A tale of three seasons : a cultural sport psychology and gender performativity approach to practitioner identity and development in professional football
Year of publication
2021
Authors
Champ, Francesca; Ronkainen, Noora; Tod, David; Eubank, Artin; Littlewood, Martin
Abstract
The present study explored how the organisational and cultural experiences of a trainee Sport Psychology Consultant (SPC) working in professional football shaped her identity and professional development. Drawing on Cultural Sport Psychology (CSP) and gender performativity as guiding frameworks, we explored the first author’s identity development as a sport psychology practitioner-researcher within one professional football club over a 3-year duration. Traditional ethnographic data collection methods were employed, including, field notes and a reflective journal. Through creative non-fiction vignettes, we show that the traditional masculine discourse in professional football shaped the first author’s sense of self and subsequent behaviours. From the results of this study, we suggest that SPCs identity development is not smooth or linear, rather it can be described as a ‘rocky road to individuation’ defined by a series of culturally specific ‘critical moments’. We strongly believe that contextual intelligence and cultural proficiency are essential for a trainee SPCs survival during early and later career stages of working within elite and professional sport environments.
Show moreOrganizations and authors
University of Jyväskylä
Ronkainen Noora
Publication type
Publication format
Article
Parent publication type
Journal
Article type
Original article
Audience
ScientificPeer-reviewed
Peer-ReviewedMINEDU's publication type classification code
A1 Journal article (refereed), original researchPublication channel information
Publisher
Volume
13
Issue
5
Pages
847-863
ISSN
Publication forum
Publication forum level
1
Open access
Open access in the publisher’s service
No
Self-archived
Yes
Other information
Fields of science
Sport and fitness sciences; Psychology
Keywords
[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Publication country
United Kingdom
Internationality of the publisher
International
Language
English
International co-publication
Yes
Co-publication with a company
No
DOI
10.1080/2159676X.2020.1833967
The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection
Yes