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 its aims was to develop and provide a curriculum to facilitate students’ understanding and identification of occupational (in)justice by exposing them to marginalised people living in three European communities with differing cultural, social, and political systems. Occupational injustice is an ongoing deprivation or patterns of disruption that creates health burdens, barriers to educational and social opportunities, and risk to the individual’s lifespan. We describe how a transnational educational collaboration offered a new way of facilitating learning of occupational (in)justice in a practical way to stimulate the application of 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.