In 1971, female professional physical educators in higher education formed the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) to govern women's college athletics. The AIAW presidents gathered at the University of Iowa in July 1980 for a five-day conference: "AIAW . . . A Decade of Progress: Presidential Review" to create a "living history" of their Association. This qualitative research project uses a critical feminist cultural studies approach to analyze the Presidential Review, a primary source that has never been studied in its entirety. At the Review, the presidents offered insights on their pathways to sport leadership, explained how they understood and lived out the AIAW's philosophy and key principles, and described how they faced constant crisis management during their presidencies. Their journeys to leadership in women's athletics featured both blatant discrimination and transformative opportunities that furthered their understanding of sexism in the patriarchal sport domain and kindled their desire to provide meaningful movement opportunities for girls and women. The presidents carried out this goal through a philosophy they collectively affirmed at the Review: the purpose of athletics is to enrich the lives of participants. Through a democratic and inclusive annual Delegate Assembly, the presidents debated extensively to establish principles such as due process and student representation in their governance structure to ensure the Association's central focus on student welfare. As they developed their alternative model of athletics, the AIAW presidents faced constant crises during their Association's brief existence (1971-82). They confronted lack of awareness and misconceptions about their philosophy, and their most formidable crisis was the threat of the NCAA starting women's programs--a "unilateral takeover" that resulted in the demise of the AIAW. The presidents portrayed the AIAW history as a "saga of power, money, and sex" that involved an intense struggle with the NCAA in which they encountered much resistance to their entry into intercollegiate athletics. Through their involvement in the Review, the presidents contributed dynamic insiders' perspectives on significant circumstances and events that occurred during their leadership years. These serve as an important contribution to the sparse written history of the AIAW.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the extent to which a relationship existed between the set of predictor variables including age, sex of the athletic director, years of experience as athletic director at the institution and the highest terminal degree held and the male and female head coaches' perceptions of the role of athletic director. The role of athletic director was defined in terms of the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as determined by the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire - Form XII (LBDQ).Hypotheses were developed to determine if relationships existed between: (1) the set of predictor variables and the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as perceived by female head coaches; and (2) the set of predictor variables and the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as perceived by male head coaches. Hypotheses were also developed to determine the significance of increase which the addition of the sex designation of the athletic director has on the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as perceived by male and female head coaches,The population of the study consisted of athletic directors and 101 male and female head coaches from 34 women athletic departments from selected midwestern states. The universities selected were from those listed in the 1979-80 AIAW National Directory as having an enrollment of 1000 or more students.Athletic director data were obtained through the use of the Athletic Director Information Sheet (ADIS) which provided a list of male and female head coaches and demographic data. Head coaches completed the LBDQ. Scores for the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as determined by the male and female head coaches' responses to the LBDQ and demographic data as determined by ADIS responses were analyzed by multiple regression analysis to determine whether or not relationships significant at the .05 level existed between the set of predictor variables of the athletic director and the Initiating Structure and Consideration scores from the male and female head coaches.Findings1. The set of predictor variables including age, years of experience as athletic director at the institution, terminal degree held, and sex designation of the athletic director were found to be significantly related to the scores of female head coaches on the Initiating Structure dimension.2. There was no significant relationship between the set of predictor scores and the scores of the female head coaches on the Consideration dimension.3. No significant relationship existed between the set of predictor variables and the scores from the male head coaches on either the Initiating Structure or the Consideration dimension.4. The addition of the sex designation of the athletic direction provided no significant increase in the proportion of explained variance in predicting either male or female head coaches' perceptions on the Initiating Structure and Consideration dimensions from the set of predictor variables.Conclusions1. Female head coaches perceived athletic directors as exhibiting more of the characteristics of Initiating Structure which are associated with the formal or structural aspects of the organization.2. The age, sex, number of years as athletic director at the institution and the degree held did not produce a significant relationship when associated with the Initiating Structure and Consideration dimensions as perceived by the male head coaches.3. The sex of the athletic director did not significantly affect the relationship that existed between the athletic director and the male and female head coaches. 4. The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire - Form XII provides one method of examining head coaches' perceptions of leader behavior of athletic directors on the dimensions of initiating Structure and Consideration.

Research has indicated that positive and negative attitudes toward intercollegiate athletics can contribute to the perceptions of both congruency and incongruency with the established university mission and values. Core values are considered to represent philosophical viewpoints and organizational priorities, further providing a sense of purpose to stakeholders. As such, established core values are expected to be applied and enacted in daily interactions in order to fulfill the mission and vision of an organization. Over time, however, the increase in negative attitudes attributed to athletic department behavior brings into question their perceived alignment with the university core values and brand. The potential existence of incompatibility and misalignment among internal constituents concerning core values has been linked to the starting point for conflicts within the organizational setting. Thus, attitudes toward athletic department behavioral congruency or incongruency with stated university core values is worthy of investigation in order to determine the consequential impact on the university brand. The purpose of this study was to investigate stakeholder attitudes toward athletic department behavioral congruency with the stated core values of Texas A&M University and assess the subsequent implications for the university brand. Personal interviews (N=13) were conducted with individuals from each of six university internal and external stakeholder groups: current students, alumni, faculty/staff members, community members, athletic department personnel, and athletic department boosters. Findings revealed four primary themes: 1) 'Excellence' Equals Winning, 2) For Public Relations Purposes Only, 3) Separation and Isolation of the Athletic Department, and 4) Lack of Leadership from the Top-Down. Implications communicated the necessity of a consistent and accurate representation of the Texas A&M brand at all university levels. Further, the implementation of a unique, potentially more effective model for core value congruency and brand management was presented. Finally, the necessity of promotion and implementation of the core values from university and athletic department leadership was recommended for core value effectiveness and brand consistency.

Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 29, 2010). "Major Subject: Kinesiology." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-79).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Aubrey Kent, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Sport Management, Recreation Management, and Physical Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Mar. 01, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

The last decade has seen an increase in empirical research pertaining to coaching science and education. A great deal of research has focused on coaches of elite able-bodied athletes, while coaches of athletes with a disability have generally been overlooked. In a recent analysis of disability sport, only 5% of empirical publications pertained to coaching. Thus, the current study addressed the gap in the literature by examining the knowledge of disability sport coaches. Six elite level Canadian coaches of swimmers with a physical disability were interviewed using an unstructured, open-ended interview format. Four categories emerged from the analysis: coach background and characteristics, training, competition, and contextual factors. Results revealed who the coaches were, what they did, and similarities with elite able-bodied coaches, as well as differences that were specific to coaching swimmers with a physical disability. Specifically, it was essential for coaches to become knowledgeable of their athletes' disabilities, deal with issues of equality between able-bodied and swimmers with a physical disability, and accommodate a large array of individual needs. These findings augment knowledge in coaching psychology by including elite level coaches of athletes with physical disabilities.

No description available.

Sports have recently been incorporated into international development agendas in a bid to 'empower' women and foster gender equality. Considered a masculine domain, sports are argued to empower women by challenging the status quo and their 'traditional' positions in societies. This thesis examines the use of sport in an athletic training camp for female distance runners located in Arusha, Northern Tanzania. Like other similar camps throughout East Africa, this training camp provides financial support for athletes, recruited from isolated rural areas, to live and train full time in the city. The camp was founded and is run by a Tanzanian couple, known as Gwandu and Mama Gwandu, but it has recently begun receiving financial support from an American development organisation. The director of this organisation, Karl, aims to empower the young women training in the camp by enabling them to use their sporting talent to further their education. This directly contradicts Gwandu and Mama Gwandu's goals, however, and they strive to enable the girls to improve their lives by earning money from running. The girls themselves perceive running as a unique opportunity to migrate to Arusha and distance themselves from their natal villages. The idea of earning money from running is secondary, for the girls, to the aspiration of settling permanently in the city. Although running provides a common link between the goals of the development organisation, those of Gwandu and Mama Gwandu, and those of the female athletes themselves, the overlap between these goals is only partial. Pragmatic constraints in each case mean the goals remain always unattainable and partially unachieved, and are continually readjusted to fit changing constraints and perceptions of what is possible. In discussing the different aspirations held by those involved in the training camp, this thesis highlights the multiple ways in which notions of 'modernity' can be understood and enacted. Modernity is a central theme in contemporary African anthropological literature, as is the notion of 'multiple modernities', often used to refer to the culturally diverse interpretations of the meaning of modernity and subsequent efforts to 'become modern'. Using key authors including Ferguson (1999), Snyder (2002; 2005) and Schneider (1970), this thesis argues that, drawing on different influences to enact different cultural styles, the girls, Gwandu and Mama Gwandu imagine and perform 'modernity' in different ways. Gwandu and Mama Gwandu are shown to draw on notions of maendeleo to construct a localist cultural style, which they attempt to enforce on the athletes in the camp. By contrast, the girls are argued to draw inspiration from what they perceive as the 'city' lifestyle maintained by Malkia – one of Tanzania's most successful female athletes – to construct a cosmopolitan cultural style they gradually gain performative competence in throughout their time in the camp. While both visions emphasise the importance of urbanisation, Gwandu and Mama Gwandu's localism condemns particular practices they conceive of as characteristic of "city life", including the value placed on commodities and modes of consumption that is central to the girls' cosmopolitanism. The clash between Gwandu and Mama Gwandu's goals and those of the girls is most pronounced at the beginning of their time in the camp. The girls’ compliance with camp rules increases with their time spent in the camp, as their vision increasingly overlaps with that of Gwandu and Mama Gwandu. I argue that the clash between their goals is once again pronounced after the girls have left the camp, and attempt to perform the cosmopolitan cultural style in which they have increasingly gained competence during their time in the camp. This discussion raises questions about the ways in which women can be 'empowered' through sports such as running. I argue that it is not running itself that empowers women like Malkia but, rather, the opportunity running affords them to acquire the material resources required, to perform the cosmopolitan style towards which they aspire.

The intent of this thesis was to study the anxiety levels of college softball coaches. Previous research suggests that high levels of anxiety interfere with optimal performance and consequently decrease chances of success. This study compared college softball coaches' sex and career winning percentage to their anxiety level. The hypotheses which were tested are:a)Coaches with career records in the upper quarter of all returned questionnaires will score lower in competitive trait anxiety than coaches with less successful records.b)Female coaches will score higher in competitive trait anxiety than male coaches.The instrument used to measure competitive trait anxiety was Martens (1977) Sports Competition Anxiety Test, which was disguised as the Illinois Competition Questionnaire. Through self-report, the sex and career records were obtained.Of the 224 questionnaires mailed, 146 (65%) were returned. Using plannedcomparisons and analysis of variance, no significant differences were found and both hypotheses rejected. Although not a main hypothesis, further investigation indicated that female coaches score significantly lower than the norm of females in the general population (a = 8.81, p < .0001). It was suggested that through the process of self selection, females with low sport competition anxiety choose the occupation of coaching rather than some alternate career.Recommendations for further study are to replicate this study using a different criterion to measure coaches' success rate; to use Division I coaches only; to sample various sports; to track anxiety using a longitudinal method.