dc.contributor.author	Aiken, Chris
dc.coverage.spatial	Georgia	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2025-06-11T20:25:18Z
dc.date.available	2025-06-11T20:25:18Z
dc.date.issued	2025-06-04
dc.identifier.other	aee3398e-be82-4eea-b658-84bf157f4c46	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10428/7446
dc.description.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.	en_US
dc.format.extent	1 electronic record. PDF/A document, 249 pages, 2792733 bytes.	en_US
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en_US
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.rights	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.	en_US
dc.subject	Dissertations, Academic--United States	en_US
dc.subject	Physical education and training	en_US
dc.subject	Athletic directors	en_US
dc.subject	High school athletes	en_US
dc.subject	High school athletes--Education	en_US
dc.subject	Georgia	en_US
dc.subject	Sports for women	en_US
dc.subject	Educational leadership	en_US
dc.subject	Mentoring in education	en_US
dc.subject	Work-life balance	en_US
dc.subject	Career development	en_US
dc.subject	Narrative inquiry (Research method)	en_US
dc.title	Exploring the Process of Becoming an Interscholastic Female Athletic Director: A Reflective Narrative Inquiry Approach	en_US
dc.type	Dissertation	en_US
dc.contributor.department	Department of Curriculum, Leadership, and Technology of the Dewar College of Education and Human Services	en_US
dc.description.advisor	Schmertzing, Richard
dc.description.committee	Sanderson, Sonya
dc.description.committee	Schmertzing, Lorraine
dc.description.degree	Ed.D.	en_US
dc.description.major	Curriculum, Leadership & Technology	en_US