‘Belonging' within White male-dominated sports business management programmes

ABSTRACT

Patriarchal Whiteness dominates the sports sector and sports business university classrooms. This echo effect maintains a cyclical pattern of oppression whereby only certain voices are heard and certain bodies are seen. Belongingness has the power to address injustices and facilitate the feeling of connection that can transcend social identity markers. This paper explores the experiences of students studying a White male-dominated degree in the United Kingdom (UK). In total, 10 sports business management students (undergraduate and postgraduate) were interviewed in relation to gender, race/ethnicity and belonging within their course. Findings demonstrated that belonging was more straightforward for male students who made connections with ease. Sense of belonging, however, was not entirely connected with Whiteness or gender but rather a shared sense of meaning and passion for sport. The subject of sport has the power to unify and facilitate belonging. This study has important ramifications for universities in relation to subject identity, student retention, course design and critical pedagogy.

KEYWORDS:

• Belonging
• higher education
• sports business
• male-dominated
• race/ethnicity

Introduction

White male-dominated Higher Education (HE) sport/s business programmes provide a particularly rich space to explore a sense of belonging. Men dominate across all areas of sport including management, education, coaching and administration (Sauder et al., 2018), which has consequences for unethical behaviours and harassment faced by women (Taylor & Hardin, 2017). The patriarchal, cultural legacy and industry-based inequalities in relation to the overrepresentation of White men in sports governance (New, 2016; Piggott & Pike, 2020; Vianden & Gregg, 2017; Wigmore, 2016) are problematic. This patriarchal hegemony exists in a troublesome cycle of consolidation and reflection whereby male-dominated degree classrooms feed into the male-dominated sports sector (see Pielichaty, 2021a). This is further compounded by significant social and economic inequities linked to gender (Velija & Phipps, 2023).

Amidst this exclusionary backdrop, sport concomitantly provides a place and space for belonging. Sport is used as a tool and an enabler for belonging, particularly for marginalised groups, as seen in sports fandom (Inoue et al., 2020), informal sports (Aquino et al., 2022) and community club settings (Doidge et al., 2020). Belonging in relation to sports business in HE, however, is an underdeveloped research area, particularly in the UK. The aim of this current paper is to explore students’ sense of belonging in connection with the White male-dominated sports business subject. Specifically addressing the research question: how do students perceive their belonging on a demographically polarised course?

Semi-structured interviews with 10 students were undertaken to examine the topic, responding to a need to address intersectional issues impacting inequities within HE focusing on social justice (Nichols & Stahl, 2019). The article’s wider purpose is to instigate academic discussion regarding how the HE sector can foster belonging following recommendations made in the Building Belonging in HE report (Blake et al., 2022). This study also responds to a call to utilise the experiences and voices of White men to tackle areas of social injustice through their privilege (see Vianden & Gregg, 2017). The next sections of this paper will examine the meaning of sense of belonging and the particularities of sports-based programmes in HE.

Sense of belonging and student identities

A sense of belonging can be described as ‘the subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences’ (Allen et al., 2021, p. 87). It relates to the ease of access to ‘inhabit a norm’ akin to a dwelling, with some finding it ‘too uncomfortable to stay’ (Ahmed, 2017, p. 115). Conceptually, belonging has received much scholarly attention in HE regarding transitions (Johnson et al., 2007; Meehan & Howells, 2019), retention (Nora, 2004; Van Herpen et al., 2020) and degree outcomes (Mountford-Zimdars et al., 2015; Walton & Cohen, 2007). The Blake et al. (2022) Pearson/WonkHE report frames belonging holistically, underpinned by the four foundations of connection, inclusion, support and autonomy. Connection is situated as peer-to-peer relationships and opportunities for group work and community. Inclusion focuses on course-level access and accessibility concerning resources, content and diversity and representation of staff. Thirdly, support refers to the requirement for effective and appropriate systems and networks to guide and nurture students. Finally, autonomy relates to the freedom students should be given to transform and facilitate their own learning, partnering with others to do so.

