Developing understandings of occupational (in)justice with occupational therapy students in a transnational project.

Abstract

This article describes an innovative transnational education project involving three European Universities, funded through ERASMUS+. One of the aims of this project was to develop and provide a curriculum to facilitate students’ understanding and identification of occupational (in)justice by exposing students to marginalized people living in three European communities with differing cultural, social and political systems. Occupational injustice is an ongoing deprivation or patterns of disruption which creates health burdens, barriers to educational and social opportunities and risk to the individual’s lifespan (WFOT, 2019; Wilcock & Hocking, 2015). We will describe how a transnational educational collaboration offered a new way of facilitating learning of occupational (in)justice in a practical way to stimulate applying concepts to discipline specific thinking and engage students in debate about new areas of potential practice which are transformational. The educational theory underpinning the project is discussed, together with a description of how authentic learning experiences supported the development of occupational justice knowledge and justice-focused practice. Keywords: occupational injustice, occupational science, occupational therapy, education, teaching and learning, internationalisation, transnational education project