Learning to be researchers in physical education and sport pedagogy: the perspectives of doctoral students and early career researchers

Numerous academics have argued that if a field is to progress, attention needs to be paid to how future generations of researchers are being prepared. To date, data generated on research training in physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) have primarily focused on students undertaking doctoral programmes with a formal coursework component, which is the model predominantly used in the USA. The traditional master-apprentice model is still, however, the dominant model in many countries, including Australia, and there is a dearth of research on this model of research preparation. Hence, this study was an effort to capture the perspectives and experiences of doctoral students (DSs) and early career researchers (ECRs) who are/were engaged in programmes employing the apprentice model of training. The question we sought to examine was ‘what do PESP doctoral students and early career researchers perceive as the facilitators and challenges associated with learning to be researchers?’. The participants in this study included eight DSs and seven ECRs who were based in Australian and New Zealand institutions. Data were generated through a questionnaire that sought to identify participants’ various research training experiences, a workshop that brought participants together to discuss their research training, and follow-up individual semi-structured interviews. While much of the data generated through this study related to the importance of developing such generic research skills as writing, grant writing and presenting at conferences, participants also discussed PESP-specific skills and dispositions, including particular orientations towards research impact, and the development of research culture. Findings are discussed in reference to the neoliberalisation of education and questions are raised about the forms of research training developing researchers in PESP might need if they are to thrive as researchers within and beyond the field.     

Autoethnography as a critical approach in sport management: Current applications and directions for future research

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the value of autoethnography as a qualitative methodology, document the current literature using autoethnographic approaches, and explore the possibilities for future research in the field of sport management. Using a critical lens to counter dominant ideologies that marginalize certain groups of people through the sustainment of existing power structures and inequities, we sought to address the following inquiries: What is autoethnography and how can it be applied to the critical study of sport management? In doing so, we will explore the benefits of the methodology to the field of sport management as well as the challenges and opportunities created in this form of reflexive study. We also offer suggestions for how to apply autoethnography to a variety of research purposes germane to the field of sport management.     

Sports tribes and academic identity: teaching the sociology of sport in a changing disciplinary landscape

Using data from 15 semi-structured interviews with UK-based early/mid-career academics, this paper offers an empirically informed assessment of how lecturers teaching/researching the sociology of sport are managing their careers in a changing higher education landscape. Those interviewed were involved in the delivery of sociological content to a range of sports-themed courses with the interviews focusing on the changing fashions in studying sport (including a rapid increase in enrolment on certain sports-themed courses), and on the nature of the relationships with colleagues working in the same area (i.e. sport), but who teach/research it from a different discipline. The paper draws upon the processes of individualisation which lay at the root of reflexive modernisation to better understand the lived experiences of those interviewed. Using the metaphors of tribes, doors and boundaries, I assess the extent to which those interviewed felt there were opportunities for an interdisciplinary pedagogic approach to ‘sport’. The paper explores the relationship between the sociology of sport and its parent discipline (i.e. sociology) and where it might feature in a future (post-disciplinary?) landscape.     

Exploring an activist approach of working with boys from socially vulnerable backgrounds in a sport context

This study explores an activist approach for co-creating a prototype pedagogical model of sport for working with boys from socially vulnerable backgrounds. This paper addresses the key features that emerged when we identified what facilitated and hindered the boys’ engagement in sport. This study was an activist research project that was conducted between July 2013 and December 2013 in a soccer program in a socially and economically disadvantaged neighborhood in Brazil. The lead author, supervised by the second author, worked with a soccer class of 17 boys between ages 13 and 15, 4 coaches, a pedagogical coordinator and a social worker. Multiple sources of data were collected, including 38 field journal/observations and audio records of: 18 youth work sessions, 16 coaches’ work sessions and 3 combined coaches and youth work sessions. In addition, the first and second author had 36 90-minute debriefing and planning sessions. By using an activist approach, three features were identified as being essential: an ethic of care, an attentiveness to the community and a community of sport. Findings suggest that it is possible to use sport as a cultural asset to benefit youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds by offering them a place where they can feel protected and dream about possible futures.     

