Mapping and performing the intersections of identity in practice Mrs Liesl Peters A/Prof Roshan Galvaan Division of Occupational Therapy Department of

Mapping and performing the intersections of identity in practice

Mrs Liesl PetersA/Prof Roshan Galvaan

Division of Occupational TherapyDepartment of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences

Peters & Galvaan, 2015, Division of Occupational Therapy, UCT


A story about the politics of identity in practice: The Homework Programme


“Who is best positioned to challenge these discourses?”

• Homework mentors as “champions” (Peters, 2011)

• Present an opportunity for critical engagement with an alternative discourse


All identities matter

• Parallel process – students and teachers• Negotiating their own identity in relation to

the role players being worked with


Navigating the nuances and complexities of similar identities: Sino’s story

“As a facilitator, I felt constrained in my ability to try and carry the group space with [my co-facilitator] and for the most part of the session I felt that I was not in the session.

This was due to the fact that within the group space we had to harmonize the space as [some] teachers were pushing their own agenda and were cutting people out of the conversation; as young adult a apart of that group space it was immensely difficult for me be in my role as a facilitator holding the space as they are unsaid cultural norms that I felt I had to adhere to. In the African culture, if we engaging in a conversation with adults it is an unsaid norm that within that conversation we as the ‘children/young adults’ participate in the conversation passively as the adult has the right to dominate and lead the conversation and if we dare try to verbalise our thoughts/opinion/view within the conversation it is seen as disrespectful.

‘Children/Young adults’ are seen to lack wisdom in actively participating in the conversation as they have not matured and lack the life experience that adult would have… …I felt crippled by the anxiety of coming off as being disrespectful towards elders; and also I had the assumption that my blackness would be questioned.”


Navigating the nuances and complexities of similar identities: Sino’s story

“What struck me about the space that I was in is that, none of the teachers in the school have ever given me a cultural etiquette talk; so therefore how is it that I felt I had to adhere to a cultural norm? As a developing practitioner, it has been a struggle even in third year how to separate my cultural practices with my professional practice. Being in a position of ambivalence in how I separate the two is hindering my professional development. As I reflect, I question whether it has to be separate or if it can co-exist? And if my cultural practices and professional practice can co-exist, how do I merge the two within comfortable limits for me?”


Locating professional identity and its intersections with personal identity:

Siseko’s story“For the past four years I’ve been grappling with finding my own identity in occupational therapy. This has been a journey filled with great reflection and sometimes with feelings of being overwhelmed. I’ve been finding it hard to make sense of my own ‘inter-sectionality complex’ in the interface of occupational therapy as a profession. My deepest struggle was two-fold in this regard: that occupational therapy as a white female middle to upper class dominated profession; the traditional nature of occupational therapy. I mostly wasn’t able to identify myself with occupational therapy I felt as though I didn’t belong in the profession and its value in relation to my culture and background was not yet identified and explored, hence very few people( from my cultural background) know what occupational therapy is… …When [I] learnt and started to practice occupation- based community [development], I’m beginning to find myself in the profession as this kind of practice allows me to stretch myself in community transformation, allows for free creative thinking, and finds resonance with my passion for community development.”


Assuming a political stance in practice

• Examining how the politics of identity shows up in interventions that support the occupation of learning

• Developing spaces for conversations regarding how identities in different interventions manifest and interact

• Capitalising on the potential power of different identities through considering who is represented


Documents

Mapping and performing the intersections of identity in practice Mrs Liesl Peters A/Prof Roshan Galvaan Division of Occupational Therapy Department of