Interrogating the Occupational Possibilities of Fathers of Autistic Children
Abstract
Critical approaches in occupational science challenge taken-for-granted beliefs and norms that underpin occupational inequities and reimagine new possibilities for occupation. Guided by occupational possibilities, a critically situated occupational science concept that is informed by a governmentality lens, this dissertation examines dominant discourses and their effects and consequences for the occupational possibilities and subject positions of fathers of autisticchildren. By critically unpacking the contemporary governance of fathering in relationship to autistic children, this thesis demonstrates the need to resist discourses and turn attention to the broader oppressive systems at play.
This dissertation consists of an introduction, three integrated manuscripts, and a conclusion. In Chapter one, I situate this scholarship, explain the purpose and rationale, and delineate the disciplinary and theoretical boundaries and underpinnings of my work. In Chapter two, I utilize a critical interpretive synthesis methodology to examine how parents of autistic children were represented within contemporary occupation-focused scholarship. This study found that the reviewed literature was primarily informed by, and focused on, mothers of autistic children with scant representation of fathers. This finding set the foundation for the rest of this dissertation which, instead, attends to fathers and fathering occupations. In chapter three, I review and analyse critically situated interdisciplinary scholarship to enhance understanding of the dominant fathering discourses, the critiques of such discourses, and the potential effects for fathers’ occupational possibilities and subject positions. Chapter four is a critical discourse analysis of social media posts created by fathers of autistic children. In this manuscript, I attend to the potential effects and consequences of fathering, neoliberal, and biomedical discourses on the subject positions and occupational possibilities for fathers of autistic children. In chapter five, I discuss key insights and implications for future research and clinical practices addressing fathers of autistic children and fathering occupations.
Through a series of related studies, this dissertation contributes to critical scholarship on fathers of autistic children. It makes explicit the ongoing prevalence of problematic political and sociocultural forces on occupational possibilities and subject positions, highlighting the power structures and broader systemic and social barriers navigated by fathers of autistic children within neoliberal societies.