Changing roles, moving forward

: influences, practices and decisions of national athletics stepping into the workforce

Abstract

How athletes prepare for the transition to post-athletic life is influenced by various factors. Despite the concern of career development to individuals’ post-athletic lives, there is often a conflict between the requirements of those of academic/vocational pursuits and sport. Whereas some athletes choose a dual-career path, others choose to pursue academic/vocational training after athletic careers. Regardless of how athletes choose to pursue further education, access to an educational support system seems to be a prerequisite for post-athletic employment. However, there has been a lack of research on individuals’ perceptions and experiences as they navigate their athletic and academic endeavours (Cosh & Tully, 2014; Li & Sum, 2017), especially in the Hong Kong context. This study aims to identify the potential obstacles encountered by athletes in their vocational advancement and to reveal the dilemmas faced by athletes regarding their academic and athletic development by examining their lived experiences. The study also aims to provide new knowledge concerning athletes’ professional development decisions and the related potential concerns and thus to provide conceptual direction and insights to enhance the educational/vocational support system for athletes.

Using a qualitative interpretive approach, this study evaluates the findings from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 Hong Kong athletes who are members of national teams. Throughout the analysis, the Fundamental, Talent, Elite and Mastery (FTEM) framework (Gulbin, Croser, Morley, & Weissensteiner, 2013), the expectancy-value model (Eccles, 2009) and Super’s career model (Super, 2012) are used as foundations to facilitate the conceptualisation of how athletes make career decisions at different stages of their athletic journeys.

The findings of this study revealed that athletes’ perceptions are determined by overwhelming sociocultural factors that have vital implications for their professional development decisions. When there is a role conflict between sports and careers, athletes tend to prioritise their professional careers. A new Career Development Perspective FTEM model is developed to guide conceptualisation of the topic of athletes’ professional development, which can provide insights relevant to athletes, coaches, sporting agencies, educational bodies and policymakers into the structuring of support strategies appropriate to athletes’ lifestyles.

Date of Award	2 Dec 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Jo Rose (Supervisor) & Ioanna Bakopoulou (Supervisor)