Cross-cultural awareness and occupational therapy education

Being Prepared for Diversity in Practice: Occupational Therapy Students' Perceptions of Valuable Intercultural Learning Experiences

Occupational therapists are increasingly working in diverse areas of practice, in diverse settings and with diverse client groups. Accordingly, understandings of the complexities of interactions between service providers and clients, relative to the environments and contexts in which they come together, are requisite to competent practice.

This article describes a phenomenological study undertaken with occupational therapy students in New Zealand, which focused on their experiences of learning to work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. In this article, a subset of the findings from the study is presented. This subset of findings was that client-centredness and hands-on experiences in fieldwork were perceived to be the most important features of the occupational therapy students' education as preparation for working with clients from different cultural backgrounds. A presentation of narrative extracts and interpretive commentary is followed by a discussion of the implications of the findings for occupational therapy education, especially fieldwork education.

An Exploratory Investigation of Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Cultural Awareness

As the British population becomes increasingly diverse, cultural differences pose challenges for health and social care workers. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate occupational therapy students' perceptions of cultural issues and their perceived level of cultural awareness. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to target the occupational therapy students from a university occupational therapy degree course in the North East of England. Fifty-one of the 65 questionnaires were completed. Two questionnaires were returned as address unknown and, therefore, were excluded from the study. The overall response rate was 81%.

The results showed that the students seemed to have a positive attitude towards cultural influences on occupational therapy services. However, a lack of knowledge and skills about different cultures was expressed. The need for more information and education on these issues was emphasised. The findings confirmed that there was a significant negative correlation between the stage of education and training and the amount of exposure to cultural issues in occupational therapy theory. This study offers some insights, which would be beneficial in the development of a culturally sensitive education curriculum and the provision of quality occupational therapy services for people from different cultural commitments.

Occupational Therapy Students' Approaches to Learning: Considering the Impact of Culture

Learning approaches describe the way that individuals approach tasks or learning situations and are influenced by individual characteristics and specific learning contexts. Cultural factors are likely to have an impact on various aspects of learning, yet the literature disagrees over the extent to which culture influences approaches to learning. With increasing cultural diversity in student cohorts and the contributions of culturally Western therapists to occupational therapy programmes in developing nations, this issue is worthy of exploration within the context of pre-registration education.

The Approaches to Study Inventory was used to explore differences in the approaches to learning of United Kingdom and Bangladeshi occupational therapy students studying in their home countries. Significant differences between the groups revealed that the Bangladeshi students displayed both stronger tendencies for deep approaches to learning (p<0.05) and for less integrated superficial approaches to learning (p< 0.05). This apparent contradiction required careful consideration.

There is no single correct way to learn. This study's results reinforce the need for cultural sensitivity in not only clinical but also educational contexts. The cultural biases underpinning the constructs of deep and superficial learning approaches are explored. Educators are encouraged to recognise the potential for culture to influence how students engage within the learning environment and how they themselves construct learning opportunities.

Multicultural training in the United States: a survey of occupational therapy programs

ABSTRACT This study was designed to describe multicultural training practices in occupational therapy programs. A survey was sent to occupational therapy programs in the United States to gather information on multicultural content, skills, and teaching methods as well as diversity context and challenges. The response rate was 54%. The most frequently covered multicultural content was related to cultural background and sociopolitical factors. Multicultural skills covered most often were practice oriented and interpersonal skills. Teaching methods reported as used most often differed from the methods thought by the respondents to be most effective. Programs reported multiple challenges to multicultural training including lack of time and lack of diversity in the student body, faculty, and environment. Results suggest that educators may need to expand multicultural content and skills to prepare occupational therapy students for providing care in increasingly diverse practice settings. In addition, increased use of teaching methods that focus on exposure to diverse populations and reflection may be needed to improve the effectiveness of multicultural training in occupational therapy programs.

Cultural relativism: occupation and independence reconsidered

In this article, findings from a qualitative study of a cohort of occupational therapy students in Auckland, New Zealand are presented. The study focussed on the experiences of students as they learned to work with people from different social and cultural backgrounds over a 3-year period. As well as identifying curriculum and teaching/learning processes that enhance intercultural competence development, the data that emerged from the study also highlight important issues about how occupation and independence are conceptualised across cultures. A review of the trans-disciplinary and occupational therapy literature dealing with theoretical, conceptual and educational issues relating to cross-cultural practice is followed by a presentation of narrative extracts that address the key concepts of occupation and independence. These are then discussed with reference to relevant occupational therapy literature. In conclusion, implications for future research and practice are explored focussing on a need for occupation and independence to be reconsidered as culturally relative constructions.