Understanding university student sense of belonging as a universally positive experience can be problematic (Gravett & Ajjawi, 2022). Minoritised and/or marginalised students may not feel comfortable engaging in specific contexts amidst a backdrop of broad institutional rhetoric linking inclusion with belonging (see Thomas, 2015; Vaccaro & Newman, 2017). Ahn and Davis (2020) found one in five of their participants described their sense of belonging negatively because of various challenges, such as academic engagement and well-being. The intersectionality of belonging should not be underestimated whereby student experiences are a complex interplay of individual and socio-cultural identities and factors. A sense of belonging is not identical for all students (Johnson et al., 2007). It can relate to race/ethnicity and the formal relationships with peers and educators can be particularly important (Meeuwisse et al., 2010). A feeling of not belonging is also prevalent in physical education teaching whereby ethnic minority female teachers seek to navigate structurally racist and sexist systems in their predominantly White schools (Simon & Azzarito, 2019). It is important to note here that ethnicity and ‘race’ are complex, intersecting and often conflated (Wagg et al., 2009) and to highlight this race/ethnicity will be combined in this paper, similarly to the approach undertaken by Van Sterkenburg et al. (2019).

In the United States (US), retention and graduation rates are linked to state funding so understanding the contributors to student success is essential (Millea et al., 2018). Having financial support is significant, and students from lower socio-economic backgrounds face a higher risk of dropping out and lower levels of belonging (Ahn & Davis, 2023). Literature on socio-economic variables concerning student retention and achievement is complex and interrelated with other factors (such as identity and family characteristics, commitment, and education) but together can be precursors to early withdrawal (Aina et al., 2022). Chen et al. (2021) found that a strong identification with the course subject is significantly valuable for minority students, and those who strongly associated with a science identity performed better and felt a heightened sense of belonging. Interestingly, it was minority students who were most positively impacted by this subject-specific identity whereby, ‘social belonging is the active ingredient’ in the relationship (p. 603). The emphasis on subject identity is supported by Williams and Roberts who reported that, in the case of criminology, the draw of the subject matter was viewed as a protective factor, which ‘buffered students against dropping out’ (2023, p. 1125). The subject specificities of sports business management will be examined more closely in the next section.

Studying sports business management

The global expansion of sport and sports business management programmes across the sector has been significant (Dart, 2017; Eagleman & McNary, 2010; Zervas & Glazzard, 2018). For this paper sports management and sports business will be grouped to reflect the cross-over within the discipline and to highlight the nuance in the language used by different educational providers. Sports management, as a field of inquiry, was heavily influenced by business historians from Harvard Business School, namely, Earle Zeigler, Guy Lewis, Stephen Hardy and Lawrence Fielding in the latter part of the twentieth century (see De Wilde et al., 2010). The male-dominated origins of sports management, as described by de Wilde and others, are commented on in their notes section stating that the four business historians’ ‘careers reflected the evolution toward a more gender equitable sport studies profession’ (p. 418). Velija and Phipps (2023), however, found that despite general increases in women studying in HE, a significantly higher proportion of men continued to study sports-based courses. It has been noted that retention in degree programmes was an issue for women choosing male-dominated programmes (Hancock & Greenwell, 2013).

Leberman and Shaw (2015) highlighted the need for university sports business education to prepare future women graduates for the gendered sports industry that they will enter. Arguably, there was a skill mismatch for women sport management graduates who were equipped with planning and organisational skills but not relationship-building and stakeholder management skills (Leberman & Shaw, 2015). This relates to the potential mismatch between sports business management degrees and their relevance to the sector whereby sport-specific knowledge (rather than general management knowledge) was viewed as fundamental for future employment (Raven, 2018). Female students perceived their future sports management graduate jobs to be lesser paid than their male counterparts’ roles (Hancock & Greenwell, 2013). This perception is not without evidence, the sports gender gap in global sports is vast (Women on Boards, 2016) and women continue to be underrepresented in international sports governance (Matthews & Piggott, 2021).

