A critical ethnography of young adolescents' occupational choices in a community in post-apartheid South Africa

This thesis explored the occupational choices of young adolescents in a southern peninsula Cape Town community of Lavender Hill in South Africa. Informed by current research and prior professional and personal experiences with young adolescents in Lavender Hill, the research question asked: 'What informs occupational choice among young adolescents in Lavender Hill?' This complemented the research aim, which was to generate insight into the nature of the occupational choices of a group of young adolescents in Lavender Hill, and the factors that influenced their occupational choices

“Não foi isso que planejei para minha vida” : ocupações de empregadas domésticas que moram no local de trabalho

Introdução No Brasil, aproximadamente 20% das mulheres são trabalhadores domésticas. O trabalho doméstico tem uma natureza restritiva, que pode resultar em privação ocupacional e marginalização ocupacional. Esse é possivelmente o caso das trabalhadoras domésticas brasileiras que moram no local de trabalho. Objetivo Identificar quais são as experiências cotidianas de participação em ocupações destas mulheres. Método Um estudo qualitativo, de abordagem fenomenológica foi desenvolvido, 5 participantes foram selecionadas no Plano Piloto, em Brasília, DF, Brasil. A coleta de dados foi realizada por entrevistas e analisadas usando Systematic Text Condensation. Resultados A análise dos dados levou a um tema e duas categorias. O tema ‘agarrada em ser empregada doméstica’ descreve as constantes confrontações e tensões vividas em suas vidas cotidianas. Essas experiências de lutas em ser empregada doméstica constituem as duas categorias: (i) ‘pertencendo ao papel de trabalhadora’ e (ii) ‘exceções, uma tática de negociação de empregadores’. Conclusão Nosso trabalho contribui para uma perspectiva crítica da ocupação. Nosso foco em como fatores históricos, sociais e políticos contribuem para criação de ambientes opressivos que resultam em um processo de marginalização da condição de empregada doméstica.Introduction In Brazil, nearly 20% of women in the country are domestic workers. Domestic work has a restrictive nature that can lead to occupational deprivation and occupational marginalization. This may be the case of live-in domestic workers in Brazil. Objective Our research question was: What are Brazilian domestic workers' experiences in participating in their occupations in everyday life? Method A qualitative phenomenological was carried out and thought purposive sampling 5 participants were selected in the Plano Piloto region, Brasilia, DF, Brazil. Data was collected through face-face interviews and analyzed using Systematic Text Condensation. Results The data analysis yielded one theme and two categories. The theme, Grappling with being a domestic worker, described the domestic workers ongoing confrontations and tensions experienced in their daily lives. This experience of wresting with the influence of being a domestic worker was constituted through two categories, namely a sense of 'Belonging to the labor role' and 'Exceptionalism: a employers' negotiation tactic'. Conclusion Our work contributes to a critical perspective of occupation. We focus on how historical, social and political factors contribute to creating oppressive environments that influences domestic workers as people who are part of a marginalized group. This occurs in the way that their occupations are constructed in their doing in every-day life

Sustainability Matters: Guiding Principles for Sustainability in Occupational Therapy Practice, Education and Scholarship

Introduction The environment (context of occupational performance) has always been a focus for occupational therapists. Recently, sustainability has become a key occupational therapy topic (Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists 2012, College of Occupational Therapists 2013). Following the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (2012) position statement on environmental sustainability, it is timely for WFOT to provide curricula guidelines in ‘Sustainability Matters: Guiding Principles on Sustainable Development’. This addresses the relevance of sustainable development to human occupational performance, making it part of occupational therapy’s professional scope. It follows a wider global awareness of sustainability amongst health professions and governmental organisations, and the recognition that “climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century” (UCL-Lancet Commission 2009, p.1659) affecting all human populations

International community of practice: learning from experiences of community development and social occupational therapy

