
The study of physical therapy history in Canada has focused mainly on the profession's origins and its development alongside medicine after World War II.1 While it is important to document our professional origins, our history also includes local and broader community narratives across the country that need to be studied and celebrated. While physical therapy scholars have embraced the diversity of research orientations, approaches, methods, and modes of analysis in their work, one research genre that has not received much attention is oral history.2 Adopting an oral history approach can facilitate inquiry focusing on physical therapy community efforts—narratives that have not been reproduced or showcased in our documented history. In this editorial, I briefly discuss oral history, its origins, and its unique qualities and strengths as a form of academic inquiry. I then offer a few examples of oral history/history articles written by physical or occupational therapists and show their implications for the physical therapy profession.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 1 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
