An exploratory study into the socio-cultural environment of a professional football academy in relation to educational background

Redmond, Lee (2015). An exploratory study into the socio-cultural environment of a professional football academy in relation to educational background. University of Birmingham. M.Phil.

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Abstract

Football being a sport with a working class culture is a sport that that conflicts with the ideals of upper middle class culture that is presented in independent schools. This along with Bourdieu’s theories of habitus and Cultural Capital (1984) suggests a cultural conflict between football and independent schools which may act to discourage participation or produce discriminatory practice.
108 professional youth academy football players from 6 teams took part in the study aged from 11-18 and the teams ranged from u12’s to u18’s. These players answered one question about their schooling background while the academy director, senior scout and football development manager took part in semi structured interviews. The study took the form of an exploratory case study, employing a constructivist, interpretive stance to develop understanding and trends to drive future research.
The findings of the study shown examples of cultural stereotyping on the grounds of social class and educational background. With these stereotypes leading to institutionalised discriminatory provision in the sense where children from an independent school background were seen to not have the opportunities for talent identification schemes and scouting opportunities. While also finding that in this study there was an under representation of independent schools children.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Phil.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Phil.

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