Velija and Phipps (2023) explain how and what is taught regarding gender is subjective and dependent on dominant ideologies linked to (the perceived value of) knowledge. ‘Thus, not only is it men who are often presented as having the research expertise and knowledge about sport, this knowledge is often about male bodies and athletes, which is then uncritically assumed to be inclusive of women’ (Velija & Phipps, 2023, p. 10). The complexities of this area of inquiry are extended when focusing on the intersectionality of gender and race/ethnicities and how these are played out in sports-based educational spaces.

Clayton and Humberston (2007) looked at the way students studying football studies (White, male-dominated) navigated module content that challenged conventional gender- and ‘race’-based ideologies. Male students reported being resistant to knowledge that sought to question the patriarchal hierarchy, seeing it as unnecessary and made ‘frequent jocular sexist and homophobic comments’ in class (Clayton & Humberston, 2007, p. 523). There were clear differences in the way minority female students engaged with the module, such as challenging theoretical assumptions and peer behaviours, and finding great value in the material that connected with them and their marginalised societal positions (Clayton & Humberston, 2007). Furthermore, ‘race’, as taught in their module, caused issues for lecturers and students alike whereby Black and Asian students did not want to share their views in a White-dominated environment and lecturers also did not want to draw upon these students’ opinions (Clayton & Humberston, 2007). More broadly, Knijnik and Luguetti (2021) point to the ways that personal, cultural and political issues, intertwined with academic lives and geographical-educational contexts, can hinder critical pedagogical approaches pushing for social justice.

The increase in gender and ethnic diversity in HE has not been mirrored in sports management degree programmes which, in some areas, continue to be White male-dominated in student and staff profile (see Hancock & Greenwell, 2013; Kluch et al., 2023). Hancock and Greenwell (2013) reported that all students (regardless of gender and race/ethnicity), however, rated their love for sport as a driver for course selection. Kluch et al. (2023) examined the sense of belonging for students in sports courses from minoritised groups in the US. Belonging related to students ‘seeing themselves’ in those around them (peers, educators, and industry members) and the extent to which they felt (in)visible (Kluch et al., 2023). In general, minoritised students’ sense of belonging was more difficult to attain and specific differences among students in relation to belonging were highlighted in connection with gender, race/ethnicity and socio-economic status (Kluch et al., 2023). This current paper will build upon this previous literature by adding a UK perspective to analyse the sense of belonging within White male-dominated sports business management programmes.

Methods

The study

The current study aimed to explore students’ sense of belonging within White male-dominated programmes, using sports business management as its focus. In total, 10 students, five undergraduate students and five postgraduate students, studying sports business management programmes were interviewed for this qualitative research. Interviews were chosen as they provide ‘an indispensable source of rich and new knowledge’ through flexible and valuable means (Smith & Sparkes, 2016, p. 107). All students were studying at the same UK university which is considered a ‘modern’, post-92 HE institution (Scott, 2012). E-mail invitations to engage with the study were sent to all students across undergraduate and postgraduate sports business management programmes (circa 85 students) and the 10 responses indicate an 11.7% acceptance rate.

Two women and eight men were involved with the study, all of whom were White except for one man who identified as British Asian. The ratio of men to women participants in the study, as well as the White-dominated sample, was reflective of the cohort demographics of the sports business management programmes in question. At the time of writing, there were no women on the postgraduate course and fewer than 10% on the undergraduate programme. The ‘dearth of research on females’ experiences’ (Sauder et al., 2018, p. 69) in this area has been previously noted and as such it was important to retain the small number of women in the study to share their experiences in this underrepresented field. Table 1 provides further participant details.

Table 1. Participant details.

