Re-Examining Coach Education for Para Sport in Canada
Original report written by: Konoval, T., Culver, D., Hassan, I., Charest, M-P & Davey, J. (2022)
Summary
This report presents results from a study to: understand the gaps, barriers, and facilitators for Para sport coach education. An analysis of the NCCP Coaching Athletes with a Disability eLearning module was also conducted.
Interviews with National Sport Organization (NSO) coach education leads and focus groups with coaches (with and without disability) revealed enablers and specific barriers to support coaching in Para sport. They relate to:
- Organizational readiness to integrate people with a disability: This barrier relates to a lack of organizational capacity, a lack of representation of Para sport and disabled coaches, and to environments that are not set up to meet the needs of these coaches. Readiness to be willing and able to effect positive inclusion changes appears limited in organizations. Regular advocacy seems required from those who are ready. Until organizations are more prepared, people continue to advocate and focus on recruitment, collaboration, advocacy, and intentionality as enablers to change.
- Para sport coach development pathways: This barrier relates to perceived inconsistent coaches’ pathways across sports, and a lack of Para sport specific training opportunities.
- Para coach education integration into the overall coach development program: This barrier relates to a lack of knowledge/understanding regarding best practices for integrating Para coach education in coach development curricula
An analysis of NCCP Coaching Athletes with a Disability eLearning Module showed that it covers a broad scope of inclusion and participatory topics over high-performance. However, a revision of the module is recommended to provide more tactical coaching practices and to centralize the voices of people with disabilities.
To request the full report, please send an email to research@coach.ca.