Super Seniors: The Educational Trajectories and Experiences of Graduate(d) Student Athletes in Division I Football

Abstract

Using narrative data collected through semi-structured phone interviews with eleven "graduate(d) student athletes," this dissertation examines participants' academic trajectories and experiences. Theories regarding role-conflict, attribution, college choice and career maturity undergird analysis. Findings are divided into four chapters: "Stereotyping, Time, Academic Trajectory," and "Graduate Program." Participants' "Autonomy" and "Agency" are themes throughout, as are findings regarding the role of institutions in enabling or hindering athletes' ability to excel academically. Findings suggest stereotyping decreased as participants graduated and earned increasing autonomy over their academic lives. By working toward advanced degrees, participants bolstered their own and others' interpretation that football served as a means to an educational end; furthermore, because their graduate status could be read this way, it legitimized the primacy of participants' student role-identities. Several participants recounted early aspirations for higher education, as well as the premeditated intent to use football instrumentally as a pathway to college. Even participants without early degree aspirations tended to revise their narratives about football and education to incorporate similar instrumental framing once those educational opportunities presented themselves. Furthermore, participants took their choice of graduate degree seriously, endeavoring to align graduate programs with their passions and career goals and thereby reinforcing the finding that graduate(d) student athletes' decisions are increasingly independent from athletic considerations. The concluding chapter integrates the findings to form a fuller picture of participants' trajectories, experiences, and the larger phenomenon. Lastly, implications for theory, policy, and practice, as well as directions for future research, are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]