HS895-7-SP-CO:
Mastering Occupation
2024/25
Health and Social Care (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Monday 06 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
14 March 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
MSC B93024 Occupational Therapy (Pre-Registration)
This module focuses on the theories which inform occupational therapy, aiming for a deep critical investigation of their relevance for, and application to, contemporary practice.
The aims of this module are:
- To consolidate your learning from previous modules and practice placements through you investigating the informing theories and science of occupation in depth.
- To critically compare established practices with evidence from emerging research, scholarship and practice at a local and global level.
- To consider the challenges in communicating the potential of occupational therapy in a complex world, referring to occupational injustice and human rights. This will involve critical appraisal of how occupation can be used to promote health and well-being in different service settings, such as end of life care, forensic services and social care.
- To consider environmental sustainability and how the changing climate and environment impacts on human occupation.
- To build on the consideration of your CPD portfolio (see The Career Development Framework (RCOT 2017b)).
On completion of this module, you will have:
1. Developed a critical understanding of human occupation and its impact on the health and well-being of individuals, society and the natural world.
2. Critically appraised the historical development of occupational science and its key theories and concepts.
3. Critically debated the application of occupational science to contemporary occupational therapy practice at a local, national and international level.
Previous modules will have enabled you to develop understanding of occupational therapy philosophy and theory for practice. In addition you will also have acquired practice-based skills and direct experience of practice settings. Now you have the underpinning knowledge and skills required to engage critically with occupational science literature and evidence. This will be a scholarly process designed to give you skills in engaging with diverse sources of information and synthesising them for a wide audience.
The learning and teaching methods employed for this module can be divided into three:
- Taught seminar-style sessions
- Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL)
- Independent self-directed study
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Wilcock, A.A. and Hocking, C. (2015) ‘Occupation: Doing, Health, and Illness’, in
An occupational perspective of health. Third edition. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK Incorporated, pp. 147–177. Available at:
https://www-taylorfrancis-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003525233-8/occupation-ann-wilcock-clare-hocking?context=ubx&refId=ec3c3076-1f79-48f1-9b56-f1b4a4803a7a.
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Gail Boniface and Alison Seymour (2012)
Using occupational therapy theory in practice. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Available at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118709634.
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Dikaios Sakellariou and Nick Pollard (eds) (2017)
Occupational therapies without borders: integrating justice with practice. Second edition. Edinburgh: Elsevier. Available at:
https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/612570.
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Ivlev, S.R. (2023)
Occupational Therapy Disruptors: What Global OT Practice Can Teach Us about Innovation, Culture, and Community. 1st ed. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=30456390.
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Creek, J. (2022)
Creek’s occupational therapy and mental health. Sixth edition. Edited by W. Bryant, J. Fieldhouse, and N. Plastow. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Available at:
https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/1960896.
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Shann et al., S. (2018) ‘Sustainability Matters: Guiding Principles for Sustainability in Occupational Therapy Practice, Education and Scholarship’. World Federation of Occupational Therapists. Available at:
https://wfot.org/resources/wfot-sustainability-guiding-principles.
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Sustainable Development Goals (no date). World Health Organization. Available at:
https://www.who.int/europe/about-us/our-work/sustainable-development-goals.
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Kennedy, J. and Davis, J.A. (2017) ‘Clarifying the Construct of Occupational Engagement for Occupational Therapy Practice’,
OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 37(2), pp. 98–108. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1539449216688201.
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Wilcock, A.A. (2001) ‘Occupational utopias: Back to the future’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 8(1), pp. 5–12. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2001.9686479.
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Bryant, W.
et al. (2019) ‘Making activism a participatory, inclusive and developmental process: a research programme involving mental health service users’,
Disability & Society, 34(7–8), pp. 1264–1288. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2019.1613963.
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Hammill, K., Bye, R. and Cook, C. (2019) ‘Occupational engagement of people living with a life-limiting illness: Occupational therapists’ perceptions’,
Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 66(2), pp. 145–153. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1630.12557.
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Durocher, E., Gibson, B.E. and Rappolt, S. (2014) ‘Occupational Justice: A Conceptual Review’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 21(4), pp. 418–430. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2013.775692.
