The Influence of the Coach on Moral Character in Collegiate Student-Athletes.

摘要

One of the purposes of intercollegiate athletics has been to develop the moral character of athletes through participation, but sport researchers consistently found that moral reasoning declined, rather than improved the longer athletes competed. Researchers also discovered that in a team setting, the head coach was a significant influence on moral development in athletes. However, few studies were conducted where student-athletes described their personal feelings about the moral influence of a head coach. The Jack of student-athletes perspectives is an issue because it limits the understanding of the various ways a coach impacts the moral development of team members. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative, single-case study was to explore student-athlete perceptions of their coach as a moral influence in order to understand the coach's role in the athlete's moral development. Participants were members of the Grand Canyon University's (GCU) men's basketball team (N = 14) and the study's duration was one basketball season (2012-2013). Data were collected from semi-structured interviews that included student-athlete stories of the most significant change (MSC) they had made in moral character and descriptions of why and how the coach influenced their MSC story. Common themes of coach influence were developed and naturalistic field observations added information about how the coach attempted to teach moral character. The study represented a unique case study because of the combination of three factors: (a) the coaching staff utilized character coaching as part of their strategy and coaching techniques, (b) character coaching was initiated and implemented by the head coach, not the institution, and (c) as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II (NCAA DII), the student-athletes were dedicated to competing for a national championship each year. The findings indicated that student-athletes believed the head coach influenced their moral character by using honest and constructive communication, modeling good character, and building a relationship of trust and care. Two recommendations for future research are a follow-up study of former GCU players and the impact of the coach's teaching after graduation and further study of the application Aristotelian emulation to sport coaching.