Name	Study level	Self-identified race/ethnicity	Self-identified gender
Callum	Undergraduate	White British	Man
Grace	Undergraduate	White Irish	Woman
Olivia	Undergraduate	White British	Woman
Noah	Undergraduate	White British	Man
Jack	Undergraduate	White British	Man
Rohit	Postgraduate	British Asian	Man
Ryan	Postgraduate	White British	Man
Luca	Postgraduate	White German	Man
Josh	Postgraduate	White British	Man
Evan	Postgraduate	White British	Man

Braun and Clarke (2019) advise locating the researcher’s philosophical approach and stance within the study as vital to reflexive practice. In this case, the lead author coordinated the sociology of sport modules that the student interviewees had undertaken and is known by the students as an advocate for gender equality in sport. This connection can be viewed favourably in terms of ensuring the students felt at ease and comfortable with the interviewer but it also could cause bias if students felt they needed to answer a question in a certain way. To mitigate, in part, against this interviews were conducted after all participants’ sports sociology module teaching and assessment had been completed. Furthermore, the researchers bring their own diverse race/ethnicity to the study which is important to note. The semi-structured interviews were conducted online from 14 min to 38 min, recording an average interview duration of 24 min. The interviews were based on six discussion areas that occurred in the literature review. These included general course engagement, identity (gender/race/ethnicity), belonging and its connection to gender/race/ethnicity, course content and finally career aspirations. Due to the parameters of the current article, the responses addressing career aspirations were not used in this paper due to a focus on belonging within the course. Questions asked included ‘in what way does your gender influence your experience of the course?’ And ‘how does it feel to be one of the many students on the course who identify as White?’ (asked after establishing if that is indeed the case). The open-ended questions meant that the students could answer as fully or as reserved as they felt comfortable.

Ethical approval was gained from the University’s Research Ethics Committee prior to the study. Students, who accepted the invitation to be involved, provided written, informed consent and were aware that they could withdraw at any time. All students have been given pseudonyms for this paper to ensure their responses are anonymised.

In line with this method, a reflexive thematic analysis of the interview data was undertaken. In a documented conversation on thematic analysis, Braun describes reflexivity as being a continuous process with no end point, encouraging the researcher to reflect ‘on your own assumptions’ (Braun et al., 2022, p. 438). Braun and Clarke (2019) describe qualitative researchers as journeying to describe the evolving and undulating experiences that influence practice and practitioner. This is significant to how the interview data were analysed and themes generated for this paper whereby the ‘process requires a continual bending back on oneself’ (Braun & Clarke, 2019, p. 594). Due to the closeness the first author had with the fieldwork and data collection, the analysis stage involved a co-created and sometimes messy coming together of the researchers and research findings. Initially, the first author transcribed the interview data and then shared it with the co-authors. Secondly, each author independently reviewed the transcription quotes and notes to analyse patterns within the interview discussion areas. Finally, the researchers came together to verbally discuss and share their own interpretations of the data to talk through shared meanings and deliberate on how patterns were developed. The literature discussed earlier in this paper relating to the barriers to sense of belonging for minoritised students and specifically research relating to sports business management programmes shaped this process. Furthermore, belonging as ‘the subjective feeling of deep connection’ (Allen et al., 2021, p. 87) and as informed by the four foundations (Blake et al., 2022) were deemed important for this current article. Themes were generated from the data covering the facets of belonging including peer-to-peer connections, sport, race/ethnicity, teaching, and extra-curricular activities.

Results

The findings of this study addressed the paper’s aim to explore students’ sense of belonging within White male-dominated Higher Education (HE) programmes. Specifically addressing the question of how students perceive their belonging on a demographically polarised course. In essence, fostering a sense of belonging in sports business management programmes was layered. Students’ sense of belonging was contingent on other external factors such as cohort demographics, extra-curricular opportunities, and course content as will now be explored.

Belonging: ‘they’re all the same as me basically’

All students demonstrated an awareness of the male-dominated cohort in their degree programmes and how this facilitated associated belonging experiences. This polarised classroom provided male students with a clear route through to one of the foundations of belonging, namely peer-to-peer connection (Blake et al., 2022).

