Exploring the Life Form of a Student Athlete Afforded by a Dual Career 6 Development Environment in Finland

21 The current paper introduces a case study conducted in one of the most well-established athletic 22 talent development environments (ATDE) in Finland, with the focus on the environment’s 23 ecological dynamics and organisational culture, in light of its recent effort to rebrand itself as 24 a dual career development environment (DCDE). Our analysis has been inspired by the holistic 25 ecological approach (HEA) and ecological dynamics , wherein we have considered DCDE 26 from the point of view of its transactions with agentic individuals and affordances for student 27 athletes in the study domain, the sports domain, and the private domain. We believe our 28 findings can provide other sports environments with insight into what to consider when 29 transforming organisational culture of an environment to better aid their student athletes in 30 realising their dual career goals. 31


Exploring the Life Form of a Student Athlete Afforded by a Dual Career Development Environment in Finland
In this paper, we present a case study on a Finnish dual career development environment (DCDE), which refers to a "purposefully developed system that aims to facilitate athletes' investment in combining their competitive sporting career with education or work" (Morris et al., 2020); in other words, it is an environment that enables athletes to acquire a diploma or work while competing in sports.Inspired by the holistic ecological approach (HEA) (Henriksen & Stambulova, 2017), we investigated the environment holistically, focusing on key agents in the three domains of the environment: sport, study, and private life.However, while immersing to the environment during an ethnographic stage, we were faced with an obvious imbalance between the domains that we felt we could not depict accurately using the DCDE model as intended by the HEA.Therefore, while drawing inspiration from it and using DCDE as a tool in analysis, we were interested in developing an explanatory understanding of the imbalance in the environment than simply mapping it.To accomplish this task, we have used ecological dynamics, which emphasise the continuous transactions between individuals and their environments (Davids, Araújo, & Brymer, 2016;Immonen, Brymer, Davids, Liukkonen, & Jaakkola, 2018) and Schein's (2017) organisational culture theory as our theoretical framework.Henriksen, Stambulova and Roessler (2010) proposed shifting focus from individual athletes' development to the development environment in order to facilitate the understanding of challenges involved in talent development today, which later led Henriksen and Stambulova (2017) to create the athletic talent development environment (ATDE) working models to aid researchers in analysing environments.However, more recently, the importance of dual career (DC) has been increasing in the athlete career discourse (Stambulova, Ryba, & Henriksen, 2020), which is evidenced by the introduction of the DC policy guidelines (2012) for the European Union states and Morris et al. (2020) recognising eight distinct types of DCDEs in the European context.Moreover, DC has recently become the desired standard in Finland as well: "The goal of the competitive and the elite sports system in Finland is that every athlete will graduate from secondary or vocational school" (Finnish Olympic Committee's website, 2020a).We find this change to be exceedingly relevant and current due to the overhaul of the application process to tertiary education occurring in spring 2020 that will greatly inconvenience students who have not planned their secondary school studies with a degree in mind.That is, in the future, certain careers will have secondary school course requirements; for example, architects must complete the nine compulsory courses in advanced mathematics in upper secondary school prior to applying to university (Opintopolku's website, 2020).We believe that sports institutions may be under pressure to transform from ATDEs into DCDEs due to these changes and we also recognise the urgency for action because these changes have already taken place nationally.However, simultaneously, we wondered whether the sports academies that have recently rebranded, such as the one we studied, have had enough time to make the required changes to its organisational culture to best support their student athletes because cultural change is a slow and challenging process with multiple layers and components (McDougall, Ronkainen, Richardson, Littlewood, & Nesti, 2019;Schein, 2017).Schein (2017) explains that in organisational culture, there are three levels: artifacts (observed behaviour, and visible structures and processes,), espoused beliefs and values (rationalisations, ideals, values, and aspirations), and basic underlying assumptions (subconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs and values that determine perception, thought, feeling, and behaviour).Schein, however, also highlights that artifacts are difficult to decipher, as different groups may interpret them differently (e.g.pyramids have different meanings in different cultures) and espoused beliefs may not be in line with behaviour or artifacts, meaning that actions taken may not reflect the projected public image, which means that us, as outsiders, would have to try to ask the right questions.
According to McDougall et al. (2019), culture cannot be consciously manipulated as a whole and it is an inevitable part of the practicalities within organisations (e.g. group member performance or behaviour, leadership, and strategy), they would even argue that culture does not change from an old culture into an entirely new one.Moreover, McDougall et al. note that there are multiple subcultures and ambiguities with differing interpretations of entities within most sporting contexts, which means that the culture of a sporting environment may not be a single, uniform culture, and people are also typically a part of multiple (sub)cultures.
However, according to Schein (2017), sharing a sense of group identity is a key component of culture and it is also the force that aids in stabilising said culture, which means that for a sports environment to function well, key agents must work together towards a shared identity.
In order to better understand the psychosocial implications of the imbalance between the domains of sport, study, and private life in the environment, we focused on analysing and mapping the ecological dynamics of the environment: 1) the affordances of the environment, which Immonen et al. (2018) define broadly as relational concepts that combine features of an environment with; 2) individual effectivities, which are perceived based on the possibilities for action an individual has; and 3) form of life, which Davids et al. (2016) explain to comprise a pattern of behaviour that becomes both regular and stable over time and may be easier for some persons to acquire than others.If we borrow the example of Immonen et al. (2017): "skateboarders might seek handrails in urban environments as an affordance to creatively perform, normally perceived to support locomotion by other individuals, and a skilled skateboarder might approach the same handrail with a different set of 'tricks' compared to novice", we will see that affordances refer to the physical matter or persons an individual can act upon, and that effectivities refer to the range or difficulty of said acts available to the individual.In light of Davids et al.'s (2016) definition, a form of life in this case could be persons skateboarding on a regular basis and it would be easier for persons living nearby a skate park to engage in these activities, effectively making the forming of a life form easier for these persons.Immonen et al. (2017) further highlight that these behavioural patterns are embedded in sociocultural practices, in other words, the number of different philosophies and styles of interacting with specific conditions and its constraints that people develop and share.In this paper we, therefore, discuss the opportunities, expertise or the lack of thereof, available to the student athletes and what patterns of behaviour they align themselves with.

