Semester
Summer
Date of Graduation
2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences
Department
Sport and Exercise Psychology
Committee Chair
Dana K. Voelker
Committee Co-Chair
Jack C. Watson II
Committee Member
Jack C. Watson II
Committee Member
Cheyenne Luzynski
Committee Member
Lindsey Blom
Committee Member
Kristen Dieffenbach
Abstract
Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) programs are a popular approach to promoting positive development throughout the world, spanning health, education, peace, and social issues. However, scholars have identified critical shortcomings of SDP work, including the potential to reinforce neoliberalist tendencies and values imposition from the Global North to the Global South. Deporte y Cambio Social was a short-term SDP program established through partnership between American and Mexican constituent groups with aims to empower girls and women through soccer. Through six semi-structured, two-year retrospective interviews, the purpose of the present study was to explore cross-cultural understandings of power and intercultural power relations from the voices of Mexicans and Americans involved in the program to offer reflective critique of, and generate participant-informed strategies for improving, the design and implementation SDP programs broadly. Using thematic analysis from a critical constructivist orientation, the meanings generated from the data showed that Mexican and American participants similarly defined power and acknowledged power imbalances informed by a limiting project framework and a sociocultural-informed deference to Americans as experts. Strong, positive intercultural experiences between Mexican and American constituent groups were reported amid often unseen social biases that can be experienced abroad and perpetuated in SDP programs. Critical reflexivity, prolonged cultural preparation, longer-term engagement, and careful construction of SDP leadership teams and program participants were among the strategies informed by the data that were further interpreted to account for the complex realities of SDP programs.
Recommended Citation
Hansell, Adam, "Short-Term International Sport for Development and Peace Programs: A Retrospective Analysis and Critique Informed by Stakeholders’ Perspectives in a Two-Year Follow-Up" (2022). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 11369.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/11369