Moving Forward Together: Reflections of a National Survey of OT/OTA Students’ Perceptions of Culturally Aware Educational Content Delivery

Abstract

In June of 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd and the additional atrocities against historically marginalized people and communities across the United States, the Commission on Education (COE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) sought to act within its scope. A retrospective survey (N= 1,692) was developed, deployed, and analyzed in accordance with the COE’s standard operating procedures relating specifically to monitoring trends that impact the education of occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students. This survey aimed to capture perspectives from OT/OTA students regarding the delivery of culturally aware educational content in curricula provided by faculty. Results indicated that faculty are attempting to deliver aspects of culturally aware content with a limited number of delivery methods. Furthermore, findings suggested the need for rigorous and comprehensive improvements to content delivery related to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), social determinants of health (SDOH), and intersectionality across the classroom and clinical settings. Implementation of basic instruction, such as lectures/readings, and higher-level processing and application-based materials (i.e., case studies, discussions, role-playing, and simulations) need to be included throughout the entire OT/OTA curriculum experience and are critical to comprehensively educate and equip students for contemporary and culturally informed practice. Faculty would benefit from the development of instructional best practice strategies that expand beyond the delivery of knowledge acquisition. This study aims to lay the groundwork to advance and inform the skills of faculty, fieldwork, and capstone coordinators to deliver culturally aware curricula.

Keywords

• cultural awareness
• occupational therapy
• curriculum design
• higher education