Becoming contextually responsive: taking hold of a shared vision for our profession

Abstract

Equitable access to life-giving occupational participation lies at the centre of occupational therapy's mission and is pivotal to development in South Africa. Contextually responsive education, research, policy and practice are a means of achieving this. This, however, necessitates knowing how to be or become contextually responsive as individuals and as a profession. It also necessitates partnership between our 'feet on the ground' practitioners and 'head in the cloud' academics - a productive collision of reality and possibility. This commentary explores what it means to be contextually responsive, whether it's possible for practitioners and scholars to pursue this together, and poses recommendations for finding each other in the journey of becoming.