Parenting Special Olympians: an agenda for ethnographic engagement

Abstract

The role of parents has always been instrumental for their children’s initial engagement in sport. For athletes with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD), the role of a parent gains added significance. In this paper we argue that because of the significance of parents we need to better understand the culture(s) surrounding the rearing of children and the role the Special Olympic movement (SO) can play in this process. This paper is a call for ethnographic accounts of parental culture(s) in and around SO. To support our claim for the use of ethnographic methods, we first briefly outline the qualitative literature regarding parenting children with IDD. This is followed by an exploration of literature on parents and the SO’s potential to facilitate inclusion. Ultimately, we outline our vision for an ethnographic research program to capture the many and varied overlooked voices and actions of parents in this distinctive cultural environment.

Keywords:

• Ethnography
• disability sport
• inclusion
• intellectual disability
• parents
• parental culture(s)
• Special Olympics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.