Power,consent and resistance: an autoethnography of competitive rowing

This study builds upon existing socio-cultural work into sports coaching by probing the meanings and varieties of the shared coach–athlete experience. Specifically, the paper utilises an autoethnographic approach in an attempt to chart the complex and dynamic relationship that existed between me, the principal author, as a rowing coxswain and my coach during the preparation for a national rowing championship. Data were drawn from a training diary, emails (both sent and received) and memories during the six months I spent with Coach. The data are presented through three separate yet inter-related stories. Here, the plot of the tale hinges on the tension between my personal perceptions of effective coaching and those employed by Coach. The findings are principally theorised through Nyberg's and Giddens’ concepts of power and resistance, as a fruitful relationship between Coach and me (and the crew) soon turned into a dysfunctional one. The conclusion emphasises the importance of recognising the power-ridden nature of coaching and the value of the autoethnographic genre in exploring it.     

Researching up and across in physical education and sport pedagogy: methodological lessons learned from an intergenerational narrative inquiry

Of issue in this paper are the ways in which different forms of narrative may be of value in undertaking research in potentially thorny situations. The project that inspired this paper saw 30 Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) Early Career Academics (ECAs) from more than 20 universities across Australasia, North America and Europe, provide narrative accounts of their ongoing academic experiences. From these stories, three letters seeking advice and guidance from leaders in the field were constructed. Following further feedback from the ECAs, the 3 letters were sent to 11 professors in the PESP field with a request to respond, also in letter form. The composite letters and the professorial responses were then the subject of a symposium at an international PESP conference. While the larger project engages with questions of being and becoming an academic in the neoliberal university, this paper is primarily concerned with methodological issues, including our steps and missteps with narrative, inquiry and the field. More specifically, the focus is on narrative as both the method and phenomena of study. As such, we consider issues associated with using dialogue as data, the provocation of participants, as well as both the presentation and representation of data and the relative power of the participants. In doing so, we critically engage with issues of anonymity (or lack thereof), the practice of ‘researching up’ and finally reach the conclusion that the careful approach to data generation, treatment and presentation necessitated by this project, should be a more regular feature of all qualitative inquiry.     

Imploding the boundaries of transformative/critical pedagogy and research in physical education and sport pedagogy: looking inward for (self-)consciousness/knowledge and transformation

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of ‘transformative pedagogy’ (TP) in physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) and research in order to provide an alternative perspective on freedom, justice and the limits of transformation. Although some of the limits of TP have already been pointed out in the literature, such limits have been presented as though originating and having to be resolved out there, in socio-cultural–political contexts. In an attempt to redirect the attention from the social to the personal, this paper points out the possibility of TP's limits being also within critical pedagogues and researchers ourselves. After analyzing three barriers to (self-)consciousness/knowledge (SC/K), two viable methods for developing SC/K and transformation are provided.     

Reflecting on the moral bases of critical pedagogy in PETE: toward a Foucaultian perspective on ethics and the care of the self

In teacher education and in physical education teacher education (PETE), the possibilities and pitfalls of critical pedagogy (CP) for transforming society have been frequently debated. From these debates, it has become quite clear that the lines separating ‘technocrats’ from ‘radicals’ are so strongly drawn that limit the advance of PETE. In the spirit of collegiality, we offer an alternative approach to CP based on Foucault's genealogical work on the History of Sexuality. It promotes a pedagogical perspective toward the development of ethics and the care of the self. We argue that this approach, far from discrediting what non-critical pedagogues do, can not only advance the practice of CP, but also open up new ways of conceptualizing PETE that are worth considering both by critical pedagogues and by the members of other pedagogical camps. We discuss the implications of this approach in the personal, social–professional and political spheres.     

