The purpose of this article is to present practitioners and applied researchers with specific details of an ecological-inspired program and intervention in a professional football (soccer) club in Denmark.
Dual career development environments (DCDEs) exist to support student-athletes in their endeavours to combine sport with education or work. Such environments are likely to vary in their structure, processes, philosophy, and degree of efficiency. With the overall aim of applying the holistic ecological approach (Henriksen, Stambulova & Roessler, 2010) to the study of DCDEs, the objectives of the present study are:
(a) to provide a holistic description of a Danish athlete-friendly university as a DCDE, and
(b) to investigate the factors
influencing the environment’s effectiveness.
Conclusion: Researcher-practitioners in the DC context are encouraged to focus not only on the challenges and coping strategies of the individual student-athletes but to understand and (if necessary) optimize the entire environment around them.
A holistic ecological approach to sport and study Read More »
Key Findings:
With sports organizations being the dominant environment within a student-athletes life they need to prioritize the coordination of upper secondary studies and competitive sports.
Without a shared culture between academic institutions and athletic organizations, student-athletes prioritize the development of their athletic identity at the expense of their academic identity.
Exploring the Life Form of a Student Athlete Read More »