Date of Award
8-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Committee Member
Angela N Pratt, Committee Chair
Committee Member
Stephanie Pangborn
Committee Member
David T Scott
Abstract
The migration of male international soccer student-athletes to American collegiate institutions has seen an ascending trend of participation popularity. Using a phenomenological research design, I sought to gain an in-depth understanding of how male international soccer student-athletes experienced their recruitment processes with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions. Seventeen participants from various universities engaged with me in semi-structured in-depth interview conversations. Analysis of the information they shared, suggested five significant themes rooted in the communicative nature of the recruitment process: 1) Social Acceptance, 2) Sense of Belonging, 3) Acceptance vs Rejection, 4) The Incognizant Reality, and 5) Increase of Self-Awareness. These themes, which resonate with social identity theory, have the potential to offer beneficial information to institutions, coaches, recruiters and prospective international student athletes as well as to provide a qualitative framework from which future studies can be modeled.
Recommended Citation
Sutherland, Jonathan David, "Phenomenological Insights Into the Recruitment Process of International Soccer Student-Athletes" (2019). All Theses. 3176.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3176