Letters from Early Career Academics: the Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy field of play

Taking our lead from Rainer Maria Rilke’s (1929) ‘Letters to a Young Poet’, our broader project aimed to create a space for dialogue and intergenerational learning between Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) Early Career Academics (ECAs) and members of the PESP professoriate. This paper focuses specifically on the experiences of PESP ECAs. We draw upon narratives of thirty ECAs from nine different countries to gain insight into the experiences, joys, challenges and ambitions they associate with being and becoming a PESP academic. A narrative analysis of the data generated by the ECAs was undertaken. The analysis aimed to be holistic in nature, interested in form and content: both the told (the content) and the telling (how it was told). We initially focused our analysis using the six dimensions of narrative (characters, setting, events, audience, causal relations and themes). Bourdieu’s socio-analytical toolkit complemented our narrative analysis and helped us move beyond the personal narratives by linking them to the broader social practices, relations and structures of the various settings or fields (PESP, university, family) within which the participants function. The findings suggest that many ECAs are experiencing crises of habitus, as they work to suppress ethical dispositions and values and adjust to ‘the rules’ that universities increasingly play by. Our discussion engages with the affective costs of playing by these rules, and recruits Bourdieu’s notion of ‘reflexive vigilance’ to advocate for ongoing critical analysis of how power operates in the various field which academics inhabit.     

Applied utility and the auto-ethnographic short story: persuasions for,and illustrations of,writing critical social science

In some quarters it is argued that, narrative researchers might be classified as being either story-analysts or storytellers. They go on to suggest that one feature of storytellers is that they undertake a form of analysis as the process of writing unfolds. With these sentiments in mind, in the present paper, we consider how auto-ethnographical accounts of traumatic and challenging life events might, through the analysis contained within, demonstrate value within the realm of applied pedagogy. In making our case we embrace and adapt the literary genre of storytelling, more specifically, the short story. The story presented here, ‘Travel Writer’, offers an opaque, multi-contextualised and lifelong view of career transition. The present paper, in more general terms, considers the capacity of auto-ethnography and, more specifically, the short storied version of it, to engender critical reader engagement, to encourage personal reflection in others, and to act as a point of stimulus for the enactment of applied debate through the lens of critical social science. With regards to the assumptions of critical social science, the final discussion also considers how the auto-ethnographic text, as a pedagogic tool, might help others to contest and challenge the meta-narratives that, we argue, risk stagnating established thinking.     

A new conceptualization of mega sports event legacy delivery: Wicked problems and critical realist solution

The authors present a new conceptualization of mega sports event legacy delivery, which accounts for the problematic nature of legacy by viewing it as a wicked problem. Research on mega sports event legacy has focused on establishing typologies of legacy, investigating outcomes, and consequences, with limited attention to legacy delivery. The conceptualization of legacy delivery has largely relied on a positive, utopian legacy rhetoric. In contrast, the authors advance the understanding of legacy by proposing a conceptual approach of the legacy delivery process, to enable empirical studies in different contexts to be conducted. Specifically, the authors examine the wicked problem of mega sports event legacy delivery from a Critical Realist perspective, which serves to give meaning and order to this complex process. This conceptualization reveals that legacy delivery is inclusive of deep social structures which underpin different stakeholders’ interpretations and interactions, which produce or limit legacy delivery. The role of social, generative structures as causal mechanisms has not been considered as a way to understand legacy delivery previously. Implications for teaching, research, and practice are discussed to demonstrate the value of this new approach. Importantly, this conceptualization focuses on processes rather than outcomes and encourages the identification of unexpected or unanticipated components of legacy delivery beyond the formal policies and plans designed to create or leverage legacy.     

Mediating effect of aerobic fitness on the association between physical activity and academic achievement among adolescents: A cross-sectional study in Okinawa,Japan

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential role of aerobic fitness (AF) as a mediator of the association between physical activity (PA) and academic achievement (AA) among Japanese junior high school students. A cross-sectional data was collected from 608 7th grade students enrolled at five public junior high schools in two suburban municipalities in Okinawa, Japan. Self-reported PA was assessed using the Patient-Centred Assessment and Counselling for Exercise plus Nutrition questionnaire. The 20-meter shuttle run test was performed to determine AF. AA was evaluated using the overall grade point average. Family structure, parental education level, and achievement motives were the self-reported covariates. The results of the bootstrapped mediation analysis indicated that PA had a direct effect on AF, which in turn influenced the AA among boys. After adjusting for AF, the association between PA and AA disappeared while the association of AF with AA still remained. However, neither PA nor AF was associated with the AA of girls. Therefore, the hypothesis that AF might mediate the relationship between PA and AA was supported for boys. Promoting AF, as a result of engaging to PA could positively influence AA particularly in boys.     

