Transitioning to inclusive sport:  Understanding barriers to transgender Canadians’ participation in recreational and high-performance sport

Project summary  How and where trans athletes participate in sport is highly contested and inconsistent due to the competing, and often contradictory, policies in force throughout the country in different sport disciplines at a different levels of competition. This study sought to seek out and amplify the voices of people impacted by trans eligibility policies…

Effects of a learning game through understanding strategy on tactical skills and performance in team sports

Project summary   Teaching and learning tactical skills in team sport is essential to improve performances (Grehaigne & Godbout, 2014). Player’s understanding of the game is a good indication of the learning of these skills (Memmert & Perl, 2005). Unfortunately, many coaches seem to use traditional approaches mainly focused on teaching technical skills and flow…

Parenting styles and practices: Promoting exemplary parenting in youth sport

Project summary  Our research question was: How do exemplary youth sport parents support their daughters in competitive team sport? To answer this question, we interviewed 8 coaches and asked them to discuss the best parents they had ever worked with. These coaches then nominated 10 parents of female youth sport athletes, who they considered to…

Development and Evaluation of the Coaching for Life Skills Training Program for High School Coaches

Project summary  The research project occurred in two sequential phases. In the phase one study, the purpose was to develop the Coaching for Life Skills training program and evaluate its pilot implementation. This first study was qualitative in nature and explored what coaches believed they experienced during their participation in the training program. Findings demonstrated…

Multicultural common spaces: A study of Canadian hockey arenas and social integration 

Project summary  The research objective was to assess whether the game of hockey, and its associated social spaces, contributes to the social integration of immigrants and racialized minorities in Canada? This research assesses whether the game of hockey provides for multicultural common spaces where interactive pluralism occurs and enables a sense of Canadian identity and…

Examining role identity and diversity within the governance of community sport 

Aim In this study we are critically examining the current models of community sport governance and inclusive practices. Specifically, we aim to challenge how we think about community sport board volunteers and the effectiveness of professionalized board structures.   Background As defined by the EU Expert Group on Good Governance (2013), sport governance is “the…

The new sport system landscape: Understanding the interrelationships between governance, brand, and social media in non-profit sport organizations

View the summary of this research here. Project summary  Today’s managers face unprecedented governance, economic/marketing, and technological realities affecting their processes and performance, aspects we understand poorly. Managers are under increased scrutiny from stakeholders regarding their credibility to govern themselves effectively, to demonstrate appropriate ethical leadership standards, and to maintain the trust of their members…

Developing leadership behaviours in athletes 

Project summary  This project developed, implemented, and evaluated the effect of a season-long athlete leadership development program. The participants included 66 female varsity athletes who participated in four leadership workshops throughout their competitive sport season, approximately one hour in duration. All of the participants completed inventories measuring leadership behaviours, cohesion, communication, and peer-motivational climate. Overall,…

Minorities in historical narratives: The case of Black Canadian women in sport

Project summary  This research explored sporting practices of Southern Ontario Black women between the 1920s and the 1940s. It is aimed at developing a socio-cultural history of sport that include narratives from marginalized groups. In Canada, the focus on Black masculine narratives conflates race and racism in sport with Black men, marginalizing other people of…

Exploring the life skills transfer process from sport to life

Project summary  In recent years, researchers and practitioners have paid increasing attention to understanding how the life skills (e.g., leadership, emotional regulation) learned in sport can transfer and be applied beyond sport. The overall purpose of this project was to develop a grounded theory to explain how athletes apply in life the skills they learned…