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Faculty of Education and Language Studies > People Profiles > David Scott

David Scott

Research Student

The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology



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I am a 2nd year PhD student in the Department of Sport and Fitness, which is in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies. My thesis title is "The Significance of Sports Leadership Training on Personal and Professional Identities", which is being supervised by Mr. Ben Oakley, Prof. Kath Woodward, and Dr. Christine Wise.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the oft-cited claim of sport-for-development programmes that they are able to change lives through sport. Claims such as these are often based on anecdotal evidence at best, rather than critical research which is able to ascertain the benefits, detriments, and experiences sport-for-development courses can provide individuals. In order to better understand the role sport can play in forming identities, this research will provide a qualitative account of sports leadership training by adopting an ethnographic approach, which consists of observing the taught aspects of the training and a cyclic interview process with individuals over an extended period of time (6-12 months). It is expected that the research will have implications on sport-for-development courses by providing a critical view of how individuals experience this training. This will inform training providers regarding best practice, points of connection and disconnection between participants and the learning experience, and the impact sport can have upon personal and professional identities.

Research Interests

My main research interests regard the use of existential-phenomenological psychology in the use of sport. I believe that this perspective enables us to better the understand the real impact that sport has on peoples lives, allowing us to look beyond the hyperbole and results dominated discourses typically presented, and into the impact sport has on identity.

These interests can be grouped as Sport Psychology, Sport Sociology, Identity, Existential-Phenomenology, and Sport-for-Development.