Values in Youth Sport and Physical Education

As sport has become more intense, professional and commercialized so have the debates grown about what constitutes acceptable behaviour and fair play, and how to encourage and develop ?good? sporting behaviour, particularly in children and young people. This book explores the nature and function of values in youth sport and establishes a framework through which coaches, teachers and researchers can develop an understanding of the decision-making processes of young athletes and how they choose between playing fairly or cheating to win.

The traditional view of sport participation is that it has a beneficial effect on the social and moral development of children and young people and that it intrinsically promotes cultural values. This book argues that the research evidence is more subtle and nuanced. It examines the concept of values as central organizing constructs of human behaviour that determine our priorities, guide our choices, and transfer across situations, and considers the value priorities and conflicts that are so useful in helping us to understand behaviour in sport. The book argues that teachers and professionals working with children in sport are centrally important agents for value transmission and change and therefore need to develop a deeper understanding of how sport can be used to encourage pro-social values, and offers suggestions for developing a curriculum for teaching values through sport in differing social contexts.

Spanning some of the fundamental areas of sport practice and research, including sport psychology, sport pedagogy, practice ethics, and positive youth development through sport, and including useful values and attitudes questionnaires and guidance on their use and interpretation, this book is important reading for any student, researcher, coach or teacher with an interest in youth sport or physical education.

Introduction: Exploring youth sport values 1. Why are sport and physical education valuable?: Values, sport, and physical education PART I: Values, attitudes, and achievement goals 2. What sport values do young people hold?: Values in children’s sport: Spontaneously expressed values by young athletes 3. Which sport values are most important to young people?: The measurement of values in youth sport: Development of the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire 4. How important are ethical attitudes?: Development of the Attitudes to Moral Decision-making in Youth Sport Questionnaire 5. How do values influence attitudes and achievement goals?: Relationships among values, achievement orientations and attitudes in youth sport 6. How similar are sport values in different nations?: Exploring cross-cultural value systems 7. How do values relate to motivation?: Values and motivational processes in sport: An AGT and SDT perspective PART 2: Value transmission and value change 8. How does value structure underlie value conflict?; To win fairly or to win at all costs? A conceptual framework for value-change interventions in sport 9. How can we teach values through sport?: Teaching values through sport in divided societies 10. How does coach behaviour change the motivational climate?: The creation of a learning environment conducive to the transmission of prosocial values 11. How important are the values of significant others?: The influence of teachers and type of school on pupils’ values 12. How can sport practitioners balance conflicting values?: Ethics, values, and practice: A reflective dialogue on ethical dilemmas and coaching practice PART 3: Overview 13. What questions remain: Further thoughts and future directions

Jean Whitehead was an international long jumper and physical education teacher before coordinating the disciplines in human movement studies at Bedford College of Higher Education, UK, where she taught sport psychology. In research at the University of Brighton, UK, she focused on achievement goal perspectives, and measuring values.

Hamish Telfer was course leader at the University of Cumbria, UK, for the postgraduate degree in Sports Coaching. Now retired, he is still actively involved in research and publication in sports coaching, particularly practice ethics and reflective practice. He has been a Great Britain Team Coach for Cross Country.

John Lambert is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching and Physical Education at the University of Brighton, UK. He works in talent ID for a Premier League football club. His main research interest is teaching values through sport having worked on a major international sport for development project for over ten years.