A critical reflection from inside, looking back and forward: Theorising perspectives on decolonising occupational science theory and practice

The paper seeks to provide a critical reflection on theorising perspectives in relation to decolonising occupational science from an insider’s perspective. In this paper ‘theorising’ refers to the means of identifying and collating some of the characteristics that form the problem of coloniality in the discipline of occupational science, and hence contribute to developing ways and means of decolonising occupational science. Various literature sources and theories from occupational science and beyond are addressed to engage the reader in this topic and critical reflection. The paper seeks to encourage the reader to critically review the current occupational science theory/ies, and practice, by offering a critical provocation that asserts that occupational science is institutionally racist and continues to perpetuate and recycle coloniality. A significant aspect of this critical reflection is framed around an adapted version of Professor Leon Tikly’s three pillars of decolonising the university, which has been applied to the topic of decolonising occupational science. The paper concludes by invoking the reader to look inward at the discipline of occupational science and to join in collaboration/s to generatively disrupt the current coloniality of the science, further providing suggestions on ways to do so

Evaluating service level outcomes from implementing Seddon’s Vanguard Method, a service improvement framework, in an occupational therapy service in England: A single case study

Background There is lack of research regarding service improvement and occupational therapy, most research is focussed on clinical intervention improvement to demonstrate service improvement, which is a narrow focus compared to the whole service improvement. This service improvement study applying Seddon’s Vanguard Method to a critical care unit occupational therapy service in England is original research, answering an empirical question that will be of interest to the occupational therapy practice community. Method Research question: How and why are service level outcomes impacted, after implementing Seddon's Vanguard Method, a service improvement framework, to an occupational therapy service in England? Case study methodology was employed as the research is novel, and, exploring the phenomenon (service improvement) in depth in a particular context as it is less known. Furthermore, case study methodology is used when there are how and why questions to be answered in the research question and offers the opportunity to use mixed data to understand the phenomenon from multiple perspectives. Mixed quantitative and qualitative data were collected to provide multiple perspectives regarding service level outcomes impacted by the chosen service improvement framework. The quantitative analysis was carried out using descriptive, one-way ANOVA and Tukey Kramer HSD statistical analyses; and the qualitative data were transcript analysis of interviews using thematic analysis. Findings 1) The research identified themes of the service level factors which formed feedback loops. Four loops that had negative impact (vicious cycles) on service delivery – staff shortages, snowball effect of staff shortages leading to more staff shortages, funding arrangements, bed flow management external to the critical care service, staff concerns and staff challenges not being heard. To interrupt the vicious cycles was a balancing loop representing the staff raising the concerns and barriers to deliver their work. Such feedback loops are related to systems thinking concept. 2) The themes that were identified were also identified to form a developing typology of struggle for the critical care staff to improve the service. The term struggle was identified as there was a power imbalance between the critical care staff and the organisation impacting their agency to improve the service. 3) The descriptive analysis of the quantitative data indicated there were some notable differences: the number of missed occupational therapy sessions between years 2022 and 2021-2019 increased by 2%; the number of days between referral to 1st contact with the patient between years 2022 and 2019, reduced to average of 0.3 days from 4.8 days respectively; counting the number of times the terms occupational therapy vs the abbreviation OT was said within the evaluation transcripts before, during, and after the research implementation period, showed occupational therapy was said 31%, 19% and 74% respectively. 4) Going through the service improvement using Seddon’s Vanguard Method intervention elucidated the challenges for the critical care staff in establishing their professional identity, but also how to improve it. Conclusion The novel contribution from the research, is that in going through the Seddon’s Vanguard Method for service improvement, it has elucidated for the sample critical care occupational therapy staff; a typology of struggle to improve their service, their legitimacy, and jurisdiction in this specialty, and ultimately how to improve their professional identity

Developing an evidence-Informed decolonising curriculum wheel – A reflective piece

Decolonising the curriculum is not a fad (Moosavi, 2020) nor a metaphor (Tuck and Yang, 2012). It is the deep interrogation of curriculum with Black and minoritised students, to expose how the colonialist patriarchal epistemological worldview has shaped the curriculum, the results of which are seen in the different educational outcomes for these groups compared to their white peers. Thus, this approach to curriculum transformation decentres the hegemony disadvantaging and harming Black and minoritised students. Decolonising the curriculum reinserts knowledges and authors that are pushed to the margins/devalued, so that Black and minoritised students can be represented in the curriculum, representation leads to belonging, a contributor for student success (Pedler et al., 2022). This paper reflects on the development of an evidence informed ‘decolonising the curriculum wheel – a reflection framework’, as a method to support and guide engagement and continuous evaluation of decolonising curricula activity/ies across a higher education institution, to potentially improve belonging for Black and minoritised students. The article shares how through a scoping literature review and thematic analysis of reports from student focus groups, components for a decolonising method were identified. The article also lays bare the challenges that occurred in this journey towards developing the wheel

