LAUSR

ABSTRACT The paper offers an introduction to an emerging construct, professional role transgression, which is theorised as a form of occupational consciousness, an occupational science construct. Professional role transgression provide insights on how individuals respond to oppressive structures within professional spaces. The construct emerged from a study that explored how occupational therapists navigate professional role transitions within specialised education in the Western Cape, in post-apartheid South Africa, and provides a unique lens in naming how occupational therapists respond to structural power. The overall objectives of the study were to describe how occupational therapists navigate the process of professional role transition, negotiate power, and craft appropriate identities in a constantly shifting policy terrain. A case study approach, merged with narrative inquiry, was used. Data were collected from multiple sources: narrative interviews with participants; document analysis of basic education policies and archival records on specialised education; written reflections on participants’ thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about their trajectories as occupational therapists in specialised education; and researcher observations within special school environments. Narrative interviews were the primary source of data. Data analysis followed a three-level inductive approach, which generated five themes that highlight professional role transition as an embodied repositioning requiring agency and, sometimes, subversion towards new ways of practice.