Date Presented 03/26/20
Effective education is situated in the local culture and context; however, it is not known how OT educators create a curriculum that is responsive to the local culture and context. This ethnographic case study demonstrated that educators responded to local cultural and contextual factors and student-learning needs specific to the Caribbean by using localizing strategies. Localizing strategies were processes and approaches that made the curriculum relevant to the local community.
Primary Author and Speaker: Bill Roberts
Contributing Authors: Barb Hooper
PURPOSE: Situated learning theory states that students learn in transaction with the people, objects, and cultures around them (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). In what appears to be in response to situated learning theory, the World Federation of Occupational Therapy requires occupational therapy education programs to create curricula that are situated in their local contexts (World Federation of Occupational Therapists, 2016). Educators and researchers do not, however, understand how to implement curricula that are situated in the local culture and context. Therefore, in this study I explored the research question: What are the strategies for implementing an occupational therapy program that seeks to situate its curriculum in the local culture and context?
DESIGN: To examine the research question, I conducted an ethnographic case study. I selected the Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC MSOT) as the case study because the educators of the program set out specifically to create a program to meet the needs of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.
METHOD: I immersed myself as a participant observer and faculty member in the USC MSOT program for eight months interviewing six educators, conducting 14 focus groups with educators and students, observing 90 class sessions and faculty meetings, and collecting 141 curricular documents. Analysis of the data included inductive and deductive coding and thematic analysis of analytic memos and transcripts.
RESULTS: USC MSOT faculty responded to the culture and context of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean by addressing local cultural and contextual factors that were specific to Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. Examples of these cultural and contextual factors were that occupational therapy was relatively unknown and that curricular resources such as texts were created in other contexts. These contextual factors also influenced local student learning needs, which are skills that students need to be effective practitioners in Trinidad and Tobago. The educators responded to the local cultural and contextual factors and the students’ learning needs through localizing strategies. Localizing strategies were instructional processes, activities, and approaches such as service learning or case studies that linked content and student experience to the daily culture and context of the Caribbean.
CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the ways in which educators in one occupational therapy program responded to their local culture and context. It is also helpful to view the USC MSOT program as an example of the globalization that is happening throughout occupational therapy education. While globalization allows educators and students to exchange knowledge and ideas worldwide, globalization often favors the knowledge of more developed Western countries over local knowledge. Many occupational therapy concepts and models carry Western values and beliefs, which may not be universally applicable (Hammell, 2013; Iwama, 2006). Therefore, I advocate for critical occupational therapy education that facilitates educators and students to critically evaluate their curricular resources for the values and beliefs hidden within them.
IMPACT STATEMENT: This is the first study to identify specific strategies educators use to situate curricula in the local culture and context. This study will also serve as a guide for educators that wish to establish contextually relevant curricula. As the world becomes more interconnected, it will become vital that educators localize common occupational therapy principles and concepts within local culture and context so that occupational therapy education and practice remain relevant both locally and worldwide.
References
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
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. (2006). The Kawa model: Culturally relevant occupational therapy. New York: Elsevier Health Sciences. doi: 10.1080/09638280902773711
World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2016). Minimum standards for the education of occupational therapists: World Federation of Occupational Therapists.
