Exploring the Process of Becoming an Interscholastic Female Athletic Director: A Reflective Narrative Inquiry Approach
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Authors
Aiken, Chris
Issue Date
2025-06-04
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Dissertations, Academic--United States , Physical education and training , Athletic directors , High school athletes , High school athletes--Education , Georgia , Sports for women , Educational leadership , Mentoring in education , Work-life balance , Career development , Narrative inquiry (Research method)
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Abstract
In my qualitative study, a modified reflective narrative inquiry approach was used to gather data about the experiences, interactions, and values that influenced female interscholastic athletic directors (ADs) along their professional pathways. Maxwell (2013) and Ravitch and Riggan (2017) guided my conceptual framework. Personal experiences, relevant literature, and theory contributed to my conceptual framework. By asking collaborators to reconstruct their professional journeys and reflect on the meaning of the experiences and interactions they had along the way, I was able to provide increased understanding of how six female interscholastic ADs navigated their professional pathway. The literature did not do enough to address the role, value, and trajectory of women as interscholastic ADs. My research adds reflective narratives of current female ADs to address the lack of depth and strengthen the literature that shows value in having women represented in the field. Clandinin and Connelly (2000) guided my narrative inquiry research design. Using Seidman’s (2013) three-interview series, I worked to gather stories from six women currently serving as athletic directors at the high school level in Georgia. I transcribed and coded using MAXQDA. I mined the data to discover patterns in it, which helped me construct four themes across collaborators that related to leadership opportunities early in their careers, mentorship and opportunity, reshaping leadership, and work life balance. Through connecting analysis, I was able to craft reflective narratives to share how the meaning they took away from various life experiences influenced later experiences along the pathway to becoming an AD.
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This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.