Going into a course where it is 100% male it’s easy to, it’s a lot easier to talk to people and form them relationships … yeah it’s been really quite a seamless process joining especially when I didn’t know anyone. (Evan)

It made it very easy to find a group of friends that are all very similar to you and all enjoy the same thing … they’re all the same as me basically. (Josh)

The minute the course started there was already that kind of unity because we were all boys. (Rohit)

This connection was more straightforward for the aforementioned students, however, for others the anticipation of belonging and the reality of studying was different. The two female participants cited their unease relating to the start of the course and the beginning a new year, respectively:

When we first walked in and I remember first sitting in a room with everyone and there were a couple more girls in there and then when we soon realised that they were in the wrong room, I thought, oh no this is going to be a nightmare … and then I was worried that I wouldn’t get on with Ava the other girl but luckily we’re basically the same person so that was fine. (Olivia)

When I came on my second year into uni and I sat on my first day, pile of boys around me, I was like ‘oh my days’ and it took them probably about three, four weeks to speak to me and still to this day like half of them won’t speak to me. The just like look at me, go bright red and then just walk away. It’s like they can’t interact with me. (Grace)

Jack also explains, ‘there was a couple [of women] on the first year … I think they all dropped out within a couple of weeks’, implying female students were choosing to leave this programme. On reflection, and after the initial shock of being one of only two women on her course, Olivia explains the positive connections she made through the programme:

I don’t think it’s affected me being one of the only two girls anyway I’ve liked it. In some weird way it's been quite nice. And it’s nice like I really get on with the guys as well, erm and we’ve all just been like one big friendship group which is quite nice.

Despite feeling accepted as quoted previously, Evan and Rohit still felt an initial unease at the beginning of the new course. Evan joined the programme from a different School, as explained here:

I was very anxious about coming into the Business School erm having no previous business experience at all … I thought ‘oh my god, I’m going to be so behind here, I’ve got so much to catch up on.’ … So I felt like I sort of had to prove myself and my ability.

Rohit’s anxieties, on the other hand, were based on his race/ethnicity:

Probably the first day we met as a course I was probably thinking ‘oo I wonder what these people think because I’m brown’ but I’ve never actually felt anything for them to, for me to think that but I just do think that.

Josh also had concerns about getting on with coursemates, but this was alleviated ‘almost instantly’ describing working with peers as ‘one of the easiest things’. Both Evan’s and Rohit’s initial sense of unease was also alleviated once the course fully started. Belonging in relation to peer-to-peer connection operated on confidence levels for two students. Grace noted her connections improved the more she came ‘out of my shell’, and Evan said, ‘the nerves kicked away erm I finally felt sort of a sense of belonging to the group but it was a long period’.

The time between starting the course and when belonging is ‘achieved’ can be viewed as a highly challenging time; a time when student retention is precarious. Grace explained that she was close to leaving early on after another woman had already withdrawn from the course. But Grace also drew upon a perceived academic advantage of a male-dominated course stating: ‘I know if there was loads of girls on the course I would probably be chit chatting all day and panicking all night’, in relation to the lack of work she would have done during the day. Additionally, there was an acknowledgement from male students about the impact of male-dominated courses on women:

I would feel more uncomfortable if I was a female in a male-dominated um classroom. I think we all, I mean some of the jokes we have, or some of the banter is, would probably be more enjoyed because I’m male. I don’t know whether I would fit in as well if I was a female. (Ryan)

Seeing in the course that there’s not a single woman it’s kind of sad because it kind of reinforces the idea that men are very dominating in sports and also that woman are not very much represented in the sports industry. (Luca)

Because the rest of the course is male kinda gives does give an immediate sense of belonging whereas if you were a woman it may take a couple of weeks for people to kind of warm to you. (Rohit)

In summary, being a man, for these students, facilitated a comfortable transition onto the course highlighting an ease of access to inhibit the norm (Ahmed, 2017). These experiences, however, do not simply relate to gender but also the expected nervousness that surrounds starting a new course and the perceived peer-to-peer connections that will follow.