Introduction: Increasingly, occupational therapists and scientists across the globe are calling for a shift away from individualised western medical approaches, to working with communities and collectives, and in the social field. This signals the growing motivation to engage in socially responsive and transformative practices that address political structures and oppressive colonial systems. Objective: The purpose of our Community of Practice (CoP) was to explore and describe the epistemologies, vocabularies, and understandings that underpin community development and social occupational therapy within diverse global contexts to advance theoretical perspectives and practices. Method: As a CoP of occupational therapy and science scholars situated in four countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa), we met virtually bi-monthly from March 2020 to January 2023. Scholarly work involved critical narrative literature reviews, reflexive presentations, group dialogues, and individual and collective reflections and analyses. Results: Individual narratives, four thematic threads, and a selection of vocabularies and epistemologies are presented. The thematic threads were: Connecting and making space for decolonial praxis, Questioning the disconnect between occupational therapy practice and contexts, Examining vocabularies that shape contextually relevant practice, and Engaging a reflexive stance to work towards equity, justice and social rights. Conclusions: Generating knowledge that supports ways of knowing, being and doing reflective of multiple languages, sciences, and contexts will strengthen occupational therapy. Maintaining the pluriversal and resisting ‘one size fits all’ approaches to human occupation/everyday life is essential. This paper offers practitioners a catalyst for initiating decolonising praxis for learning across global contexts

The live-in domestic workers' experience of occupational engagement

Bibliographical references

Embracing an occupational perspective to promoting learning in context

Traditional occupational therapy practice in schools has been dominated by clinical interventions with children with disabilities or barriers to learning. These practices do not confront many of the challenges facing learners in the dual economy of schooling. This paper advocates that critical occupational therapy, through an Occupation-based Community Development (Ob-CD) approach to practice, is better positioned to address schooling challenges. The value of this approach, in unpacking the transactional nature of occupation for learners attending schools in a low-income area is described. The integrated lens provided by interpreting human occupation in context and framing practice through Ob-CD is highlighted. This is significant for the nature of the relationships formed and the design of interventions within a university- school partnership. A case example illustrates how Ob-CD provides a framework for confronting hegemonic ways of thinking and doing so that fresh perspectives are created for the emergence of new ways of participating. It is advocated that these new pathways provide an impetus for contextually relevant occupational therapy practice while promoting partnerships that foster development

Occupation-based Community Development Framework

This is a free guide to practice for occupational therapists intending to apply critical occupational therapy. It provides an outline for occupational therapists to practice in community development from an occupational and development perspective. This resource provides an introductory framework for occupation-based community development for occupational therapy students and practitioners. It outlines the iterative phases of intervention and illustrates how this is applied by means of a case study. Since the resource is based on on-going research by the authors, further detail will be added in the form of articles that detail how the occupational constructs have been re-conceptualised and strategies applied to ensure contextually relevant practice

Occupation focused conceptual frameworks

Conceptual frameworks are the core concepts of occupational therapy thinking used in practice by occupational therapy students, therapists and scientists. This module is a continuation of what students have covered in second year study at the University of Cape Town where they covered generic conceptual frameworks. This OT-focused module is therefore aimed at such users and occupational therapy training institutions that could make use of the information contained in this module

Service Providers Perspectives on Personal Recovery from Severe Mental Illness in Cape Town, South Africa: A Qualitative Study.

Severe mental illnesses (SMI) contribute significantly to the global burden of disease. In low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), the treatment gap impacts the clinical and personal recovery of people living with an SMI. The drive to reduce this treatment gap in LMICs makes it pertinent to understand service providers’ views on recovery from SMI. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups with service providers from health services and non-profit organisations in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, were conducted in this qualitative study. Seventeen participants were purposively selected, and data were thematically analysed. Three major themes emerged: delineating recovery, available services supporting recovery from SMI, and facilitators and barriers to recovery at the service level. Health services favoured clinical over personal recovery. Participants thought that many service users’ personal recovery from SMI was hindered by intersecting social, economic, cultural, and political inequalities that extended beyond the influence of the health sector