Qualitative approaches in community sport programme evaluation

The field of community sports is increasingly drawing attention from researchers and practitioners who seek to better understand its broader social impact. However, applying qualitative research methods in this area is challenging due to constantly changing political agendas, funding constraints and the need for a strong evidence base to support community initiatives. This chapter provides valuable insights into using qualitative methods for realist evaluation. It covers everything from selecting participants to conducting interviews and developing robust theories to deepen understanding and enhance the potential for sustainability. An extended vignette is used to draw out the realities, challenges and professional dilemmas facing the embedded evaluator in a qualitative community sport setting. This provides a ‘worked example’ of doing this particular form of qualitative research, now commonly adopted in industry, policy and those looking towards a theory of change model in sport policy, psychology, management and coaching programme implementation research.