‘More than meets the audiences’ eyes’: individual and collective impression management in the everyday doing of coach education work

Abstract

To date, research into formal coach education has tended to prioritise the perceptions and experiences of learners. Consequently, there is a paucity of research that addresses the everyday realities of interactively doing coach education work from the perspective(s) of coach educators. In building upon the initial insights provided by Allanson, Potrac, and Nelson (2019), this thesis breaks new ground by providing original, ethnographically grounded knowledge concerning the individual and collective social interactions that constitute coach educators’ practice(s). Data were rigorously generated with eight coach educators via a methodological bricolage that consisted of cyclical semi-structured interviews and participant observations. In total, 151 hours of observational data and 55 hours of interview data were generated. A phronetic-iterative approach to data analysis was adopted. This required subjecting phases of data generation, interpretive sense-making, and the representation of findings to ongoing cycles of emic and etic interpretation. The analysis process was primarily informed by Goffman’s (1959) and Hochschild’s (1983) dramaturgical theorising. Their insights were further bolstered using Crossley’s (2011) relational sociology. The analysis showed that the participants used various individual and collective impression management strategies in their everyday work. On one level they reflected their understanding(s) of the audience’s (i.e., coach learners’) expectations and the various contextual constraints that they encountered. However, these social performances also recognised a number of other factors and features. These included, informal and formal hierarchies between coach educators, unfamiliar collegial relationships, performance evaluation mechanisms, casualised contracts, and the desire of individual participants to obtain, protect and advance a particular reputation as a coach educator. Overall, the significance of the thesis lies in the ways in which it has illuminated the different challenges, ambiguities, tensions, and relational complexities that characterise coach educators’ attempts to practically work with and influence others