Administrators’ perceptions of the meaning and challenges of “education-based” high school sport

ABSTRACT

A phrase commonly used within high school sport is “education-based athletics”; however, there is no empirical investigation on the meaning of this phrase, nor how it is specific to the high school sport context. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine high school sport administrators’ perceptions of the meaning of “education-based” high school sport. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, nine administrators participated in interviews and defined “education-based” athletics as an extracurricular sport-based context that supports the mission of the academic institution through offering youth experiential learning of life skills with the aim of developing constructive members of society. Supplementary categories detail administrators’ aspirations for high school sport and challenges they face in actualizing those aspirations. By recognizing the purpose of sport embedded within an academic institution as a contextual obligation, practitioners and coaches will be encouraged to anchor future work toward long-term development aimed to increase civic engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• High school
• sport
• positive youth development
• sport leadership
• qualitative
• grounded theory
• educational athletics
• ‌sport administration

Acknowledgements

The data in this project was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Minnesota State University, Mankato, awarded to Dr Jedediah Blanton while on the faculty at that institution. The authors would like to thank Dr Christine Pacewicz (Saginaw Valley State University) and Kenneth Ildefonso (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) for their assistance with data management.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The data in this project was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Minnesota State University, Mankato, awarded to Dr Jedediah Blanton.

Notes on contributors

Jedediah E. Blanton

Jedediah E. Blanton is an Assistant Professor of Practice. His research interests include the psychosocial development of leadership and life skills through high school sport.

Scott Pierce

Scott Pierce is an Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies. His research interests include the transfer of life skills from sport.

Kylee J. Ault

Kylee J. Ault is a second year doctoral student at the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and a graduate assistant at the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Her research interests include athlete experiences toward leadership and life skills development.