Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Critiquing Representations Of Intellectual Disability In Occupation-Based Literature, Rachel Reparon, Pamela Block, Ann Fudge Schormans, Debbie Laliberte Rudman, Gail Teachman

Occupational Therapy Publications

Background: Within and beyond occupation-based scholarship, concerns abound regarding the pervasiveness of discourses that promote a negative, deficit-based view of intellectual disability and associated consequences for disabled people’s lives. Such representations risk reducing the complexities of human doing and being and can limit the occupational possibilities of this group. Yet, there is a lack of critically reflexive research exploring how disability is discursively constructed in occupation-based literature.

Aims/Objectives: This paper critically analyses representations of intellectual disability within occupation-based literature. It considers the influence of such representations on the occupational possibilities of people labelled intellectually disabled.

Methods: This review employed a …

Social Isolation, Third Places, And Precarious Employment Circumstances: A Scoping Review, Debbie Laliberte Rudman, Rebecca M. Aldrich

Occupational Therapy Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploring Dating As An Occupation For Young Heterosexual Women In Ireland, Karen Mccarthy, Jeanne Jackson

Occupational Therapy | Faculty Scholarship

Purpose – Dating is a meaningful occupation for many single people. The occupation of dating has transformed considerably in Ireland due to recent changes in Irish culture and the advent of online dating technology. The purpose of this study was to explore the complexities and intricacies of dating in an Irish context.

Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research approach was used and data were collected using semi-structured interviews with ten heterosexual women (age 24-34) living in urban areas of Ireland. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

Findings – Dating did not fully resonate with their experience, …

Promoting Critically Informed Learning And Knowing About Occupation Through Conference Engagements, Rebecca Aldrich, Roshan Galvaan, Alison Gerlach, Debbie Rudman, Lilian Magalhaes, Nick Pollard, Lisette Farias

Occupational Therapy Publications

As occupation-focused discussions and applications of critical theoretical perspectives increase, attention must also be paid to how different spaces of knowledge dissemination, exchange, and production support critically informed learning and knowing about occupation. This paper presents the reflections of a group of international scholars and lecturers whose shared interest in critical theoretical perspectives prompted the incremental co-development of a series of conference engagements. We describe how our group came together, what kinds of learning experiences we developed to promote and support engagement with critical theoretical perspectives, and what understandings we gained through ongoing critical reflexivity about those learning experiences. Our …

"Making Change By Shared Doing": An Examination Of Occupation In Processes Of Social Transformation In Five Case Studies., Sandra Schiller, Hanneke Van Bruggen, Sarah Kantartzis, Debbie Rudman, Ryan Lavalley, Nick Pollard

Occupational Therapy Publications

BACKGROUND: As social and health inequalities deepen around the world, scholarship in occupational therapy and occupational science has increasingly emphasised the role of occupation as a powerful tool in transformative processes.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how opportunities for everyday doing together may contribute to processes of social transformation by identifying ways occupation is being taken up in socially-transformative practice.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A generic descriptive qualitative case study design was utilised in order to describe current practice examples and identify ways occupation was being taken up in five initiatives working towards social transformation located in Canada, Germany, South Africa and the …

Mobilizing Occupation For Social Transformation: Radical Resistance, Disruption, And Re-Configuration, Debbie Rudman

Occupational Therapy Publications

Background. Given the sociopolitical roots of widening occupational, social and health inequities, it is imperative that occupational therapy move forward in mobilizing occupation for social transformation. Purpose. Three key aims are addressed: articulating the imperative to mobilize occupation for social transformation; highlighting the political nature of occupation and occupational therapy; and providing guideposts for embracing a radical sensibility to inform moving forward in mobilizing occupation for social transformation. Key issues. Conditions of possibility within occupational therapy leave the profession ill equipped to enact social transformation. Enacting calls to mobilize occupation for social transformation requires radically reconfiguring these conditions of …

Engaging The Occupational Imagination: Meeting In Diversity, Debbie Rudman

Occupational Therapy Publications

This article provides a reflection on the 2017 Occupational Science Europe conference through a critical occupational science lens. I first provide a key synopsis of lines of arguments forwarded in a keynote talk I delivered at this conference, titled ‘Embracing a critical turn in occupational science: Contributions and future possibilities’. I then draw upon one of the key directions forwarded in this talk as a means to further enact a transformative agenda through critical occupational science to reflect on how ‘meeting in diversity’ fostered critical alertness. In particular, the strategy of ‘meeting in diversity’ with occupation as a common ground …

Expanding Beyond Individualism: Engaging Critical Perspectives On Occupation., Alison J Gerlach, Gail Teachman, Debbie Rudman, Rebecca M Aldrich, Suzanne Huot

Occupational Therapy Publications

BACKGROUND: Perspectives that individualize occupation are poorly aligned with socially responsive and transformative occupation-focused research, education, and practice. Their predominant use in occupational therapy risks the perpetuation, rather than resolution, of occupational inequities.

AIM: In this paper, we problematize taken-for-granted individualistic analyses of occupation and illustrate how critical theoretical perspectives can reveal the ways in which structural factors beyond an individual's immediate control and environment shape occupational possibilities and occupational engagement.

METHOD: Using a critically reflexive approach, we draw on three distinct qualitative research studies to examine the potential of critical theorizing for expanding beyond a reliance on individualistic analyses …

Resource Seeking As Occupation: A Critical And Empirical Exploration., Rebecca M Aldrich, Debbie Rudman, Virginia A Dickie

Occupational Therapy Publications

Occupational therapists and occupational scientists are committed to generating and using knowledge about occupation, but Western middle-class social norms regarding particular ways of doing have limited explorations of survival occupations. This article provides empirical evidence of the ways in which resource seeking constitutes an occupational response to situations of uncertain survival. Resource seeking includes a range of activities outside formal employment that aim to meet basic needs. On the basis of findings from 2 ethnographic studies, we critique the presumption of survival in guiding occupational therapy documents and the accompanying failure to recognize occupations that seem at odds with self-sufficiency. …

Perfectionism In Occupational Science Students: Occupational Therapy Implications, Mary Elizabeth Wagner, Renee Causey-Upton

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to categorize perfectionism and determine how perfectionism impacts the occupations and perceived health of students in a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Science program.

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive study with a survey component was conducted. Participants were categorized as perfectionists or non-perfectionists using the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R). Time logs were collected to compare categories of time-use between groups over a one-week period. An online survey was conducted with a sub-sample of the perfectionists.

Findings

More students were categorized as perfectionists (N = 41) than non-perfectionists (N = 3). Both groups spent …

Occupational Science: A Data-Based American Perspective, Doris Pierce, Karen Atler, Julie Baltisberger, Elaine Fehringer, Elizabeth Hunter, Somaya Malkawi, Twilla Parr

Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Faculty and Staff Research

The purpose of this research was to provide a data-based picture of the discipline of occupational science by identifying patterns of research in the first 5 years of presentations at the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA (SSO:USA). A grounded theory approach was used to examine 184 peer-reviewed presentation abstracts, from 2002 to 2006. Among the 108 data-based presentations, adults were the most studied group, with 46% of the data-based abstracts focused on participants with a disability or clear disadvantage. Presenters’ research foci related to 4 themes: the personal experience of occupation, the context surrounding or impacting occupation, changes …