Sports course identity, race/ethnicity and belonging

Over half of students reported that sports or wanting to get a degree was a unifying feature of their university experience. Sports provided a basis for a shared passion between each of them, a strong course identification, that was spoken about frequently:

I think because it’s such a specific course, the sports course, there was already a common ground for everyone in the course erm and of course all being male makes it a lot easier for everyone just to get on straight away. (Rohit)

We will have all experienced sport before where there is that sense of belonging, there is that teamwork aspect erm so immediately we all, we all kind of clicked and and got along. (Ryan)

We have a lot of similarities, obviously, with it being a sport course, we’re all sport, we have our football teams. (Evan)

For one student, Noah, his former professional footballer identity, was salient (see Burke & Stets, 2009; Pielichaty, 2019, 2021b), explaining, ‘one girl on our course she plays football as well so she probably experiences the same sort of links that I do with sport’. Football, in particular, was discussed as an important sport that facilitated conversations and connections between students although this also had issues as will be discussed in the following section.

Students’ identified race/ethnicity was not regarded as an influential factor affecting student experience on the course, ‘everyone would be welcome’ (Jack). These identities were important though, for example, Rohit discussed his race/ethnic identity historically and how these experiences influenced his university life:

Genuinely I would say it [being Asian British] hasn’t affected anything. I think that’s because I’m from a White area back home, I’ve always been surrounded by people who aren’t Asian British … I feel like yeah just the fact that we all like the same thing is a lot more important than where I’m actually from or what skin colour I have. (Rohit)

Some benefits of having a shared race/ethnicity were discussed by a small number of students:

Being White-British, getting involved with everyone like being able to engage with people would be one of the most important factors and positive factors because … it is so dominated White-British we have that like similar culture and err language so we can actually understand each other and like appreciate each other. (Callum)

I mean I guess it makes you feel more settled being surrounded by people of the same ethnicity I … I guess. I don’t know if I would have felt more uncomfortable if I’d been in a group that was dominated by another race or ethnicity. I don’t know if that would have made me feel like I stood out in some way but I don’t think it, I don’t think it would but I yeh I think we all just get on with it really. (Olivia)

Where race/ethnicity was discussed as significant, students highlighted ways in which they were mindful of oppressing social and racial inequities:

I may be found it a bit tricky to understand some of the [racial] inequalities sometimes because it was very hard for me to understand the experiences of an ethnic minority group so I very much try to and try to look at it from an academic point of view. (Josh)

This reflective point made by Josh highlights the importance of awareness to diversity and receptivity to learning. Two students acknowledged the positive impact of gender and racially diverse-peer interactions on their learning:

I think working with a diverse set of people both from a gender perspective and a race perspective it can make for good work just because there’s so many contrasting ideas um and theories that come off it and like everyone else can contribute to that. (Jack)

I’ve worked with like Grace who’s in our course and she’s like always really on it, everything, she does it. She’s always there to help me. But I work with some of the males that I just don’t engage in it at all. (Callum)

These points of feedback show the importance of inclusion and diversity in university teaching and experiences similar to those found in the Blake et al. (2022) report.

Teaching and learning

Course content and the people teaching it were seen as significant contributors to inclusion as a foundation for belonging for the students (Blake et al., 2022). The course content was discussed as being Western, male and football-orientated:

At the start there was a huge barrier, I didn’t really wanna like answer or get engaged … because it was always football orientated, like, coz it is a pile of boys who love football there was never a lot of leeway with other sports. (Grace)

If anything I think I’m overly represented in the sport content … the western world and the white British kind of culture is, it dominates western sports and we massively just cover western sports … . Everybody wants it to change but then we’re, the people that are teaching it are still teaching kind of the white British dominated sports. (Ryan)

Grace, adds, however, that she was happy for football content to dominate because

It’s harder to get the boys engaged rather than probably get me engaged because they’ll all chatting, they’ve probably been on a night out the night before so they’re struggling but give them football and they’re there, they’re involved and I prefer learning when they’re involved too.

