Meuser, S., Borgestig, M., Lidström, H., Hennissen, D., Dolmans, B., & Piskur, B. (2022).
Experiences of Dutch and Swedish occupational therapists and teachers of their school-
based, intersectoral collaboration in Primary Education. Journal of occupational therapy,
school, & early intervention, Open access. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2022.2143465
Abstract
Context-based collaboration between teachers and occupational therapists has
shown promise as a strategy to enhance teachers’ capacity to enable the
participation of children in elementary schools. In this study, we applied the
Canadian Partnering for Change (P4C) model as a collaborative, coaching- and
context-based approach in the Netherlands and Sweden. The aim was to gain insight into teachers’ and occupational therapists’ experiences of their collaboration
applying P4C within their specific European elementary school context. To this end,
we held semi-structured interviews with 4 teachers and 4 occupational therapists
and performed a conventional, inductive content analysis of the ensuing interview
transcripts. We found that participants’ collaboration in the classroom context was a
continuous, multi-stage process that we defined as a unique mastery journey toward
collaborative learning and trustful partnership. Participants indicated that they
needed time to become familiar with the new collaboration, how they learned from
each other, and that they enhanced children’s inclusion by applying strategies
collaboratively. The results carry implications for the embedment of collaboration in
schools and offer relevant strategies that serve the inclusion of all children. We
propose that future studies evaluate the effects of P4C and seek to obtain a holistic
picture of collaboratively applied actions.