Abstracts
Abstract
Physical therapy (PT) students and graduates in Saskatchewan, Canada, are entering a health system requiring enhanced cultural humility, social justice, self-decolonization, and anti-oppressive practice skills. In this reflective essay, we describe our exploration of the complexities of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), which provide insight into our current and evolving teaching and learning practices in a Master of Physical Therapy (MPT) academic program. Applying SoTL to our MPT pedagogy provides a rigorous, evidence-informed research approach impacting social-justice learning outcomes among PT learners, but we emphasize that it is more than the outcomes that give SoTL its strength. SoTL is also a process that strengthens relationships, builds a culture of collective leadership grounded in relational accountability and humility, lays the foundation for equitable engagement with students as partners, requires reflection and introspection, and could arguably itself be considered a social justice intervention.
Keywords:
- anti-oppression pedagogy,
- cultural humility,
- physical therapy education,
- students as partners,
- action-oriented
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Appendices
Biographical notes
Sarah Oosman is a physical therapist, associate professor, and researcher with the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU) and the nātawihowin and mamawiikikayaahk (SK-NEIHR). She is a first-generation Canadian of mixed ethnicity, settler, and co-liberator, engaging in Indigenous community-driven health promotion implementation science and participatory action research.
Carrie Stavness, an occupational therapist and clinical specialist, is pursuing a PhD in SoTL Education. Her research will explore the application of a scaffolded anti-oppressive pedagogy framework using critical reflective practice among physical therapy students with a goal of building professional practice skills essential to dismantling systemic racism.
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