The role of theory in researching sports developmentThe role of theory in researching sports development

Prof Fred CoalterProf Fred CoalterUniversity of StirlingUniversity of Stirling

Studying Sports Development Brunel University 25-25 April 2006

It’s not what you do but the way that you do itIt’s not what you do but the way that you do it

The price of everything and the value of nothing

Playing on everybody's teamPlaying on everybody's team

“ Arts, sport and leisure activities….have a role to play in countering Social Exclusion.Social Exclusion. They can help to increase the self-esteem of individuals; build community spirit; increase social interaction; improve health and fitness; create employment and give young people a purposeful activity, reducing the temptation to anti-social behaviour.”

Social Inclusion Strategy (Scottish Office, 1999)

“ Sport can contribute to neighbourhood renewalneighbourhood renewal by improving communities’ performance on four key indicators - health, crime, employment and education.”

Policy Action Group 10 (DCMS, 1999)

Sports development is a surprisingly difficult term to define Sports development is a surprisingly difficult term to define Houlihan and WhiteHoulihan and White

Louise Fréchette, the UN Deputy Secretary General. World Sport’s Forum March 2000 “The power of sports is far more than symbolic. You are engines of economic growth. You are a force for gender equality. You can bring youth and others in from the margins, strengthening the social fabric. You can promote communication and help heal the divisions between peoples, communities and entire nations. You can set an example of fair play. Last but not least, you can advocate a strong and effective United Nations.”

It’s got the whole world in its handsIt’s got the whole world in its hands

2005: UN Year of Sport and Physical Education,

collaborated with organisations in the commercial, public and voluntary sectors

“what was missing, however, was a systematic approach to an important sector in civil societycivil society: sport …. the United Nations isturning to the world of sport for help in the work for peace and the effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals”.

• Universal primary education• Promoting gender equality/empowering women• Combating HIV/AIDS • Addressing issues of environmental sustainability

Going beyond the touch lineGoing beyond the touch line

Plus Sport Sport plus

Liberia: post war conflict resolutionSenegal: rural Muslim communitiesSouth Africa: peer leader trainingMalawi: street children and re-integrationUganda 1: HIV/AIDS Uganda 2: refugeesTanzania: HIV/AIDS and female empowerment Mumbai: slum and street childrenCalcutta: railway children

Sport-in-DevelopmentSport-in-Development Sport or sport plus?Sport or sport plus?

Intermediate impacts Intermediate impacts PPersonal/social development/attitudesersonal/social development/attitudes Intermediate outcomesIntermediate outcomes Behaviour Behaviour Strategic outcomes Strategic outcomes Community regeneration/social capitalCommunity regeneration/social capital Conflict resolutionConflict resolution

InputsInputs OutputsOutputs

Sporting inclusionSporting inclusion Traditional SD: Equity

Sporting Outcomes Skills, rules, ethics

Direct

Intervening

Confounding

Indirect

It’s more than a gameIt’s more than a game Beyond participation Beyond participation

Nobody knows the score…….. Nobody knows the score……..

“.. a widespread lack of empirical research on outcomes, and moreimportantly, the mechanisms and processes via which they are achieved (especially in 'real life‘ situations)” Coalter et al (2000)

Collins et al (1999)Only 11 studies had "anything approaching rigorous evaluations and some of these did not give specific data for excluded groups or communities".

Witt and Crompton (1996)Review of 120 programmes for at-risk youth: 30% had no evaluation Only 4% had pre/post evaluation of participation-related changes

………….or the rules!.or the rules!

Sport lacks a robust evidence base to support its case for continued and increased levels of public funding. Game Plan (2002)

the clearest call for TBE comes when prior evaluations show inconsistent results Weiss (1997)

Conceptual weaknesses (1)Sport; participation; frequency; anti-social behaviour

Conceptual weakness (2)Causes of crime, educational under-achievement, lack of social cohesion

Methodological weaknesses Cross-sectional; lack of controls; self-selection

Little consideration of sufficient conditionsProcess; experience

““Ill-defined interventions with hard to follow outcomes”Ill-defined interventions with hard to follow outcomes”

Mythopoeic nature of sport

• Popular/idealistic ideas produced outside sociological analysis

Sports evangelismSports evangelism

• Relationships between some variables to exclusion of others

• Vague/generalised images, elements of truth reified/distorted

‘represent’ not reflect reality : ad hominem ‘evidence’

• Stand for supposed, but unexamined, impacts/processes

• Concepts whose demarcation criteria are not specific: ‘sport’?

