Sports students as mentors for boys and young men: developing an undergraduate module to address boys' early school leaving.
Abstract
The article describes the development of the Sports Students as Mentors for Boys and Young Men undergraduate module developed for sports students attending universities in six European countries, sharing a common concern for boys’ early school leaving. The module provides students with knowledge and skills of mentoring work along with strengths-based Positive Youth Development methodology and its 5Cs framework, enabling them to work with young males in educational settings, to motivate them to stay at school and improve their educational attainment and vocational choices. The module also instructs students on support for young male mental health, teaching them this is a key issue affecting educational performance. This article outlines broad contextual issues before outlining key steps, concluding with future development aims.
Keywords: boys’ education, early school leaving, mentoring, positive youth development/5Cs, sports students, higher education
Author Biography
Paul Hopkins is a Visiting Fellow of the University of Gloucestershire and has an extensive background in developing practice-based work with boys and men in Health Promotion, Public Health, and charitable work. His academic interests include the use of social marketing methodology to inform the development of male-friendly services, sports-based men's health initiatives, and mentoring work to improve health and education outcomes for boys and young men. He is a director of the not-for-profit company, Mengage.
Dr Colin Baker is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire with more than 10 years’ experience in undertaking quantitative and qualitative research of health promoting interventions for physical activity, mental health and behaviour change. He has collaborated on projects exploring collaboration within the UK sporting landscape and the role of youth programmes on the wellbeing and citizenship skills of young people. His current research interests include community health programmes and alternative settings and approaches for the promotion of physical activity, health and wellbeing.
