Decolonising occupational science education through learning activities based on a study from the Global South

If occupational science education is to become more globally relevant, it must highlight more voices and practices from diverse communities. Learning about occupational justice from the perspectives of Global South communities addresses cognitive injustice and the need to decolonise occupational science education. This paper offers some critical reflections concerning the author’s pedagogic approach, and the ways his research about olive growing in Palestine (Simaan, 2018) informed students’ learning about occupational justice. It focuses on the processes in which students and lecturers engaged within a decolonising approach to occupational science education. A learning activity based on pedagogical processes of ‘conscientization’ (Freire, 1996), critical reflexivity (Whiteford & Townsend, 2011) and intercultural translation (Santos, 2014) is discussed, and lessons learnt by lecturer and students about themselves, their communities, and occupational science are reflected upon. Selected students’ reflections, which illustrate how they positioned themselves in relation to the community studied, and how they interrogated their own reactions to learning about daily lives in Palestine, are discussed. These processes demonstrate the benefits of highlighting local knowledge on occupational justice produced by Global South groups, and how this knowledge might begin to address cognitive injustice and the need to decolonise occupational science pedagogy. More empirical and theoretical work is needed in occupational science education regarding intercultural translations concerning occupational justice, and means of doing and knowing from diverse Global South perspectives.

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