Training of occupational therapists for anti-oppression

Abstract

Despite the generalist training that is intended to be offered in occupational therapy courses, it is evident that uncritical perspectives still predominate in teaching related to diversity. At the University of Brasília (UnB), this issue was debated among the students, as they complained that there were no disciplines that specifically discussed the theme of race/ethnicity, as well as other social markers of difference. In this sense, the objective of this study is to discuss the experience of the occupational therapy course at UnB in the process of claiming, made by the students, a discipline that addressed the social markers of difference and the therapeutic-occupational intervention. From the organization and struggle of a group of black students, the discipline Research in Occupational Therapy 1 was consolidated, with the theme Social Markers of Difference and Antioppressive Praxis in the university course. This experience shows the relevance of the presence of disciplines in occupational therapy courses that address the social markers of difference, so that there is a training of engaged professionals, who are aligned with a technical, ethical and political practice and are attentive to daily lives and ways of life, sometimes invisible, seeking to carry out a transformative praxis.