The need for autonomous learning opportunities whereby students can engage critically in areas of inequality and sport was voiced by students:

There was a sports, politics and ethics module and I could kinda give my own opinion on like how Asians are perceived in Britain erm and kinda give yeah my own insight and values into that (Rohit)

I think um white male is represented well [course content/materials] but like I say the whole point of the course is to understand other cultures and, and to learn to make it as equal as, as possibly can. (Noah)

Course content and a diverse teaching team were also viewed as important to some students:

When I look at the staff which is not just male … that’s quite some diversity, we have a very good mix I would say. And erm not having this mix in or the diversity in students is erm not what I thought. (Luca)

Having, like, female teaching team as well for quite a lot of it, that was fine, so I felt like I always had someone to turn to if boys annoyed me. (Olivia)

As Luca mentions, he is surprised that the gender-diverse teaching team on the course is not reflected by the student cohort. The smaller course was noted by Olivia as significant to her sense of belonging because everyone knew who she was (helped by being in the gender minority) aiding positive interaction with the teaching team.

Extra-curricular activities and belonging

In connection with the foundation of autonomy in facilitating belonging (Blake et al., 2022), two students reported seeking out their own extra-curricular opportunities to consolidate their sense of connection with the university. These activities, as explained by the participants, diversified from their White male-dominated classroom experiences. For example, Olivia was heavily involved with additional academic responsibilities and with the female-dominated equestrian society:

I like to be busy and I like to be doing things and going out so it [being part of societies and a Course Rep] definitely just gives you a whole other sort of friendship group that you can turn to so especially with just like mainly boys on the course … I’ve got the boys but I need, I need some girl people around me, I need some girlfriends. (Olivia)

Olivia claims she requires ‘some girl people’ around her which she managed through her involvement in wider-university activities and societies. Furthermore, a White student, Luca played football for the African-Caribbean society:

I don’t feel like I am being excluded [on the African-Caribbean Society football team], it’s really just the personality that matters and that’s very much the same on the course. (Luca)

Participating in university sports clubs has been associated with belonging and specifically building academic confidence (Morgan, 2023) which is significant here. Participation in social or extra-curricular activities as part of the course, however, did cause some issues:

I think the thing that stops me going on those [abroad field visit] was the fact that there weren’t any girls, and I was worried that I would be the only girl erm and although that never bothered me like on a day to day basis at uni, I didn’t think I could hack a whole week with the guys. (Olivia)

This quote demonstrates the way Olivia considered gender as a factor in making decisions about extra-curricular engagement and in essence worked against belonging. For clarity, it was not that Olivia felt unsafe as the only woman on a field visit but more needed a break from male-dominated spaces. The importance of extra-curricular activities was also shared by most male participants. Unlike Olivia, however, they had more positive views of field visits and felt the social interactions they experienced by attending these activities were beneficial for their sense of belonging.

Yeah because those activities [extra-curricular/field visits] kind of help to create this community feeling and erm I think that matters, yeah, just just to engage, to interact, to talk to each other just outside of university. This creates this belonging. (Luca)

Extra-curricular opportunities are important to facilitate engagement and connection but efforts need to be taken to manage the access and inclusivity of such opportunities.

