Intersectionality and positionality in youth sport coaching: implications for research

Tarkington J. Newman, Fernando Santos and Marta Ferreira

Chapter 19 in Handbook of Sport Coaching Research, 2026, pp 216-229 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Youth sport coaching is a complex and dynamic process that is influenced by sociopolitical and geo-cultural factors, including economic conditions, ideological values, and social norms. Yet, youth sport scholarship has, in some instances, become indifferent to the inequitable and unjust privilege-power-oppression dynamics that plague (youth) sports. The current chapter advocates for the value of understanding one's intersectionality as a youth sport coach and, in turn, aims to empower coaches to leverage their unique positionality as a critical change agent. With this mission in mind, the chapter uses the Coaching on the Wave (CotW; Newman et al., 2024a) model to instigate critical reflection and ongoing reflexivity in support of developing a critical, discursive consciousness. By reimagining youth sport, coaches can transition from normative coaching practices and embody a socially responsible, critical coaching praxis—and are better prepared to construct transformative learning experiences through their deliberate coaching programming, pedagogy, and practices.

Keywords: Coach education; Critical theory; Activism; Life skills; Positive youth development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035341634
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