Developing a hooks-informed feminist coaching pedagogy

A feminist coaching pedagogy should be considered as a means of challenging patriarchal coaching practice beyond simply hiring female coaches given its potential to emancipate coaches and coaching from taken-for-granted norms that reinforce and reproduce domination, shame, and neoliberal productivity. Many believe that appointing more female leaders and coaches destabilises the patriarchal culture of coaching and alters the dominant masculine discourse within sport. Alternatively, feminist scholar bell hooks holds that anyone, regardless of gender identity, can reinforce patriarchal norms or pose feminist reimaginations. Using action research, the lead author sought to develop her coaching practice in feminist, hooks-informed ways. In doing so, she became more sensitised to tokenistic and mutual participatory approaches, the pedagogical role of excitement and joy, and deviations from “efficient” traditional coaching practices as central to a contextualised shift in coaching and sport culture.