Falls, Dominique A.P.

<p>Presentation delivered at the <a href="https://site.pheedloop.com/event/SLS23">Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Sportif conference</a>, Calgary, Alberta (November 2-3, 2023).</p> <p>In this workshop, we will draw on the lived experiences of the facilitators and attendees, narratives from community members, and existing research to explore the features of sport spaces that can make them (un)welcoming for Queer community members. We will also work together to identify changes we want to see in our own community sport spaces and consider action we can take to make these changes a reality, from the individual level to the structural level. Our central goal in facilitating this workshop at this conference is to provide coaches with direct, tangible, and well-researched tips on how to make their practices more inclusive the minute they walk out the door. Our interactive workshop will draw on current qualitative and quantitative data on queer youth and adults who (did or do) participate in sport, to offer practical examples of ways to improve material conditions in sport for queer athletes. Intended outcomes for the workshop are threefold: first, to demystify queer identities that athletes hold at every level of sport; second, to illuminate and generate individual actions that positively impact athletes at risk of ceasing participation in sport; and third, to empower organizations to take simple but powerful action to support all participants equitably. The current anti-trans climate – one that has weaponized sport – makes the timing and content of this presentation crucial. Sport organizations are scrambling to ensure they meet the needs of their members, and in doing so, do not cause harm to specific groups. We hope that by framing our knowledge through lived experience and simple, direct tips, we create meaningful and lasting change. We are also aware that the composition and dynamic of our research team is a strength that we hope will help the message sink in: One of us is an academic who has studied and worked in the sport sector for 20 years and is the parent of a gender non-conforming son. The other is a non-binary, trans student, athlete, and coach who is co-Chair of one of the Canada’s largest queer sport clubs.</p>

Every year, approximately two thousand Canadian student-athletes, aged 17-23, cross the border to pursue their university education in the United States (Barnes, 2008). However, there is a scarcity of in-depth research that considers the experiences of these athletes. More pertinently, little is known about how student-athlete movement can be understood in relation to research on ‘detraditionalization’ and ‘individualization’ which suggests that the influence of traditional ties (e.g. class, gender, ethnicity) on young people’s experiences and identities is diminishing. With these concerns in mind a study was designed that explored the following two research questions: 1) how might processes of detraditionalization and individualization inform an understanding of the transition experiences of female Canadian student-athletes moving to the United States for their university education?; 2) how are female Canadian student-athletes’ experiences and identities shaped by the transitions they are faced with in their move to and time spent in the United States? To pursue these questions, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 Canadian female student-athletes who pursued their education at and graduated from a United States’ university. Key findings included: the women’s decisions to attend college were influenced by an interrelated set of sport-related factors (e.g. a desire to pursue sport at the ‘highest level’) and non-sport factors (e.g. to break free from the familiarity of home); transition experiences were complex and context dependent and were also influenced by sport-related factors (e.g. relationships with the coach and teammates) and non-sport factors (e.g. degree of culture shock). The research also showed that the women used diverse strategies to deal with their disconnection from home (e.g. use of various communication technologies) and that negative experiences were commonly reframed in positive terms. In sum, the women experienced processes of individualization and detraditionalization but the structure of the sports team provided some of the stabilizing influences thought to be diminishing in the contemporary moment. This thesis concludes with a discussion of ways that these findings could be useful for athletes who are experiencing various forms of transition, and the coaches, peers, parents, and others who are attempting to support them.

Although there is a tradition of research focused on the socialization experiences of student-athletes, few studies consider how non-sport-related transitions impact and overlap with the sport-related transitions experienced by these athletes – or how transition experiences are influenced by the broader, structural conditions associated with reflexive modernity. With the goal of addressing these gaps, an interview-based study of the experiences of 12 female student-athletes, who moved from Canada to the United States to pursue intercollegiate soccer, is reported. The study is situated in literatures related to youth transitions, mobility, sport-related socialization, and identity formation. The ‘individualization’ and ‘detraditionalization’ concepts are featured and considered for their pertinence to the experiences of the interviewed student-athletes. Key findings from the study include the following: decision-making by student-athletes was a predominantly individualized endeavor that was influenced by various sport and non-sport-related factors; the sport and non-sport-related transitions that accompanied the move to a new sporting and educational context were eased because of the (temporary and conditional) support of teammates; and that the transition out of sport was especially difficult for many of the athletes, as the support structures associated with ‘the team’ quickly diminished – and because of the hyper- individualized identities that the student-athletes were required to renegotiate.

Conference presentation delivered at the <a href="http://www.thehockeyconference.ca/">Hockey Conference</a> (2016), Fredericton, New Brunswick. The presentation drew on data from a three-year ethnographic research project on young people, parents, and sport administrators’ experiences of organized youth sport in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. The focus of the presentation was on problematizing the assumption that hockey ‘belongs’ in and to rural and small-town Canada. Why do we say this? What is this based off of? Was this ever or is this still the case? Using data from observations and interviews with young people, parents, and sport administrators in the West Kootenay region of BC, I demonstrated the ways in which this assumption still operates in some rural and small-towns, but that it is not without contestation and active resistance. I argued that local and regional hockey success in the early 19th century all the way into the 1960s lead to the formation of the region’s identity as a ‘hotbed of hockey’. Those who grew up, or who have family who played in this era, continue to support and keep hockey alive in this region. Yet, hockey participation numbers continue to decline, alongside community attendance at local games. I concluded that there are still a lot of people playing and watching hockey in these communities but that support is limited to certain segments of the population: notably, those who are descendants of the players from the ‘glory days’ and those who played hockey themselves growing up. Through their everyday actions and narratives, some residents are keeping the idea of hockey alive in the face of fewer and fewer tangible markers of hockey (success) in the region. I concluded that there is too much diversity in the way hockey is being lived and experienced – as well as too much diversity within and between rural and small towns – to suggest hockey still (or ever did) belong to rural and small towns. Generally, the presentation informs and outlines the ways in which local history and culture shape the experience of organized youth sport. Specifically, local sport history and the role that hockey played in putting the region on the sport map, continue to influence decisions that young people, parents, and sport administrators make about which sports to play, support, or fund. It helped develop some broader ideas about the need to deliver sport programs in rural and small-towns through a place-based approach. As a result, I will present at the 2016 Alberta Parks and Recreation conference, Connecting Through Research, where I will be talking mainly to practitioners about how to use research to deliver meaningful programs to rural and small-town residents.