Background: This study integrates research on practice applications of the construct of occupational adaptation with occupational therapy and occupational science literature.
This study provides insights on how intercultural learning experiences can be integrated into occupational science and occupational therapy curricula and can increase understanding of concepts related to human occupation.
The fulfillment of role expectations and responsibilities as one builds an academic career can be challenging. Increased demand for occupational therapy faculty merits examination of academic experiences from the literature. This study describes the experiences of educators using adaptation models (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012; Schkade & Schultz, 2003) as a theoretical lens. Arksey and O'Malley's Scoping Study Framework (2005) was used in the study. Researchers reviewed literature from 2005-2017 from four databases. Researchers analyzed 28 articles from higher education and the health professions using quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty-two of the 28 articles were published from 2010-2017. The studies analyzed were conducted in seven different countries, the majority in the US (n = 11) and Australia (n = 7), and more than half used qualitative designs (n = 15). Three themes describe academic experiences: identity-related challenges in academia, process of adaptation among academics, and identification of factors affecting productivity. This study describes the various experiences of faculty to meet the demands of the academic environment. Adaptation of OT academics to their occupational roles and environments has not been widely explored. The implications for future study are discussed. Comments The authors report they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Online technologies facilitate connections between students around the world, but their impact on occupational science and occupational therapy students' critical consciousness about culture is underexplored. In this article we present research on five groups of occupational science and occupational therapy students across two cohorts at one Midwestern university. We used a pretest-posttest group design and the Multicultural Experiences Questionnaire to investigate the potential influence of students' exposure to international educational interactions on their multicultural experiences and desires. Of 157 students surveyed, those who experienced the greatest number of international educational interactions demonstrated statistically significant increases in their desire to become acquainted with other people of different backgrounds and to explore their own prejudices and biases. Given the transformative potential of international educational interactions, future research must assess the ways in which such interactions affect critical cultural consciousness apart from other educational content and design.
Objective. The process of adaptation in academia can best be understood and measured using valid and reliable tools. To understand how occupational therapy educators adapt to academic roles and how they use adaptation to build academic careers, the Adaptation Process in Academia Questionnaire (APA-Q) was developed. The APA-Q is a 199-item tool with four sections: academic experiences (104 items); contexts (16 items); adapting responses (13 items); and adaptation outcomes (66 items). This study described the development and the process of determining the content validity of the APA-Q.Method. We conducted an extensive review of literature and the available faculty instruments in developing the APA-Q items. Six content experts were recruited to rate the 199-item and scale relevance of the instrument. Qualitative feedback were provided from open-ended questions. Item and scale content validity indices (I-CVI/S-CVI) were calculated. CVI and qualitative assessment informed questionnaire revisions. Results. Content experts rated 161 of the items (81%) to be highly relevant. The I-CVI of 30 items was acceptable (0.83). Eight items were rated irrelevant (0.5-0.66). S-CVI was excellent (0.97). In terms of constructs, experts agreed on the relevance of items (>0.80): academic experiences (99 or 95%); contexts (16 or 100%); adapting responses (12 or 92%); and adaptation outcomes (63 or 95%). Qualitative assessment indicated a lack of clarity in some items and instructions, redundancy in some of the items, the use of jargon, and missing items. Based on I-CVI and qualitative assessment, 12 items were deleted, 13 items were revised, and 10 items were added. Conclusion. Context experts deemed the APA-Q to be relevant. Further establishment of its construct validity and reliability is warranted.
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