Enabling occupation through service learning: perceptions of community representatives in occupational therapy service learning engagements

[摘要] English: Introduction: Occupational therapists concern themselves with human occupation, and the enablement of occupation can be viewed as the profession's collective domain of concern when working towards health, well-being and occupational justice. Six enablement foundations are described in occupational therapy literature, namely choice, risk and responsibility; client participation; vision of possibilities; change; justice and power sharing.Service learning is employed as a form of practice learning in undergraduate occupational therapy curricula across the globe, in South Africa and at the university where this study was conducted. Research into the effects of service learning has focused on students to a large extent, while the perspectives of community partners have been relatively under-examined. Without knowing how communities perceive occupational therapy service learning engagements, it is difficult to establish whether these engagements are done in a manner that promotes health, well-being and occupational justice, and in a manner that is effective and contextually relevant.Purpose: In an attempt to access the community's voice regarding occupational therapy service learning engagements, so as to inform current and future practices, the purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of community representatives in occupational therapy service learning engagements, regarding enabling occupation through service learning in communities, as well as the barriers and facilitating factors to this process, at a South African university.Methodology: Positioned primarily in an interpretive, constructivist paradigm the study utilised a descriptive, qualitative enquiry design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight community representatives from seven different occupational therapy service learning community sites. Interviews were transcribed and analysed following an inductive, systematic content analysis approach. The data was coded, grouped into categories and synthesised into themes. The trustworthiness of the study was promoted by, among others, making use of investigator triangulation during data analysis and by conducting participant verification of the interpreted results.Findings: Two themes emerged from the data, namely 'enabling occupation' and 'disenabling occupation'. The theme 'enabling occupation' illuminated factors which community representatives perceived as facilitators to occupational enablement through service learning, namely effective communication strategies; collaborative planning and project selection; interdependence; meeting tacit needs; positive student attributes and enabling service activities. In addition, findings that emerged within the category of 'successful outcomes' in this theme described evidence of participants' perceptions of 'enabling occupation' as it related to occupational participation and occupational justice. The theme 'disenabling occupation' described participants' perceptions of barriers to occupational enablement in service learning, namely intermittent contact, managerial challenges, barriers to sustainability and risks to students.Conclusions: This study revealed that community representatives perceived most of the enablement foundations to have been present in the occupational therapy service learning engagements; however, there were also instances where some community representatives did not have positive experiences of the operationalisation of these enablement foundations. Relating to the enablement of occupation, links to enhanced occupational participation, meaning, choice and balance emerged from the data; however, these links were mostly inferred by the researcher. Due to its individually appraised nature, participants tended to have difficulty articulating specific perceptions that related to the occupations of community members.The findings of the study enabled the researcher to construct a framework for enabling occupation through service learning, consisting of foundational principles; the enablement foundations; facilitators of enablement; activities and objectives; and outcomes of occupational therapy service learning engagements. Based on this framework, practical recommendations for the management and implementation of occupational therapy service learning engagements could be offered in order to inform occupational therapy service learning practices from the perspectives of community representatives.

[发布机构] University of the Free State