Deconstructing hierarchies: Service users as co-teachers in occupational therapy education

Abstract

BACKGROUND: While occupational therapy currently tends to view itself as operating based on a client-centered, collaborative approach, studies often reflect a gap between rhetoric and practice. OBJECTIVE: This work presents a new pedagogic standard which moves away from the medical model and toward a collaborative, client-centred approach. It functions to support a practice which embraces the respect for, and partnership with, people receiving services and replaces historic patterns which may strengthen the legitimacy of the professional and sustain clients' dependence. METHODS: This pedagogy develops a therapeutic dialogue which draws from partnerships created in the classroom, where occupational therapy students engage in courses with a co-teacher service user, and examines how the collaboration with service users contributes to the training of occupational therapy students. CONCLUSIONS:Students and co-teachers can participate in the challenging experience of integrating theoretical knowledge with lived experience, thereby augmenting the development of a new and inclusive knowledge base.