Youths with migration backgrounds and their experiences of physical education: an examination of three cases

While understanding young people has never been easy, migration trends make it increasingly difficult. Many classrooms have become culturally heterogeneous and teachers are often faced with pupils with diverse linguistic and cultural heritages. Current scholarship suggests that as a discipline, physical education has not adapted to this diversity. In fact, commentators have suggested that physical education alienates pupils from minority groups and that traditional practices work to maintain cultural difference. The broad objective of this paper is to provide insights into how physical education intersects with biographies shaped by migration. Drawing from a case study investigation, this paper presents interview data from three youths with migration backgrounds living in a German-speaking region of Switzerland. The cases were selected because they highlight various ways in which physical education (PE) comes to make sense for adolescents. The key arguments that we develop are that ethnicity often works at an implicit level in PE, that young people experience the effects of migration backgrounds in diverse ways, and that migrants themselves support official educational discourses that work to disadvantage people with migration backgrounds. A key implication is that in a cultural milieu in which generalisations are normal and sometimes considered desirable, both researchers and practitioners need to be wary of racialising discourses. As an alternative, it is suggested that focusing on individual processes can improve the conceptualisation and implementation of physical education pedagogies.     

Ideological conflicts behind mutual belief: the termination of the ‘dual-registration policy’ and the collapse of an effective elite diving system in China

Abstract

This article presents a study of the rationale, particularly ideological factors, of a policy change, i.e. the termination of a ‘dual-registration policy’ of Chinese elite divers, through investigating the belief system of actors in the decision-making process and in its aftermath, which was the collapse of an effective elite diver development system. Besides policies documents and academic literature, research data are also collected through thirteen interviews. The analysis of data is conducted through employing Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as the theory of the research. Through breaking down the belief system of different Advocacy Coalitions in the case, it is concluded that the policy change and the subsequent termination of the Tsinghua system could be recognized as natural consequences consistent with the belief and value of both Chinese elite sport and the Tsinghua university, and that structural elements are influential in shaping the belief system and the decision-making process.     

Toward an institutional theory of escalation of commitment within sport management: A review and future directions

Over the past decade, escalation of commitment theory has gained traction and relevance in the sport management literature. The purpose of this paper was to review the current progress of escalation of commitment research within sport management and provide a new perspective for evaluating and researching potential cases of escalation within sport contexts. To this end, the authors proposed a model that accounts for the different institutional logics that likely impact decision-making and evaluations of success. Consistent with previous research of institutions, the authors contend that the perceptions and attached meanings to courses of action should be accounted for when examining escalation of commitment. The implications of this approach and how it addresses shortcomings of previous research are detailed. Finally, the authors provide suggestions for future research of escalation of commitment in sport contexts.     

Contralateral limb deficit after ACL-reconstruction: an analysis of early and late phase of rate of force development

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a unilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) on maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and explosive strength of both the involved limb and the uninvolved limb. Nineteen male athletes completed a standard isometric testing protocol 4 months post-ACLR, while 16 healthy participants served as a control group (CG). The explosive strength of the knee extensors and flexors was assessed as RFD obtained from the slope of the force–time curves over various time intervals. Both muscle groups of the involved limb had significantly lower MVC compared to the uninvolved. The involved limb also had significantly lower RFD in the late phase of contraction (140–250 ms) for both knee extensors and flexors (P < 0.05). There was no difference in MVC between the uninvolved limb and the CG. However, RFD of the uninvolved limb was lower compared to CG for both knee extensors (0–180 ms; P < 0.01) and flexors (0–150 ms; P < 0.05). ACLR leads to lower MVC and explosive strength of the involved limb. As a consequence of potential crossover (presumably neural-mediated) effects, explosive strength deficits could be bilateral, particularly in the early phase of the contraction (<100 ms).