Tucker Center Newsletter - 2009 Spring
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Research Updates
The Tucker Center has a number of exciting research projects underway. Research assistant Austin Stair Calhoun, Tucker Center Associate Director Nicole LaVoi, and Tucker Center Director Mary Jo Kane are examining online coaching biographies of NCAA Division I coaches in the Big 10 Conference in their research project, “Examining Online Intercollegiate Head Coaches’ Biographies: Reproducing or Challenging Heteronormativity and Heterosexism?” The purpose of this pilot study is to explore ways in which female coaches might be marginalized and trivialized in new media—patterns of representation well-documented in other forms of print and broadcast journalism. Online biographies are a universal component of intercollegiate athletic Web sites and provide the public with an accessible “up close and personal” source of information about coaches and teams. Results of the study were presented at the Sport, Sexuality, and Culture Conference held at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, this March and highlighted how online biographies of coaches both challenge and reproduce gender stereotypes in college sports.
Research assistant Erin Becker is exploring gendered occupational employment patterns within a state-wide youth soccer organization. Research on intercollegiate and interscholastic sport indicates that when males occupy positions of power (e.g., as head coach, AD), they are more likely to hire individuals like themselves, meaning other males. Becker’s project— “Examining Gender in a Youth Soccer Organization: Homologous Reproduction and Marginalization of Female Youth Soccer Coaches”—examines whether similar patterns of gendered hiring practices also exist in youth sport by asking such questions as, are male or female Coaching Directors more likely to hire male coaches? A second purpose of Becker’s project is to investigate if female coaches are marginalized within youth sport. For example, are they more likely to be assigned to coach “less prestigious” teams such as younger age groups and less competitive recreational teams? Stay tuned for her exciting results!
Affiliated Scholar Lisa Kihl and Kathy Babiak (University of Michigan) conducted a first-of-its-kind evaluation of the Minnesota Twins’ Rookie League and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities programs. Both programs provide participation opportunities for underserved youth in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Their project examined possible benefits of the programs, barriers to participation, ways to improve program delivery, and stakeholders’ perceptions of the Minnesota Twins. The authors commend the Twins for striving to be the best at delivering urban youth sports.
To increase the number of female coaches in youth sport, Nicole LaVoi and Sarah Leberman—a Fulbright Scholar from the University of Massey, New Zealand who did her research at the Tucker Center in 2007—interviewed mothers of youth soccer players for their project, “Developing Mothers as Youth Sport Coaches.” The mothers discussed numerous barriers to their involvement in coaching, but also suggested strategies to recruit and retain female coaches such as increasing their sense of competence and confidence. More specifically, they emphasized actively encouraging and inviting females to coach, holding female-only coaching clinics run by women, and helping mothers understand that parenting skills can be transferred to the world of coaching. The next phase of this research involves working with youth sport organizations to implement these and other strategies.