Political/professional/commonsense ‘repertoires/’tacit knowledge’

Inflated promises funding/status/political advantage

Theoretical / hypothetical coherence assume outcomes

‘intriguingly vague and open for several interpretations’ Kruse

Sport ‘Sport’ presumed to have causal powers Closed system: medical/treatment model: social vaccine Search for the ‘killer fact’/empirical generalisation: “Sport can…. Outputs/ outcomes emphasised ‘heterogeneous replication’

Issues ignored/downplayed

Conditionality [weak to moderate; cross-sectional; self-report; direction of cause; confounding variables]

Cultural context

Validity: comparing the same thing?

Process/mechanisms: how/why? sufficient conditions

Sport as a magic boxSport as a magic box

A Question of SportA Question of Sport

Patriksson (1998)

“The futility of arguing whether sport is good or bad has been observed by several authors. Sport, like most activities, is not a priori good or bad, but has the potential of producing both positive

or negative outcomes.

Questions like ‘what conditions are necessary for sport to have beneficial outcomes?’ must be asked more often”.

“ ….there is nothing about …sport itself that is magical….It is the experience of sport that may facilitate the result”. Papacharisisi et al (2005)

Fire, steady, aimFire, steady, aim

Playing in mid-fieldPlaying in mid-field

• ‘Generative approach’ to causation

• Not ‘sport’ underlying resources/process is all

• Families of programmes families of mechanisms

• Causation is contingent/interactive/not guaranteed

• Theory underpinning programme generalisation

Understanding causes/solutions and managing for outcomes?

• Understanding process precedes definition of possible outcomes • Outcome measurement without process: limited explanatory value

Sports evangelism middle range theory Mechanisms, processes, networks and ‘purposive action’

So, what iSo, what iss this game? this game?

Physical fitness/health

Personality/psychological development Self-efficacy/confidence/self-esteem/ locus of control

Structural/process properties Presumed outcomes

Mental health/psychological well-being Anxiety/ stress

Socio-psychological Empathy/tolerance/co-operation/social skills

Sociological Community identity/coherence/ integration

Employability

Reduced Crime

Education

Drug use

Social cohesion Social capital

Direct effects Indirect outcomes

Necessary condition sufficient conditions

It’s more than just ballsIt’s more than just balls

Individual

Partner

Team

Strategy

Physical Skills

Cognitive

Motor

Criterion

Norm

Competitive

Recreational

Contact

Non-Contact

Which sports, which outcomes for which individual/groups?

SportS: Processes relationships learning outcomes

Intermediate impacts Intermediate impacts PPersonal/social development/attitudesersonal/social development/attitudes Intermediate outcomesIntermediate outcomes Behaviour Behaviour Strategic outcomes Strategic outcomes Community regeneration/social capitalCommunity regeneration/social capital Conflict resolutionConflict resolution

InputsInputs OutputsOutputs

Sporting inclusionSporting inclusion Traditional SD: Equity

Sporting Outcomes Skills, rules, ethics

It’s more than a gameIt’s more than a game Beyond participation Beyond participation

Theory of change

Theory of change

Theory of change

‘Research free zone’

Sport plus?

Relationship between strategy and tactics?Relationship between strategy and tactics?

• Programmes are theories Logic models

• Outline core theories: how is programme supposed to work? • Interrogate: is basic plan sound/plausible/practical/valid?

Reveal assumptions

Illustrate connections Programme components/expected outcomes ‘sufficient conditions’

Strengthen claims for causality Estimate difficult-to-measure programme effects ‘on the balance of probability’

‘Causes and ‘cures’

“because so many programs have failed to show success, much program theory in undoubtedly wrong” Weiss

Programme theories/logictheories of change

Basis for M&E

Research/theory

• Properties/processes of participation that lead to such outcomes?• Relationship between participation and type of intermediate impacts?• How, to what extent, such changes will result in changed behaviours?

