Children’s voices in mini soccer: an exploration of critical incidents

Abstract

Since being adopted by The English Football Association as the preferred format of football to be played by children aged 10 and under, mini soccer has evolved and expanded into a popular activity for children. Yet little is known about the experiences of those participating in the game. In addition, adult-organized activities such as mini soccer are increasingly seen by parents and adults as suitable pursuits for their children to participate in. Yet the perspective of the child participating in mini soccer, as with many other activities, is largely ignored in academic literature. This is especially true in the social sciences, where research has historically been done ‘on’ children, rather than ‘with’ children. In this study, we seek to address this imbalance by including children as active participants in the research process. In doing so, we devised a methodology based on audiovisual methods to create participatory conditions between children and researchers interested in investigating their experiences of mini soccer in England. Children were asked to identify aspects of their experience which they felt were noteworthy to create video recordings of critical incidents that directly involved them participating in mini soccer. These were used as a discussion tool in focus groups to explore how and why children felt the incidents were critical, and how their experience of them shaped their participation. The methodology employed helped capture children’s differentiated views of the same incidents, and highlighted the diversity of their experiences. It is recommended that similar audiovisual methodologies are employed to inform future policy and strategy development in grassroots football that includes children as participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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3. Pitchford et al., ‘Children in Football: Seen but not Heard’.

4. Wyness, Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Childhood.

5. Houlihan and Lindsey, Sport Policy in Britain.

6. Green and Houlihan, ‘Governmentality, Modernization, and the “Disciplining” of National Sporting Organizations: Athletics in Australia and the United Kingdom;’ Houlihan and Green, ‘Modernization and Sport: The Reform of Sport England and UK Sport’.

7. Lusted and O’Gorman, ‘The Impact of New Labour’s Modernisation Agenda on the English Grass-roots Football Workforce’.

8. The FA, A Blueprint for the Future of Football, 63.

9. The FA, A Charter for Quality, 9.

10. Ibid.

11. The FA, Youth Development Review.

12. Ibid.

13. Brackenridge et al., Child Welfare in Football: An Exploration of Children’s Welfare in the Modern Game.

14. Wyness, Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Childhood.

15. Mayall, ‘Towards a Sociology for Childhood: Thinking from Children’s Lives’.

16. Qvortrup, Corsaro, and Honig, The Palgrave Handbook of Childhood Studies.

17. Wyness, Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Childhood.

18. Pitchford et al., ‘Children in Football: Seen but not Heard’.

19. Grover, ‘Why Won’t They Listen To Us? On Giving Power and Voice to Children Participating in Social Research’.

20. Wyness, Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Childhood.

21. The FA, Youth Development Review.

22. Brackenridge et al., Child Welfare in Football: An Exploration of Children’s Welfare in the Modern Game.

23. The FA, Youth Development Review.

24. Greig, Taylor, and MacKay, Doing Research with Children: A Practical Guide.

25. Cope, Harvey, and Kirk, ‘Reflections on Using Visual Research Methods in Sports Coaching’.

26. Ibid.

27. Greig, Taylor, and MacKay, Doing Research with Children: A Practical Guide.

28. Angelides, ‘The Development of an Efficient Technique for Collecting and Analyzing Qualitative Data: The Analysis of Critical Incidents’.

29. Tripp, Critical Incidents in Teaching: Developing Professional Judgement, 24–5.

30. Ibid.

31. Recordings and team discussions were undertaken by a research team consisting of students on placement from Edge Hill University and led by representatives from ‘Don’t X the Line’ campaign http://www.dontxtheline.com/ a charity which aims to enhance the participatory experience of junior grassroots footballers and referees through a number of initiatives.

32. Greig, Taylor, and MacKay, Doing Research with Children: A Practical Guide.

33. Tripp, Critical Incidents in Teaching: Developing Professional Judgement, 43.

34. Ibid.

35. This was undertaken by the research team which included representatives from ‘Don’t X the line’ http://www.dontxtheline.com/ and university staff with significant ongoing and lengthy experience of coaching in grassroots junior football.

36. Denscombe, The Good Research Guide: For Small-scale Social Research Projects.

37. Morgan et al., ‘Hearing Children’s Voices: Methodological Issues in Conducting Focus Groups with Children Aged 7–11 years’.

38. Bryman, Social Research Methods, 475.

39. Morgan et al., ‘Hearing Children’s Voices: Methodological Issues in Conducting Focus Groups with Children Aged 7–11 years’.

40. Ibid.

41. Those incidents that are not included in the paper were not selected due either engendering less significant discussion, or because they were similar to specific incidents presented above but again engendered less discussion than the incident included.

42. Bluebond-Langner and Korbin, Challenges and Opportunities in the Anthropology of Childhoods: An Introduction to ‘Children, Childhoods, and Childhood Studies’.

43. Walters et al., ‘“It Just Makes You Feel Invincible”: A Foucauldian Analysis of Children’s Experiences of Organised Team Sports’.

44. Kavussanu et al., ‘Observed Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors in Male and Female Soccer Players’.

45. Shields et al., ‘The Sport Behaviour of Youth, Parents and Coaches’.

46. Walters et al., “It Just Makes You Feel Invincible”: A Foucauldian Analysis of Children’s Experiences of Organised Team Sports’.

47. Ibid.

48. Cope, Harvey, and Kirk, ‘Reflections on Using Visual Research Methods in Sports Coaching’.

49. Thomas and O’Kane, ‘Discovering What Children Think: Connections between Research and Practice’.

50. Greig, Taylor, and MacKay, Doing Research with Children: A Practical Guide.

51. Johnson, Pfister, and Vindrola-Padros, ‘Drawings, Photos, and Performances: Using Visual Methods with Children’.

52. Allison, ‘Giving Voice to Children’s Voices: Practices and Problems, Pitfalls and Potentials’.

53. Kirk, ‘Methodological and Ethical Issues in Conducting Qualitative Research with Children and Young People: A Literature Review’.

54. Cope, Harvey, and Kirk, ‘Reflections on Using Visual Research Methods in Sports Coaching’.