"Då skulle det vara slutselekterat" : Åtta barn- och ungdomstränare och deras reflektioner kring barnkonventionens inträde som svensk lag

Sammanfattning: As of January 1st, 2020, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was incorporated as a law in Sweden. This raises some questions about how it would influence and implicate the Swedish way of executing youth sports. Several media and experts in children's and youth sports have argued that using selective methods such as ranking or topping the team might not be in accordance with the convention. What the legislation entails and how the convention is taken into account in practice, however, seems to be largely dependent on how this is interpreted by those who are expected to implement it. The purpose of this study is therefore to gain insight into how children and youth coaches interpret the convention and its new status as a Swedish law. We also aim to understand how the coaches reflect on these selective methods from a children's rights perspective. The examination uses a phenomenological approach with qualitative semi structured interviews. The study's theoretical framework consists of three theories. We adopt the perspective of social constructionism to understand how coaches create meaning of the convention, institutional theory to understand how institutionalized logics and values can influence reflections and the theory of deviant conformity to understand how deviations from normative ideas and behaviors are understood and what they are based on. Some of the insights gained from the analysis were as follows: None of the coaches has experienced any change as a result of the convention being incorporated as a law. The convention is perceived as difficult to interpret by most of the coaches and the legitimacy of selective methods is considered to be in a gray zone. Several coaches ́ descriptions indicate that the structure of the Swedish sports movement largely influences their way of reflecting and assenting to the convention. The most frequently occurring problematic aspect regarding practical activities is perceived to be the children's parents.