TBE : a two-way conversationTBE : a two-way conversation

M&E as development• Decision-makers question/analyse assumptions/risks• Engages stakeholders in the planning and monitoring process

Develop sporting/leadership skills Develop sporting/ethical attitudes [peer leaders]

Develop self-efficacy/confidence

HIV/AIDS information [KAO/didactic]

Self-efficacy + attitudes + information changed sexual behaviour

Gender equity attitudes/behaviour

A Model /Theory of Sport, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Behaviour ChangeA Model /Theory of Sport, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Behaviour Change

Reduced risk-taking sexual behaviour

Self-esteem [mostly peer leaders?]

…maybe

SELF-EFFICACY

VERBALPERSUASION

IMITATION &MODELING

PHYSIOLOGICALAROUSAL

PERFORMANCE

Sources of perceived self - efficacy Sources of perceived self - efficacy

Beliefs about capabilities to influence events that affect their lives.

“If I can’t do a job first time, I keep on trying until I can”

Motivational Climate

Mastery Performance

Effort & improvement

Important role

Cooperative learning

Intra-teamrivalry

Unequalrecognition

Punishment ofmistakes

Social Climate and Self-EfficacySocial Climate and Self-Efficacy Not what you do…but how you do itNot what you do…but how you do it

Sport and Anti-social BehaviourSport and Anti-social Behaviour

What are causes of anti-social behaviour?

How/why can sport address these?

• Differential association Peer/criminal sub-cultures new peers/role models     

• Boredom [opportunity-led crime] Diversionary schemes

• Adolescent development needs Catharsis/excitement/competition

• Educational failure:blocked aspirations/achievement/self-esteem Achievement locus of control

• Lack of self-discipline Training/performance/deferred gratification

sports programmes/processes

The problem with the Irish…..The problem with the Irish…..

• Are the issues simply methodological? • Is the verdict simply “not proven”?

• What are the nature/scope/scale of our claims?

• Sport or sport plus or……..

‘We mount limited-focus programs to cope with broad-gauge

problems. We devote limited resources to long-standing and

stubborn problems. Above all we concentrate attention on changing

the attitudes and behaviour of target groups without concomitant

attention to the institutional structures and social arrangements that

tend to keep them “target groups”’. Weiss (1993)

Paradox of empowerment

Mwaanga Empowerment Through Women’s Football

‘‘complex systems thrust amidst complex systems’complex systems thrust amidst complex systems’

What game are we playing?What game are we playing?

““Whose side are you on?!!”Whose side are you on?!!”

    Intermediate impacts     Improvements in cognitive and social skills.    Reductions in impulsiveness and risk-taking behaviour         Raised self-efficacy/confidence and self-esteem

Inputs : resources: type of staff

Outputs: type of programmes Individual/partner/team

Social outcomes Reduction in crime

Sport and anti-social behaviourSport and anti-social behaviour

Intermediate outcomes Improvements in education and employment prospects Reduced anti-social/criminal behaviour/drug taking

Sporting Outcomes Frequency/intensity/adherence

Process, interaction, relationships

6 stone weakling meets 400 pound gorilla6 stone weakling meets 400 pound gorilla

’Knowledge creep’ theory of the role of evaluation

“Diffuse and undirected infiltration of research ideas into [decision-

makers] understanding of the world…. few deliberate and targeted

uses of findings from individual studies. Rather they absorbed the

concepts and generalisations from many studies over extended

periods of time and they integrated research ideas……..into their

interpretation of events…..gradual sensitisation to the perspectives

of social science” Weiss

There are no killer factsThere are no killer facts

“Policy makers like stories and we need to understand ………”

‘Hard scientific evidence’?

Cost benefit or political benefit?Cost benefit or political benefit?

“ a rational exercise that takes place in a political context” Carol Weiss

‘ Evidence’ more plural than research

‘ Tests of truth and utility’

• Professional repertoires : congruent or confronting

• Politics of ‘doing something’

• Placating interest groups

• Enhancing political/organisational influence

• ‘getting money into sport’

Take off more important than landings?

• Professional/organisational interests marginal policy area: status anxiety/legitimacy