Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

The profession of speech-language therapy (SLT) continues to struggle with issues around equity and service delivery. The study uses education as the entry point of exploration into how innovative practice may be developed. The study describes an emerging SLT practice (as developed SLT students), as part of the Schools Improvement Initiative, a university-community partnership. The data collection methods used were observation, document review, interviews, photovoice and experiential drawings. The results illuminate how SLT students navigate through their experiences of disruption of their traditional practice. It shows how critical engagement with political, historical, social and linguistic factors underlying their work in communication, facilitates new learning and insights into SLT practice. Shifting educational practices from a positivist to a critical curriculum framing provides students with a platform to interrogate the current SLT practices, re-examine the viability of our practices to serve populations and to reflect on how we as a profession can adapt and change with the changing healthcare landscape.