Congratulations to Tracey Ann Barclay who on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, successfully defended her dissertation. The title of Tracey’s study is, "OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION WITH EDUCATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS IN U.S. PRE-K–12 EDUCATION."
Overview of Problem: Occupational therapists have been present in pre-K-12 classrooms due to federal legislation ensuring the right of all children to free and appropriate education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment. However, few studies examine collaborative efforts between occupational therapists and other educational professionals.
Research Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand school-based occupational therapists’ perceptions of collaboration with parents, teachers, and other educational stakeholders. This study was guided by two theoretical foundations: the theory of collaborative advantage and the equitable collaboration framework.
Research Design: The descriptive, qualitative research tradition was chosen for this study since there are few accounts of occupational therapists’ perceptions in the literature. Within the qualitative tradition, descriptive research is exploratory in nature and aims to explore, describe, and define a phenomenon (Prosek & Gibson, 2021).
Sample: The sample was comprised of 16 school-based occupational therapists meeting the following inclusion criteria: (a) licensed occupational therapist, (b) employed full-time by a pre-K-12 public school in the United States, and (c) have at least 10 years of experience.
Data Collection and Analysis: Two qualitative sources were utilized to collect data in this qualitative descriptive study: virtual, one-on-one, semi-structured interviews and two virtual focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to extract meaningful themes and patterns from verbal data collected from qualitative data.
Findings/Results: The themes of Variability and Complexity of Collaboration Dynamics, Role Ambiguity and Communication Barriers and Strategies emerged from the data.
Conclusions/Implications: Based on their collective perceptions, the participants expressed the need for policy shifts that: create pathways for OTs to become school administrators, require coursework on school-based collaboration in post-secondary institutions and afford OTs opportunities to engage in decision-making at the school and district levels, thus creating environments for strategic discourse that promotes student development.
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE CHAIR(S):
Dr. Peter F. Troiano
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE MEMBER(S):
Dr. Victoria Fantozzi
Dr. Joyce Digby-Nelson
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