Introduction: Occupational science has undergone significant development and evolution for more than three decades of existence. However, much of the knowledge production has emerged in the Global North which perpetuates an Anglophone and Eurocentric conceptualization of occupations. The most recent review of occupational science publications reported an underrepresentation of non-English speaking countries, including Asia-Pacific countries, and this was due to language barriers preventing a bidirectional flow of knowledge sharing.
Objectives: To facilitate a pluralistic perspective on occupations, there is a need to map out how occupation is conceptualized in different countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This includes a multilingual and critical examination of their commonalities, distinctions, and nuances, in relation to each other and to the dominant Anglophonic conceptualization of occupations.
Methods: The scoping review adopts Arksey and O’Malley’s six-stage framework. Whereas most reviews exclude non-English literature, the review intentionally seeks out non-English literature to broaden the understanding of occupations and will be conducted by a multilingual research team from the Asia-Pacific region.
Practice implications: Our process of developing a protocol intends to provide a guide for more inclusive research methodologies and address language bias in evidence synthesis. Moreover, its findings can unearth non-traditional methodologies and decolonized epistemologies, emancipating a different view and discourse on occupations.
Conclusion: The process of protocol development can help guide more culturally inclusive literature review practices that incorporate non-English materials. Findings will support a better understanding of how the local uses of occupation in the Asia-Pacific region have informed occupational therapy practice.