Autoethnography of a Volleyball Coach: Fostering Shared Peer Leadership

This autoethnography considers a youth volleyball coach’s understanding of and experiences with peer athlete leadership in the context of team sport and the existing hegemonic notion of team captain. Using a critical pedagogical lens, this study aims to explore leadership development in athletes from a coach’s perspective in competitive youth volleyball in Alberta, Canada. In the autoethnographic process, personal narrative and reflexive ethnography were used to create a bricolage of fictionalized vignettes subjected to thematic analysis. Four major themes emerged from multiple hermeneutic readings of the vignettes—Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony; Empowerment; Teamwork; and Identity—which were considered in relation to shared peer leadership and its potential benefits in team sport. Through the consideration of power relations, alternative leadership processes, and critically conscious leadership development, this autoethnography presents evidence for shared leadership as a mutually beneficial structure for athletes, coaches, and teams.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education Graduate Program – Educational Research

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Keats, Tracy Diana

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Steinberg, Shirley

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Markides, Jennifer
• Scott, Shelleyann
• Kawalilak, Colleen
• Sensoy, Özlem

• Shared Leadership
• Leadership Development
• Athletics
• Sports
• Sports Teams
• Autoethnography
• Phenomenology
• Team Captain
• Peer Leadership

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/48842

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/121252