Conceptualizing school based occupational therapy for Malta: enabling children’s participation in school occupations through collaboration in early years settings
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis explores occupation, participation and occupational therapy schoolbased practice in an early years school setting. It adopts a rights-based approach that acknowledges the human and moral rights of all children to be educated; a strengths-based philosophy that moves away from an impairment focus, recognising the centrality of children, their occupations and the transactions between the stakeholders within the school environment. The main research questions were: What are the occupations that children in Maltese early-years classrooms are participating in? What are the enablers and barriers to children’s participation in school occupations in Maltese early-years classrooms? How can occupational therapy involvement in early-years classrooms contribute to children’s participation in school occupations? The arena was investigated through a qualitative paradigm, a longitudinal instrumental case study with elements of action theory. It was carried out in one selected primary mainstream state school and involved the participation of children and parents, with the educators being the main focus of this study This was a two-phased study with participation at the core of the conceptual framework underpinned by Occupational Science and had 3 pillars: The first exploratory part of the study was underpinned by concepts from Bio-ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2007). The second intervention part of the study was framed within the Social Model of Disability (Oliver, 1998), and the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance – Engagement (Townsend & Polatajko, 2013). The data was analysed for its content and through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2013). The data were collected over a period of one school year through the researcher’s weekly presence in the school. Methods used to obtain data included observation, interviews, focus groups. Such data was supplemented with other documentary evidence: intervention logs, a reflective journal and research diary, …
abstract: This thesis explores occupation, participation and occupational therapy schoolbased practice in an early years school setting. It adopts a rights-based approach that acknowledges the human and moral rights of all children to be educated; a strengths-based philosophy that moves away from an impairment focus, recognising the centrality of children, their occupations and the transactions between the stakeholders within the school environment. The main research questions were: What are the occupations that children in Maltese early-years classrooms are participating in? What are the enablers and barriers to children’s participation in school occupations in Maltese early-years classrooms? How can occupational therapy involvement in early-years classrooms contribute to children’s participation in school occupations? The arena was investigated through a qualitative paradigm, a longitudinal instrumental case study with elements of action theory. It was carried out in one selected primary mainstream state school and involved the participation of children and parents, with the educators being the main focus of this study This was a two-phased study with participation at the core of the conceptual framework underpinned by Occupational Science and had 3 pillars: The first exploratory part of the study was underpinned by concepts from Bio-ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2007). The second intervention part of the study was framed within the Social Model of Disability (Oliver, 1998), and the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance – Engagement (Townsend & Polatajko, 2013). The data was analysed for its content and through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2013). The data were collected over a period of one school year through the researcher’s weekly presence in the school. Methods used to obtain data included observation, interviews, focus groups. Such data was supplemented with other documentary evidence: intervention logs, a reflective journal and research diary, …
author: Buhagiar, Nathalie
language: en
keywords: Children, Participation, Occupation, Educators, Collaboration, Inclusion, Early years, School-based occupational therapy tiered intervention
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
date published: 2021-10-10
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:46:55Z
provider: University College Cork
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University College Cork

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10468/13630