The international application of the occupation-based community development framework: A pragmatist approach to knowledge translation

Introduction: Originating in South Africa, the occupation-based community development (ObCD) framework offers a guide for practice that contributes through a critical, justice-oriented occupational therapy practice. Its translation into diverse global settings has been anecdotally noted, but has not been empirically studied. Method: This qualitative descriptive study examined the experiences of practitioners/scholars who utilised the ObCD framework in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, India, and South Africa. In-depth interviews and a focus group were conducted with six occupational therapists and one speech therapist. Inductive thematic analysis was employed. Findings: The theme, “Reasoning through a dialogical process with ObCD,” comprised three categories: (1) Drawing on the critical, occupational and participatory stance of the ObCD to (re)orient practice; (2) Prompting the navigation of a different kind of practice through “seeing more”; and (3) Using ObCD within the contextual limitations of what’s possible. Participants, located mostly in academia, were working out how to use the framework as a way to shift their praxis. Discussion and Conclusion: The translation of the framework therefore occurred through a transpositional, pragmatist approach where the ObCD prompted a critical consciousness that drove a dialogical orientation to working out what needed to occur with students and communities.