Why Coach Sport? Motivations Of Pre-Service Primary School Teachers Electing Coach Education Units Of Study

Abstract

The youth sport coach has an impact on children's development and enjoyment of sport (Hedstrom & Gould, 2004). The results of research by Walsh (2004) found that motivations for coaching in Australia included participation in sport as an athlete, and a desire to maintain involvement in sport were the primary reasons for beginning coaching. Additionally, family involvement in the sport; wanting to offer something back to the sport and an academic background relating to sport had a strong influence on a coach's decision to begin coaching. Similarly studies in North America (Sage, 1989; Salmela, 1995) found experiences within sport, interest with working with young people and wanting to remain in sport prompted a desire to coach. The English Sports Council (1993) identified four reasons for continuing coaching: helping others improve, enjoyment, making a contribution and achievement/success. Given that pre-service education programs are designed to prepare education students to meet the expectations of the profession, the aim of this research was to determine if pre-service teachers, who are enrolled at one regional University in New South Wales, have similar or different views to coaching than those expressed in other recent research findings? ... In order to understand motivations of pre-service teachers enrolled in the available coach education units of study, students were asked to respond to two questions, firstly, "Why do you coach?" for which the responses to this question were provided in dot points. The second question, "What is your coaching philosophy? This question accompanied by a probe, required an extended narrative response, in the three quarters page space provided on the question sheet, explaining why they coach or intended to coach and what they aimed to achieve" (Australian Sports Commission, 1997, p. 5). Also included on the page was a stimulus illustration showing a coach leaning up against a signpost that alluded to four "directions", namely, enjoyment, winning, fun and premiership. These questions were selected for their potential to collect data about motivations to coach sport and are best characterised as examples of 'opinion-value questions' (Patton, 1989). The purpose was to access or understand participants' cognitive and interpretive processes. The addition of a probe encouraged respondents to consider specific aspects of philosophy, namely, 'why' and 'what'.