Shaping the way we learn to coach: The childhood learning experiences of five women coaches

Abstract

Research on how coaches learn to coach has explored how they learn in formal and nonformal coaching education courses, and how they learn in informal experiences on the job, including how they learn from their athletes, other coaches, and mentors (for example, Mallett, Trudel, Lyle, & Rynne, 2009; Werthner & Trudel, 2006, 2009). Jarvis (2006) offers a theory that learning is lifelong and occurs when an individual experiences a situation that is transformed, through thoughts, emotions, and/or actions, into knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values, and skills. What a person has learned will influence how she or he experiences new learning situations. As part of a larger dissertation research study on the lives of women coaches, the purpose of this presentation is to illustrate how preconscious learning in childhood, through primary and secondary socialization, including the social environment, family life, school, and athletic experiences, contributed to five Canadian women coaches' approaches. Through four in-depth interviews with each of the participants, the learning experiences of the women were transformed into narratives. A thematic analysis was performed to delineate how preconscious and incidental learning in childhood influenced the women's coaching knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values, and skills. This presentation serves to broaden the scope of learning to help understand influences that impact coaches' biographies, their coaching knowledge, and coaching approach.

Acknowledgments: Jarvis, P. (2006). Towards a comprehensive theory of human learning: Lifelong learning and the learning society (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Routledge.