Sharing Knowledge, Promoting Value: A Case Study of a Coaches' Community of Practice

Abstract

Youth sport coaches in the U.S. fulfill a vital role yet many are untrained or receive limited opportunities for coaching education. Due to the situated and social nature of sport coaching, coaches’ communities of practice (CCoP) have been offered as a complementary pathway for the continuing professional development of youth sport coaches. The purpose of this study was to design and cultivate a youth sport CCoP in order to identify (a) the types of coaches’ knowledge shared and (b) the value coaches found through their participation in the CCoP. Participants included five youth sport coaches from one organization in an urban area of the northwestern U.S. Data collection included community session transcripts, reflective journals, and semi-structured interviews. Frameworks from both the sport coaching and social learning literature were used to analyze the data. The coaches’ emphasized professional knowledge in the areas of pedagogy and sport principles and interpersonal knowledge related to local sport culture and interacting with parents. Coaches also found immediate and potential value through their participation. The results also suggest culture should be considered as an additional construct located within coaches’ interpersonal knowledge. This information assists researchers, youth sport coaches, and coach developers in making make more informed decisions about examining and implementing CCoP within systems of youth sport coach development.