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Abstract
Conversations about the anticipated costs and caregiving burden of an aging population are rampant in North America. The 2014 Dr. Ruth Zemke Lecture in Occupational Science redirects conversations on aging by introducing occupational literacy, especially critical occupational literacy as a way of learning to think, talk, write, make decisions, and otherwise make sense of occupational justice and ecological sustainability in everyday life. Illustrations focus on aging, first by challenging taken-for-granted ideas and statistics, then by raising questions to expand conversations. Integrated are three approaches: using the language of occupation (very broadly defined) to think about everyday life; exhibiting a moral commitment to engage in everyday justice (occupational justice) and everyday ecological sustainability (occupational sustainability); and, developing educational strategies to learn critical occupational literacy. With recognition that everyday occupations influence and are influenced within the contexts in which they are enacted, the Lecture explores three questions: What might be gained by naming and recognizing occupational literacy, especially critical occupational literacy? How might critical occupational literacy skills be used to challenge and expand conversations on aging? Where, when, and with whom might we learn critical occupational literacy? The argument is that explicit critical occupational literacy skills are not only interesting and useful to learn, but that they are essential learning if we are to challenge and expand ideas, practices, policies, and economies that can disempower some people, including older persons, while empowering others.
Acknowledgements
A huge “Thank You” to those who nominated me to deliver the 2014 Ruth Zemke Lecture in Occupational Science at the Joint American and Canadian Conference on Globalization and Occupational Science: Partnerships, Methods and Research in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My hope is that naming and recognizing occupational literacy and critical occupational literacy with illustrations and reflections will spark widespread learning about the world of occupation with a commitment to justice and ecological sustainability, a world that has shaped my interdisciplinary lens as an occupational therapist, occupational scientist, and sociologically grounded, adult educator. Comments from colleagues around the world helped as I sought clarity on this controversial and complex undertaking: introducing a new literacy. Special mention goes to Dr. Lyndsay Moffat, University of Prince Edward Island, a critical literacy scholar, who helped me to see an opportunity to align my interests with other new literacies.
ORCID
Elizabeth Townsend http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8261-2734