Decolonising occupational science

This poster presentation is not discussing a research study or a literature review. This poster presentation is a critical thought piece to encourage action to decolonise occupational science

Infiltration into inclined fibrous sheets

The flow from line and point sources through an inclined fibrous sheet is studied experimentally and theoretically for wicking from a saturated region and flow from a constant-flux source. Wicking from a saturated line generates a wetted region whose length grows diffusively, linearly or tends to a constant, depending on whether the sheet is horizontal or inclined downwards or upwards. A constant-flux line source generates a wetted region which ultimately grows linearly with time, and is characterized by a capillary fringe whose thickness depends on the relative strength of the source, gravitational and capillary forces. Good quantitative agreement is observed between experiments and similarity solutions.Capillary-driven and constant-flux source flows issuing from a point on a horizontal sheet generate a wetted patch whose radius grows diffusively in time. The flow is characterized by the relative strength of the source and spreading induced by the action of capillary forces, gamma. As gamma increases, the fraction of the wetted region which is saturated increases. Wicking from a saturated point corresponds to gamma = gamma(c), and spreads at a slower rate than from a line source. For gamma < gamma(c), the flow is partially saturated everywhere. Good agreement is observed between measured moisture profiles, rates of spreading, and similarity solutions.Numerical solutions are developed for point sources on inclined sheets. The moisture profile is characterized by a steady region circumscribed by a narrow boundary layer across which the moisture content rapidly changes. An approximate analytical solution describes the increase in the size of the wetted region with time and source strength; these conclusions are confirmed by numerical calculations. Experimental measurements of the downslope length are observed to be slightly in excess of theoretical predictions, though the dependence on time, inclination and flow rate obtained theoretically is confirmed. Experimental measurements of cross-slope width are in agreement with numerical results and solutions for short and long times. The affect of a percolation threshold is observed to ultimately arrest cross-slope transport, placing a limitation on the long-time analysis

Higher Education Strategy in Responding to the Generative AI Revolution Decolonising the Standard Response and Action Planning Protocols

Background: The Generative Artifical Intelligence (AI) revolution is here, and the availability of resources such as ChatGPT has triggered rapid responses, actions, and strategy to address the implications this has on education in the United Kingdom (UK). ChatGPT and other Generative AI provisions are viewed as both problematic and beneficial by Higher Education Institutes (HEI’s). Alongside HEI’s, Higher Education England (HEE) Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) forums are just 1 of many additional UK national groups prioritising the discussion, Continual Professional Development (CPD), and strategical approaches to analysing Generative AI, in determining how it should be addressed in education and practice. In terms of standard practice at London South Bank University (LSBU), the planning of projects and research to explore new technology lies predominantly with those deemed as the most “skilled”, “technical” or “aware” of the technology. People who are in specific roles within the institute are expected to “lead” on strategy, and this onus of responsibility often remains with them throughout the process from start to finish. Recognising the imbalance of power and the benefits of privilege this practice could create, a decision was made to explore and propose re-design of the current protocols in place at LSBU. Aim: Demonstrate the inclusion of a Decolonising step at the earliest designing stage of the project, to influence a practice change in how a HEI could respond to major items affecting education and any subsequent action-planning or project designing. Method: 3 academic members of staff, and 3 undergraduate students, of Black, Asian, African or Minority ethnicity, will be recruited. Individual and group sessions will be conducted using Microsoft Teams. Sessions will involve the participants leading on the discussion and development of the project proposal and associated documents being used in the larger study. This will occur between 19th May – 1st June 2023, after which the project proposal will be registered with the LSBU research ethics committee and internal registration system (Haplo). The Decolonising strategy and effects will be appraised by an independent investigator making objective comparisons to a version of the project protocol originally written by the Principal Investigator as a lone researcher. Themes and major highlights to demonstrate these comparisons, will be presented as the outcome for this project. All results and recommendations will be ready for presentation by no later than 15th June 2023. Expected Outcomes: Recommendations based on the outcome could feasibly affect changes in the future strategy for responding to major items requiring adaptation and evolution in education/practices, and potential other general and/or specific response/action-planning protocols, at London South Bank University. Additional information: This project forms part of a larger LSBU Generative AI project to explore a potential solution to the issues surrounding Generative AI in Higher Education

In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Symmetry Breaking and Motility

Computational modeling and experimentation in a model system for actin-based force generation explain how actin networks initiate and maintain directional movement