Challenges of implementing an Activist Approach with a young women’s football team: a transformative journey.

BackgroundPurposeContext and participantsData collection and analysisFindings and conclusionsThe Activist Approach is a pedagogical approach that includes a wide range of possibilities to understand girls’ needs during their physical activity practice. However, the teachers or coaches who implement this approach must be aware that in the process they will face multiple challenges, such as managing the uncertainty generated by the transfer of power to the participants or the critical reflection on their own beliefs and practices. To date, many studies have focused on negotiating with girls the barriers that limit their participation in Physical Education or other physical activity contexts. However, few studies have examined the challenges of implementing this approach in sporting contexts where gender issues are particularly relevant, such as in traditionally male-dominated sports.Drawing on a poststructuralist feminist lens, this study analyses the process of transformation and learning undergone by the first author (Lucía) in overcoming the challenges of her first experience with the Activist Approach in a football club, a competitive sporting context where gender issues play an important role.The study was carried out with a female football team and the participants were 31 girls aged 12–14, their three coaches, and Lucía and her three critical friends (co-authors).The study was conducted over two sport seasons and a total of 34 sessions were delivered (February 2021-June 2022), following the two phases of the approach: the building the foundation phase and the activist phase. The data collection included the recordings of the sessions conducted with the girls (34), the peer-debriefings (24), the artefacts created by the girls, Lucía’s field journal, the interviews with coaches (4) and the focus groups with the girls (2). A reflective thematic analysis of the data was carried out (Braun and Clarke 2021), providing this with credibility and reflexivity throughout the entire process.Lucía actively negotiated two main challenges in implementing her activist programme with the girls’ football team. The first was finding a balance between her position as a researcher and sharing power in the work sessions with the diversity of femininities. Lucía constructed a good relationship with all the girls but had difficulties getting them to perceive this environment as a learning context. The second challenge was finding a way to support all the girls’ voices and managing the male-dominated and oppressive elements of the competitive masculine culture at the football club, which constrained the development of the educational programme. Although frustration and uncertainty were feelings that the activist researcher experienced throughout her transformative journey, these were part of her learning and personal growth process. This journey allowed her to discover the potential of this approach and her own agency to advocate for social change, addressing the gender inequalities that are still pervasive in football clubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]