Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Understanding School Counselors' Perceptions of Esports and Igaming as a Career Choice

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  • Over the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in the popularity of online gaming in the United States culture. There are many factors that have contributed to this spike in popularity, but the most significant are advancements in technology, televised competitions, social media, lucrative cash prizes, product endorsements, and scholarships (Morgan & Cole, 2023). From electronic sports (esports) to internet gaming (igaming), many of today's children, adolescents, and young adults perceive the virtual world of game play as both psychologically and financially rewarding. This has resulted in many young people pursuing professional gaming as a viable career choice. Undoubtedly, as more young people pursue esports and igaming as potential careers, high school counselors will find themselves interacting more with these students and providing them guidance into the world of professional esports and igaming. These studies examined the high school counselors’ perceptions of esports and igaming as potential career choices for their students. The first study examined how high school counselors experience the phenomenon of esports as a career choice. The second study examined how high school counselors experience igaming as a career choice. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was chosen as the qualitative design for both studies. IPA is a hermeneutic circle of research where the researcher is involved in making sense of the experience while the participant reflects on the experience (Smith & Osborn, 2003). Participants were recruited from message board posts on high school counseling social media pages (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter), personal emails, and through the following professional counseling and gaming organizations’ websites: American School Counselor Association (ASCA), the National Career Development Association (NCDA), and National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). Six participants met the criteria of the study and were interviewed utilizing online video conferencing software (i.e. Zoom). Semi-structured interviews were conducted lasting between 45 and 80 minutes. Upon conclusion, the interviews were transcribed verbatim and the transcripts analyzed identifying major themes, along with similarities and differences in the experiences of the six participants. Following step-by-step analysis presented by Smith, Flowers, and Larkin (2009), a master table was created of the discovered themes. Additionally, strategies were used to increase trustworthiness, including peer debriefing, research positionality reflection, and member checking (Morrow, 2005). The first manuscript examined how the participants (N=6) experienced esports as a career choice. The following five themes emerged from the data: (a) sense of limited job-specific knowledge, (b) marginalization of students due to stigma, (c) being guided by one’s professional identity and values of career counseling, (d) sense of determination to validate esports as a career choice, and (e) addressing feelings associated with navigating the professional relationship with students. The second manuscript examined how the high school counselors (N=6) experienced igaming as a career choice. The following five themes emerged from the data: (a) underlying absence of knowledge about igaming as a career, (b) anticipatory navigation of student marginalization based on school counselors’ biases, (c) countering personal bias with professional values and identity as they ponder working with students, (d) struggling to see igaming as a viable career and emerging realization of igaming career awareness, and (e) anticipating a professional relationship with students pursuing igaming as a career choice. The findings of both studies identified the need for more education, information and understanding of opportunities associated with esports and igaming as a career choice. The findings have multiple implications for research that are directed at the overall growth of knowledge in the experience of high school counselors working with students pursuing careers in these two phenomena
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  • Pending Publication
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  • 2023-03-20 to 2023-03-31
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