THE DUAL COMMITMENT OF STUDENT ATHLETES IN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN FINLAND

Abstract

Student athletes are expected to succeed simultaneously in school and sports. Research findings mainly come from upper secondary and university students, while research on younger adolescent student athletes has been largely overlooked. Drawing upon rich qualitative data derived from individual interviews with student athletes from grade eight (n = 15), teachers (n = 4), principals (n = 2), and nonparticipant observations (n = 7) at five schools, this study examines how young student athletes succeed in school and sports and in combining these two. The data was analysed using collaborative qualitative data analysis to find themes describing these student athletes. The main findings indicated that most student athletes had high ambitions and showed strong orientations in their school approaches. For some student athletes, the student and athlete roles conflicted, and they prioritized sports over educational success. A similar variation in student athletes’ sport commitments was found: from having a goal to become a professional athlete to pursuing sport as a leisure activity. Student athletes in this study were in the beginning of a developmental dual career process, and they needed to be recognized as a heterogeneous group with individual pathways. Finally, the sport school provided more opportunities for practice and a flexibility in school-related issues. The findings indicated the demanding nature of the dual commitment of student athletes in lower secondary sport schools. Consequently, it is difficult to form a consistent picture that fit every context because the student athlete role is individual and to some extent conflicting.