Discussion

The foundations of belonging (connection, inclusion, support, and autonomy) as outlined in the Building Belonging in HE report (Blake et al., 2022) usefully map to the current findings. Due to the parameters of the current study, it is the foundations of connection and inclusion that appear most strongly for the current students in terms of belonging. Belonging through peer-to-peer connections came more easily to men on the sports business course. Unsurprisingly, being a man and a man interested in sports was an easy and straightforward fit in HE given the male-dominated set-up of sport in general (Piggott & Pike, 2020; Velija & Phipps, 2023). The demonstrable reflexivity of the male students in connection with their position of privilege is significant and feeds into the importance of critical perspectives in education (Curry-Stevens, 2007). Furthermore, the important role of autonomy in belonging (Blake et al., 2022) and drawing on critical reflection of learners are important considerations for inclusive education. For the women in the study, it was not so easy to feel that they belonged straight away, some of the female students had left the course. For those that stayed, they described being motivated to gain a degree, enjoying a small class size and experiencing positive interaction with their peers and teaching team as reasons to stay. Olivia and Grace (and some of the male students) do note an ‘otherness’ to their presence on the course, similar to the female students in Sauder and others’ (2018) work, but being one of the few women on this sports business course was not seen as a barrier to belonging in the long-term but was an issue initially. Aspects of inclusion (as a foundation for belonging, Blake et al., 2022) relating to course design and diverse teaching teams were also important in this current study whereby male-dominated content consolidated the assumption that sport is a place for only men to flourish.

The White male students, in Clayton and Humberston’s (2007) study, were resistant to the challenge of the patriarchal hierarchy but those in this study were aware of their positionality. Students discussed the Western male-dominated context of the sports business management programme mirroring the findings of Velija and Phipps' (2023) work on gender regimes in HE. This aside, it was the focus on sports and a sports-based degree which was unifying for students over other identity markers. Like the students in Hancock and Greenwell’s (2013) study, a sports focus was viewed positively as an opportunity for bonding and to facilitate peer-to-peer connections. Students’ sense of belonging comes to the fore when relating to gender and ‘newness’ to the course but the overriding connection to sport and the cohesion it brings facilitates a sense of belonging for all.

Summary

The findings of this study articulate the nuanced ways in which students belong to, and connect with, their sports business management programmes. It must be noted that this polarised student cohort of White male students will not be typical across all countries and universities, but the male-dominated aspect will resonate with Western countries offering sports HE courses. This current study is useful in understanding the experiences of students and as a comparison to other subject disciplines. In summary, being a man was the key form of privilege that fostered easy belonging. Whiteness was an enabler of belonging but did not have the same privilege status as a male identity. A strong sports course identity and a love for sport are seen as unifying factors for belonging. This focus on the subject-specifics of belonging was not a key facet of the Blake et al. (2022) report on building belonging and as such this paper would advocate for a fifth dimension of belonging to include subject identity.

This current study is not without its limitations. The intersectionality of gender and race/ethnicities could not be explored in depth due to the limited sample (size and diversity). The study only focused on students at one institution and therefore, a cross-examination with different ‘types’ of universities in different countries did not fall under the scope of the current research. As such future areas of exploration should focus on a more expansive participant base and comparisons across universities. More evidence relating to how male privilege can move towards social challenge and change (Curry-Stevens, 2007) utilising critically reflective pedagogies (see Few-Demo et al., 2016) to do so would also be beneficial.

There have been challenges raised in UK HE to enacting and embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives relating to power and resistance (Roberts, 2021) and understanding student and staff inequalities (Advance HE, 2023). Upon reflection, and seeking to address some of the challenges raised in this paper, it is important for us as educators to consider what, who and why we teach. Belonging does not happen in a vacuum and instead can be fostered, facilitated, and reimagined through university structures, courses, people and support. Efforts should be taken to maximise opportunities to create and nourish course identity and a love for the subject discipline. A love for the subject is an important connection and must be nurtured early on in the course to mitigate against student withdrawals. Furthermore, students are self-aware and reflexive and they deserve a curriculum that both represents them and transcends them in diversity and richness. Going forward, a critical pedagogical approach to teaching and learning in sports-based HE courses, as recommended by Baines (2012), would offer the chance to promote autonomy and develop critical perspectives. The importance of extra-curricular activities was seen as significant for belonging but students should not need to seek out additional activities to add greater diversity into their university experiences. Diversity should be embedded within programme design, content and assessment and facilitated through diverse teaching teams. It is our duty, as educators, to use the subject of sport and students’ subsequent knowledge of sport to facilitate and drive forward belonging.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).