This study examined coaches' beliefs about inclusion and disability training in sports clubs in three European countries. A questionnaire was completed by 102 coaches in Slovenia, Germany, and Spain regarding their beliefs, experience with athletes with disabilities, and disability-related professional development. The results showed that while most coaches had experience with athletes with disabilities, few had received disability-related training. Coaches in Slovenia and Germany generally held positive beliefs about inclusion, while Spanish coaches' beliefs were less positive and statistically significantly different. Previous disability training was linked to more positive inclusion beliefs in Slovenia and Germany but not Spain. The findings suggest country-specific factors influence coaches' inclusion perspectives and that disability-focused coach education could promote more inclusive sports environments.

1. BELIEFS OF SPORT COACHES ABOUT INCLUSION AND THE
IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING: A STUDY IN THREE EU COUNTRIES
Manja Veldin1, Igor Peras1, Saskia Kanfer², Anne Schomöller³, Fran Batista⁴, María Davinia González Pineda⁵
1Educational Research Institute (Slovenia), ²European Paralympic Committee (Austria), ³International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (Germany);
⁴Informa Psicología y Deporte and ⁵Asociación Mi Hijo y Yo (Spain)
Introduction
Key references
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Results
Method
Contact: manja.veldin@pei.si
Network: 18. Research in Sports Pedagogy; Session ID: 18 SES 00 PS
Conclusions
Coaches from Slovenia (N = 19; 68.4% of
females), Spain (N = 66; 16.7% of females),
Germany (N = 17; 64.7% of females).
Questionnaire:
background information: years of
working experience, experience in
working with athletes with disabilities,
previous professional development
activities in the area of inclusive sports…
state of inclusion and existence of
educational courses;
coach’s beliefs regarding inclusion in
sport
September 2020, an online questionnaire
The idea of inclusive sport is not new, but
challenging to implement, with structural and
operational barriers (Wright et al., 2019).
However, the potential for inclusive sport and its
successful implementation might rely on the
personal beliefs of individuals directly involved
(Hodge et al., 2009).
Beliefs provide an important starting point for
inclusion, as holding specific beliefs towards
inclusion can have an important impact on
inclusive sport in practice (e.g. Townsend et al.,
2015). As the coach is the person most directly
working with athletes, we focused on coaches’
beliefs about inclusion in the present study.
One of the aims of our project (DITEAM12) is to
prepare an educational training on inclusion for
coaches, therefore, we were interested in assessing:
Moreover, we were interested in significant
differences between the three European countries
(Slovenia, Germany, Spain), as to adapt the content
of the educational training to each country’s
context.
coaches’ beliefs on including athletes with
disabilities in sport
previous experience with professional
development activities on inclusion and disability
previous experience coaching athletes with
disabilities
Our results show the need to build on
country context-based research (e.g. beliefs
about inclusion and previous educational
experience with inclusion and disability) in
order to create more inclusive sports clubs
in the EU and wider.
Nonetheless, controlling for social
desirability when assessing beliefs and the
use of a representative and a larger sample
is advised for future studies.
Coaches beliefs
Slovenia Germany Spain
M SD M SD M SD
I have the skills to care for athletes with
disabilities.
3.00 1.33 3.93 1.10 3.18 1.15
I consider myself a capable coach already or
in the near future to train athletes with
disabilities.
3.21 1.03 3.73 1.16 3.38 1.08
I would like my athletes to participate in
competitions with children with disabilities.
3.58 1.26 3.73 0.80 3.52 1.19
I'm convinced that having the skills to train
athletes with disabilities will make me a
better coach.
4.00 0.88 3.60 1.45 3.67 1.35
I think that the inclusion of children with
intellectual disabilities in training and
competitions in my Club should be
mandatory.
3.89 0.99 4.00 0.85 3.50 1.26
Within the objectives and actions of the club,
I set a high priority to the action of
welcoming sportsmen and women with
disabilities.
3.95 0.97 4.53 0.64 3.00 1.20
I think my Club is ready to welcome athletes
with intellectual disabilities in training.
4.37 0.96 4.13 0.83 3.20 1.32
I consider my club to be inclusive of people
with disabilities.
4.42 0.96 4.13 0.83 3.29 1.33
Our sample consisted of both inclusive (100% in Slovenia and Germany, 38% in
Spain) and non-inclusive clubs (62% in Spain). This is not representative of the
current state in participating countries, as participating clubs were interested in
the project because they mostly already support inclusion.
Although the majority of coaches in all three countries (68% and more) have
experience coaching athletes with disabilities, almost none (12% in Spain, 16%
in Slovenia) are educated for it, except coaches from Germany, where 53%
participated in such a course. Interestingly, German coaches (100%) state that
athletes with and without disabilities should not participate in the same
competition, while other coaches (68% in Slovenia, 82% in Spain) advocate for
inclusive participation.
Coaches beliefs regarding inclusion in sport are very positive in Slovenia (M =
4.13, SD = 0.79) and Germany (M = 4.09, SD = 0.68), while coaches in Spain
statistically significantly differed from both (M = 3.33, SD = 1.03). However, in
our sample, only coaches from Spain were also from non-inclusive clubs.
Furthermore, when assessing the importance of participation in an educational
course inside each country, a trend emerged in Slovenia and Germany,
showing coaches with previous education on inclusion having more positive
beliefs about inclusion in sports, which was not the case in Spain.
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of items about coaches beliefs across countries