight months, the researcher observed and recorded field notes on classroom teaching and faculty meetings, collected curricular documents, interviewed educators, and held focus groups with students and the faculty. Data analysis included open coding in which sections of text were assigned to codes. Memo writing facilitated the formation of themes among the codes. Member checking, peer debriefing, and triangulation of data facilitated trustworthiness of the data.
RESULTS: Educators used linking strategies to varying degrees to connect the curriculum to the local context. Linking strategiesare modifications of typical instructional strategies with the intention of connecting the topic, skill, or concept to the local context. Educators used processes such as comments, discussion, and assignment requirements to transform instructional strategies into linking strategies.
Although educators and students identified specific linking strategies educators used to connect the curriculum to the local context, the link between the curriculum and the local context is often implied and sometimes absent. The contextual differences represented in texts, articles, assessments, and practice models are most often discussed when the differences are concrete. Subtle contextual variations such as differences in cultural beliefs represented in theories and models are less often discussed.
CONCLUSION: Occupational therapy curricula are diverse collections of local beliefs, customs, and circumstances in which occupational therapy knowledge is built.Educators are challenged to create curricula that meet local needs while using curricular resources that may represent differing contextual realities. The educators in the USC program used various strategies to transform typical teaching methods into linking strategies where students actively considered what they were learning in the context of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.
IMPACT STATEMENT: This is the first study describing how occupational therapy educators use pedagogical processes to create curricula that are situated in the local context. This study may act as a guide for educators worldwide who wish to design curricula that are relevant to the local context and educate practitioners equipped to meet the needs of the local communities.
References
Hammell, K. W. (2013). Occupation, well-being, and culture: Theory and cultural humility/Occupation, bien-être et culture: la théorie et l’humilité culturelle. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 80(4), 224-234. doi:10.1177/0008417413500465
Iwama, M. K., Thomson, N. A., & Macdonald, R. M. (2009). The Kawa Model: the power of culturally responsive occupational therapy. Disability & Rehabilitation, 31(14), 1125-1135. doi:10.1080/09638280902773711
World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2016a). Minimum standards for the education of occupational therapists: World Federation of Occupational Therapists. Retrieved from http://www.wfot.org/ResourceCentre.aspx
World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2016b). WFOT human resources project 2016. Retrieved from http://www.wfot.org/ResourceCentre.aspx
