Fostering empowerment through occupation: An overview of an urban school-based parenting program

Abstract

ABSTRACT Occupational scientists have long examined the challenges of discrimination within societies, and this paper utilizes qualitative research to examine a) occupational justice and how it relates to the social inequality of pregnant and parenting students; b) the connection of United States Title IX federal law and occupational justice; c) how a pregnant and parenting school-based program in a Midwest Urban School District utilized Title IX federal law and concepts of occupational justice to address academic and social inequality; and d) how the Parent Infant Interaction Program (PIIP) administrators implemented socially and culturally responsive occupation-based interventions to empower pregnant and parenting students. As a qualitative case study, this inquiry used content analysis of documents and open coding of semi-structured interviews with administrative stakeholders, to draw upon historical, demographic, and narrative data. This article will exemplify how an educational program and its administrators, as identified through the Participatory Occupational Justice Framework, Culturally Relevant, and Culturally Responsive Framework, aimed to forge parenting students’ occupational agency and create a framework to allow them to achieve their academic and personal goals.