Dialogues for re-imagined praxis: using theory in practice to transform structural, ideological, and discursive “realities” with/in communities

ABSTRACT

At the close of this special issue, Re-imagining Therapeutic Recreation: Transformative Practices and Innovative Approaches, our aim is to create an action-oriented document that points to a series of conversations we can continue at conferences, in classrooms, and in practice. In keeping with the call for reflexivity, we hope the document will be a way to ignite further critical reflections and dialogues about the taken-for-granted ways we relate with others and to our practices. As the path of change unfolds, we celebrate the multiple ways of getting there. To help us in this critical reflection and conversation we offer a vignette providing insight into the experiences of one individual and engage a plurality of philosophies and theories to create three critical, socially engaged conversations we see to be crucial to the endeavour of re-imaging and creating change in practices of therapeutic recreation. As much as these dialogues are difficult and challenging, they contain within them possibilities for inspired moments of insight and awareness ripe with possibilities for celebration, playfulness, and change towards social justice.

RÉSUMÉ

Pour conclure cette édition spéciale Repenser le loisir thérapeutique: des pratiques transformatives et innovatrices, nous souhaitons assembler un document axé sur l’action qui expose une série d’entretiens susceptibles d’être élaborées dans des conférences, des salles de classe et dans la pratique. En ne perdant pas de vue l’importance de la méthode réflective, nous espérons que ce document alimentera plus de réflexions et dialogues critiques sur des façons, que nous tenons pour acquises, de nous situer par rapport aux autres et à nos pratiques. Alors que la voie du changement s’ouvre à nous, il existe plusieurs façons, toutes aussi bonnes les unes que les autres, d’arriver à nos fins. Pour nous aider dans cette réflexion et dans ce dialogue critiques, nous offrons un billet qui procure un aperçu des expériences d’une personne et nous mettons de l’avant une pluralité de philosophies et de théories pour engendrer trois discussions critiques et engagées socialement. Nous jugeons ces discussions cruciales à la réimagination et à la l’apport d’un changement dans la pratique du loisir thérapeutique. Bien que la tenue de ces dialogues soit difficile et remettent en cause, ils ouvrent la porte à des moments inspirés de connaissance approfondie de soi et à un flot de conscience pour permettre la célébration, l’amusement et un changement vers la justice sociale.

Keywords:

• Legitimacy
• praxis
• philosophy
• reflexivity
• social justice
• therapeutic recreation

Mots-clés:

• Légitimité
• praxie
• philosophie
• réflexivité
• justice sociale
• loisir thérapeutique

Notes

1. We are aware of our power in crafting this vignette including: power in the words we use, the implications of the order in which part’s of Kwame’s story are introduced, and the challenges of our crafting a vignette of Kwame who holds a different location and subjectivities in the world. We are also aware of our lack of control and the power you hold in how you interpret our intention in crafting this vignette (to stimulate thinking about experience-near practices that are sensitive to subjectivities) and your interpretation of the words and phrases present on the page.

2. The medical model views disability as a feature of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma or other health condition, which requires medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals. Disability, on this model, calls for medical or other treatment or intervention, to ‘correct’ the problem with the individual (WHO, 2002, p. 8).

3. The social model of disability sees disability as a socially-created problem and not at all an attribute of an individual. In the social model, disability demands a political response, since the problem is created by an unaccommodating physical environment brought about by attitudes and other features of the social environment (WHO, 2002, pp. 8–9).

4. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a standard language and framework for the description of health and health-related states and was intended for multiple uses in a wide range of different sectors (WHO, 2002). The ICF “assists professionals to look beyond their own areas of practice, communicate across disciplines, and think from a functioning perspective rather than the perspective of a health condition” (World Health Organization [WHO], 2015, p. 7).