Abstract In 2002 the United Nations (UN) convened an Inter Agency Task Force on sport for development and peace with the aim of reviewing activities concerning sport in the UN system and designing strategies to promote more systematic and coherent use of sport in facilitating development and peace activi ties, especially at the community level. The UN also empha sised the potential role of sport in achieving the Mil lennium Development Goals (MDGs). Recommendations at several international events, e.g. MINEPS III (Berlin, Germany in 1999) and the International Conference on Sport and Development (Magglingen, Switzerland in 2003), with a follow up conference in Magglingen, Switze rland, 2005; have consistent ly implicated physical education a s the right vehicle through which sport can be effectively uti lized as a tool to promote development and peace, particularly at the community level such as in plus sport act ivities. However, recent trends suggest that a gap exists between the expectations of the UN in terms of sustainable human development and how graduates of physical education and sports studies in universities are prepared to meet these new challenges. This hypothesis was tested in 11 Nigerian universities specifically to analyse the lecturers’ views concerning the need and feasibility to teach contemporary physical education courses within the context of human development. The findings were analysed qualitat ively and conclusions drawn based on its implications for achieving the MDGs in African countries.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

Article 12 of The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child grants each young person the right to express their view, have their opinion considered and have their say in decisions that affect them. Previous research on talent development in sport has however failed to recognise the voice of the young person or regard the participant as an autonomous agent. This study employed phenomenological enquiry to focus on the conditions of lived reality to afford the young person the opportunity to convey their unique experience. The aim of the research was to employ a participatory approach to explore the essence of young people's conscious experience of Talent Development Programmes in sport. My co-collaborators were eight young people aged between 13 and 17, (two females: netball and gymnastics, and six males: rugby 3, discus, angling, and badminton), who all attended the same school and were all members of a Sports National Governing Body Talent Development Programme. Over twelve months each participant utilised their individual preference to communicate depictions of self, drawing upon interview, conversation, Twitter, video, photo and observation of training and performance. Results were presented in the form of individual vignettes generated from researcher and participant interaction and constructed according to hermeneutical interpretation. Young people’s stories reveal the essence of talent development through the experience of uncertainty and endeavour; talent development experience teaches young people to self-present in response to perceived injustice; and individual progress is characterised by self-regulation and the pursuit of personal empowerment. The research demonstrates that when young people are involved in active decision making about their learning and their lives they feel better respected and understood. Academics and practitioners must now accept a responsibility to engage with the unique lived experience of the young person’s reality to find better ways to listen to the young person’s voice to support their talent development experience in sport.

The purpose of this research was to explore how experienced Special Olympics (SO) coaches attempt to integrate the development of life skills into their coaching practice and how the coaches learned these strategies. Merriam’s (2009) basic interpretive qualitative approach was used to guide this research. Six experienced coaches from Ontario participated in this study. Data were collected through two sets of semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations, and document analysis. Data were analyzed both deductively and inductively using thematic analysis. Camiré, Trudel, and Forneris’s (2012) study on how high school coaches help athletes to develop life skills was used as a framework for life skill development strategies. The analysis uncovered that coaches use the following strategies: (a) having a coaching philosophy aimed at helping athletes to develop, (b) understanding athletes’ pre-existing makeup, (c) providing athletes with opportunities to show their skills, (d) modeling, (e) taking teachable moments, (f) using keywords, and (g) and volunteerism. Two inductive strategies were also found: (a) building strong coach-athlete relationships and (b) being stern and direct with athletes. Trudel, Culver, and Werthner’s 2013 chapter on coach learning was used to frame the learning pathways section of this study. Results from this portion of the study indicate that coaches learned through a variety of different means, including their experiences and through mediated and unmediated learning situations. As one of the first studies to explore the coach’s role in assisting Special Olympics athletes to develop life skills, we feel that this study makes a valuable contribution to the literature on coaching science, sport for people with disabilities, and athlete development. This study also highlights new areas for research that could further expand our knowledge of this topic.

This diploma thesis discusses the topic of "green olympics" and its aim is to analyze and compare the last five summer olympic games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016) within the sustainability discursus. The bidding process is being compared with its implementation, which is done for each particular olympics, and so are the national strategies of sustainable development of that particular location. ​The main objective is to find out if the local sustainability strategies are aligned both with the candidature and with the actual realization of the olympic games, and whether every following olympic games tend towards greater sustainability in comparison with the previous ones. The study is carried out through quantitative content analysis, the studied materials being the Official Reports of the olympic games and the strategic documents on sustainability of corresponding countries. The results show a significant mismatch between the set goals and the actual output (especially in case of Athens; while Sydney and London did considerably better in fulfilling their plans). Neither the plans nor the realizations of sustainability within the olympics were satisfyingly in accordance to the national sustainability strategies, as many topics considered crucial in the...