Dempsey, N (2023) An examination of coach education provision in grassroots football. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

Formal coach education is an important part of a sport system that aspires to offer coaches the opportunity to learn and develop new processes relevant to their own context. Previous research on formal coach education mainly focuses on observations of on-course pedagogic practice to evaluate its effectiveness. This thesis extends this research by offering a novel examination of wider coach education policy. A collective case study approach was taken in collaboration with The English Football Association (The FA). The aim of this research was to critically explore the creation, dissemination and implementation of a formal coach education policy. This research focused on two FA grassroots courses which were released in August 2016 (i.e., level 1 and level 2 courses). Framed by an interpretivist paradigm, three studies were conducted, that included semi-structured interviews with policy makers, course designers, full-time and part-time coach developers, as well as document analysis and on-course observations. A theoretically informed thematic analysis procedure was adopted, connecting the data with the work of sociologist Basil Bernstein. Findings from the three studies bring to the forefront: 1) the processes of a wider system at play when creating coach education policy, 2) how personnel work within a system, 3) ‘what’ content knowledge goes into a curriculum, 4) wider consideration of relevant and applicable curriculum models and 5) empathy towards the role of coach developers in the current formal coach education landscape. This extends existing literature by providing a significant socio-pedagogical analysis of coach education policy. Here, education is not reductively divorced from social and political influences, but considered as a complex system. Recommendations include frameworks for research and evaluation that appreciates the complexity of coach education which is influenced by a range of powerful stakeholders. This thesis therefore offers an original outlook by repositioning coach education as a wider system.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Coach Education; Bernstein; Curriculum
Subjects:	L Education > LC Special aspects of education G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV561 Sports > GV711 Coaching
Divisions:	Sport & Exercise Sciences
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	13 Mar 2023 14:41
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2023 14:42
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00019040
Supervisors:	Cronin, C, Richardson, D and Littlewood, M
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/19040

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