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Whiteford, G.
et al. (2018) ‘The Participatory Occupational Justice Framework as a tool for change: Three contrasting case narratives’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 25(4), pp. 497–508. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1504607.
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Håkansson, C. and Ahlborg, G. (2018) ‘Occupational imbalance and the role of perceived stress in predicting stress-related disorders’,
Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 25(4), pp. 278–287. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/11038128.2017.1298666.
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Liu, Y.
et al. (2023) ‘Occupational harmony: Embracing the complexity of occupational balance’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 30(2), pp. 145–159. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2021.1881592.
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Ramugondo, E.L. (2015) ‘Occupational Consciousness’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 22(4), pp. 488–501. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2015.1042516.
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Blankvoort, N.
et al. (2025) ‘Reproduction of (Un)-modernity at the site of the everyday: Knowledge production practices on “migrant families” in the Netherlands’,
Journal of Occupational Science, pp. 1–17. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2024.2437765.
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Hammell, K.W. (2021) ‘Occupation in Natural Environments; Health Equity and Environmental Justice’,
Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 88(4), pp. 319–328. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/00084174211040000.
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Drolet, M.-J.
et al. (2020) ‘Intergenerational occupational justice: Ethically reflecting on climate crisis’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 27(3), pp. 417–431. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2020.1776148.
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Emery-Whittington, I.G. (2021) ‘Occupational Justice—Colonial Business as Usual? Indigenous Observations From Aotearoa New Zealand: La justice occupationnelle?: sous régime colonial comme d’habitude? Observations d’autochtones d’Aotearoa en Nouvelle-Zélande’,
Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 88(2), pp. 153–162. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/00084174211005891.
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Akrofi, J.N.S.
et al. (2023) ‘Exploring Coloniality in Occupation-Based Education: Perspectives of Ghanaian Occupational Therapists’,
Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 7(4). Available at:
https://doi.org/10.26681/jote.2023.070409.
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Simpson, J. and Smith, C. (2021) ‘Students, sex work and negotiations of stigma in the UK and Australia’,
Sexualities, 24(3), pp. 474–490. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460720922733.
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Kiepek, N.C.
et al. (2019) ‘Silences around occupations framed as unhealthy, illegal, and deviant’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 26(3), pp. 341–353. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1499123.
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Swenson, R., Alldred, P. and Nicholls, L. (2021) ‘Doing gender and being gendered through occupation: Transgender and non-binary experiences’,
British Journal of Occupational Therapy [Preprint]. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/03080226211034422.
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Ramugondo, E.L. and Kronenberg, F. (2015) ‘Explaining Collective Occupations from a Human Relations Perspective: Bridging the Individual-Collective Dichotomy’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 22(1), pp. 3–16. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2013.781920.
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Aldrich, R.
et al. (2023) ‘(Re)making “third places” in precarious times: Conceptual, empirical, and practical opportunities for occupational science’,
Journal of Occupational Science, pp. 1–19. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2023.2234382.
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Delaisse, A.-C. and Huot, S. (2020) ‘Using theory to inform understandings of occupation in a migration context’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 27(3), pp. 359–375. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2020.1734961.
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Huot, S. and Rudman, D.L. (2010) ‘The performances and places of identity: Conceptualizing intersections of occupation, identity and place in the process of migration’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 17(2), pp. 68–77. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2010.9686677.
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Reed, K.L. (2017) ‘Pioneering occupational therapy and occupational science: Ideas and practitioners before 1917’,
Journal of Occupational Science, 24(4), pp. 400–411. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2017.1296369.
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Motimele, M.R. and Ramugondo, E.L. (2014) ‘Violence and Healing: Exploring the Power of Collective Occupations’,
International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 3, pp. 388–401. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2014.03.33.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Coursework |
2000 word blog post. |
20/03/2025 |
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Simone Coetzee, email: scoetzee@essex.ac.uk.
Occupational therapy teaching team
Hannah Duncan ipladmin@essex.ac.uk
No
No
No
Dr Sunny Chan
UWE Bristol
Senior Lecturer
Available via Moodle
Of 120 hours, 94 (78.3%) hours available to students:
20 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
6 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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