| The purpose of this study was to investigate interpretations of Hellison's responsibility model at a coed sports camp for disadvantaged youth. Fourteen youngsters, aged 10 to 13, and six instructors participated. Ethnographic methods were participant observation, interviews, and investigator journaling. Some themes that emerged were respect, caring, justice, responsibility, and competition. Boys' perceptions of respect were characterized by addressing others as "sir" and "ma'am." The girls reported incidents exemplifying support, and noticed when others did or did not laugh, hogged the ball, or otherwise demonstrated respect or disrespect. They communicated occurrences they thought to be fair or unfair. The boys who participated gave little heed to things of an interpersonal nature. They acted in accordance with what they believed to be right according to rules and authority. The more talented boys perceived responsibility as obligation to help their team win. Competition was pervasive, and was often characterized by taunting. The boys believed taunting was a strategic ploy that was within the rules, despite the fact that one of the instructors prohibited it. Taunting was not perceived to be unfair or disrespectful to the opponent. Hellison (1995) asserted that "... the more ingrained such activities as trash talk become in popular sport, the more difficult it will be to use sport as a vehicle for teaching responsibility" (p. 53). The youngsters in this study demonstrated responsibility by following the rules, helping, supporting each other, and disdaining misbehavior. Staff in the camp, however, did not provide opportunities for responsibility to be nurtured. There was no evidence that any youngster perceived him- or herself to be empowered to be responsible by participation in the camp. Teaching responsibility requires negotiation as a means of empowerment (Hellison, 1995), but the staff communicated a low expectation for responsibility. The goal of winning must be subordinated to other goals such as respect in order to have success in teaching responsibility. Teachers and coaches should model the same attributes that they demand of youngsters, and should be willing to relinquish some control in order to empower their charges to be responsible. |
