The interviewees were women from all levels o f the coaching profession, brief details o f the sample are given below.
Socio-demographic Data
Table 8 Employment status o f the coaches Number in Full time Paid Employment Nifmber in Part- time Paid Employment
Number not in Paid
Work Number o f Students
10 3 4 3
Table 9 Marital status o f the coaches Number Married Number Divorced/ Separated Number Single 8 4 8
Table 10 Parental Status o f the Coaches at the Time o f the Interview Number o f Coaches With
One or More Children Under 16
Number o f Coaches With One or More Children
Over 16
Number o f Coaches With No Children
7 3 10
Table 11 Ethnic origin o f the coaches White Black
19 1
Table 12 Ages o f the coaches
Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+
Number o f Coaches
Personal Sport Participation
The terms used here to describe the coaches’ involvement in sport as participants are those used by the Sports Council to define levels o f participation in sport. Please refer to Appendix 4 for further clarification o f these terms.
Table 13 Highest level at which the coaches participated in sport
Level None Foundation Participation Performance Excellence Number o f
Coaches
0 2 5 7 6
Table 14 Coaches level o f sporting involvement at the time o f interview Level None Foundation Participation Perform an c
e
Excellence Number o f
Coaches
3 7 9 1 0
Data on the Interviewees ’ Involvement in Coaching
Eighteen o f the coaches held at least the basic coaching qualification in their sport. It is difficult to provide summary information on the level o f qualification held by coaches as these differed so much between sports at the time o f the interviews. For example, a preliminary qualification in one sport is not necessarily equivalent to a preliminary qualification in another. Indeed none o f the five sports examined in this study used the same names for their qualifications. The fact that some sports had three levels o f qualifications and others five further complicates matters. To try to get around this problem the coaches have been allocated into one o f three categories, namely one group holding the lowest ranking coaching qualification, one group with
middle ranking qualifications and one group with the highest ranking qualification in their sport. Details o f the number o f coaches in each category are given table 15.
Table 15 Level o f coaching qualification held by the interviewees Coaching Qualification No Coaching Award Lowest Ranking Coaching Qualification Middle Ranking Coaching Qualification Highest Ranking Coaching Qualification Number o f Coaches 3 7 4 6
The level at which a coach coaches does not always coincide with the level o f coaching award held. Table 16 illustrates the level o f performer coaches were typically working with at the time o f interview. The typology o f the Sports Development Process is used once again to categorise the level at which coaches worked. Where they worked at more than one level the level at which they coached most frequently is recorded.
Table 16 Level o f performer coached by the interviewees
Level Foundation Participation Performance Excellence Number o f
Coaches
6 4 4 6
Table 17 Years Spent Coaching Years Involvement in Coaching 0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 20 + Number o f Coaches 7 4 4 2 3
The mean number o f years that the interviewees had been involved in coaching was 10 years with the shortest time being 1 year and the longest time 30 years.
It is difficult to give data on the level o f commitment o f the coaches because o f the variable nature o f their roles. For example, one coach was interviewed after she had finished five days o f intensive training with the national squad yet, as she explained, only three more such sessions were planned in the next seven months and this comprised her total coaching commitment for the year. Furthermore, a coach's commitment does not begin and end with the session that they take. There are myriad tasks attached to a coaching role such as booking venues, writing training
programmes, and photocopying match details, to name but a few. In the light o f this the interviewees’ involvement has been categorised on the basis o f its frequency (for example weekly) or infrequency (for example once a month) and on the basis o f whether it is heavy (for example sessions which required substantial planning and preparation outside o f the coaching session) or light (with few additional
responsibilities outside the actual session). Coaches were allocated on the basis o f which o f these categories was the fairest representation o f their commitment.
Table 18 Intensity and frequency o f the interviewees’ involvement in coaching
Level o f Commitment Frequent Infrequent
Heavy 7 7
Light 3
Coaching and Economic Status
Table 19 indicates how many coaches were paid for coaching and the type o f payment they received. A number o f coaches fell into more than one category, for example where they reported that they usually coached for an honorarium, but occasionally they coached at a representative level where they were paid for their time. Where this
occurred the coaches are placed in the category which best typifies their usual involvement in coaching.
Table 19 Type o f payment received for coaching by the interviewees Employment Status as a Coach Employed as a Full time Coach Employed as a Part-time Coach Paid per Session Paid an Honorarium or Expenses Minimal Financial Reimbursement Number o f Coaches 1 3 8 6 2 5.8 Data Analysis
Qualitative data analysis can be an intensely personal affair, for example, the analysis o f ethnographic data. There are no set guidelines or statistical procedures to follow but this does not mean that it lacks rigour. Indeed, researchers such as G riffin (1986) and Marshall (1986) describe in some detail the lengthy process involved in organising and analysing their data, and o f their subsequent attempts to generate theory from their data. Significantly, they and many others carrying out feminist research draw heavily on the ideas presented by Glaser and Strauss (1967) on Grounded Theory. This study is no different in that it seeks to generate understanding, explanation and theory from the data (an inductive approach) as opposed to testing the data against an existing theoretical framework (a deductive approach). Such action is consistent with feminist researchers’ calls to carry out research from below, that is starting with the data, as opposed to carrying out research from above, that is situating the data within an established theoretical framework. In reality it proved impossible to disregard the ideas which emerged as a consequence o f writing Chapters Two, Three and Four. The process o f analysing the data was therefore partly inductive and partly deductive.
The first phase o f the analysis involved the organisation o f the coaches’ responses into coherent topic areas, similar but not identical to those identified in the interview schedule. A t this stage new files were created on computer disk and tags were employed so that it was possible to identify which coach made which comment. Quotes which might be o f use were asterisked on the hard copy o f the transcripts and then cross-referenced to the topic area, coach, page and paragraph number so that they could be easily located at a later date.
Throughout this process a small number o f "emergent themes" were identified, that is other issues which did not have a natural home within any o f the other topic areas. Different coloured highlighter pens was used to identify text in the transcripts relevant to each o f these emergent themes. The text was then transposed into a new file using the "cut", "paste" and "clipboard" facilities on "Word for Windows", and a hard copy made o f each file.
This chapter has shown how ideas from feminist research guided the methodological decisions taken in this study as well as describing the processes involved in collecting and analysing the data. The next chapter, Chapter Six, uses the interview data to help answer the question o f why women are underrepresented as sports coaches in the UK. The findings from the interview data are discussed in the context o f the ideas presented in Chapters Two, Three and Four.