An Ethnographic Case Study: A Respected Endurance Sport
There are currently 19 sports academies, 15 sports upper secondary schools, 15 sports vocational schools, and one sports university in Finland (Finnish Olympic Committee, 2020b).All of the secondary schools have a special national task of raising elite athletes that compete at the top of their sport nationally or internationally, or simply aim to be professionals in their sport (Finnish Olympic Committee, 2020a).Student athletes attending these schools have their own curriculum that includes sports related courses and they may complete up to eight fewer other compulsory courses (e.g.half the Finnish courses normally required).In addition to the secondary schools with national tasks, there are also sportsfriendly schools that offer academic flexibility for student athletes, but wherein support is not nationally standardised and formal arrangements may not be in place, which may lead to poor communication between sporting federations and the school (Morris et al., 2020).
Prior to attending upper secondary schools or vocational schools, athletes in Finland have traditionally been able to attend sports clubs and sports-friendly primary schools (ages 7-15), however, in 2017 (Finnish Olympic Committee, 2020b), a sports lower secondary experiment was started in 25 schools across the country.As the experiment is still underway, it is difficult to estimate its effects on the overall pathways of student athletes, however, training camps aimed at student athletes attending lower secondary schools are a significant part of the recruitment process of sports academies and the schools attached to them.On the one hand, these camps offer sports academies with an opportunity to showcase their environment, and on the other hand, they enable student athletes to familiarise themselves with an environment prior to making a long-term commitment.Sports academies typically also advertise their environments on their websites and social media, as do schools.For example, certain sports academies share success stories of their alumni on their website, and some schools highlight the possibility of combining professional sports and flexible education successfully, with others barely mentioning education.Post upper secondary school and vocational school, student athletes have the option of applying to a sports-friendly tertiary school (only one in the country), the military's sports academy, or following other non-athlete specific paths.On the whole, student athletes choose their own, individual pathways as there are no established tracks available.
The environment chosen for this ethnographic case study was one that had a) been established before the DC guidelines were published by the European Commission (2012), which means that the environment has only recently gone through the transformation from an ATDE into a DCDE; b) has a history of producing a high number of successful elite athletes; and c) has an upper secondary school as a part of the environment.Within this environment, we chose a respected endurance sport that requires high volumes of training and has been a consistently popular sport in Finland.
In a reported compiled by the Research Institute for Olympic Sports (2017), the upper secondary had 336 students, of which 162 were student athletes in 2016.Currently (school's website, 2020a), the sports academy has 21 sports staff members of whom 19 are coaches, 22 teachers, and a dormitory 'mother' (i.e., a person whose job is to support student athletes in the dormitory and to conduct room inspections).Most coaches are previous elite athletes of their sport and are considered role models and mentors by student athletes.Each coach is officially responsible for 15 student athletes' training and absences, however, they are also the most likely persons the student athletes will turn to when facing hardships.Additionally, the sports academy has close ties with the Olympic Committee, the relevant sport association, and there is a research facility in the vicinity of the academy.The access to and the number of sports related services, such as physiotherapy and testing, is also good.Overall, the sports related affordances in the environment are high and there is much for student athletes to gain by being in the environment.
Out of the 22 teachers, two act as student counsellors, two are currently on a leave of absence, 14/22 teach at least two subjects, and 15/22 are homeroom teachers.Moreover, they are also responsible for teaching non-athlete students and while there are courses with only student athletes, many courses are shared by both.Three out of four interviewed teachers were previous student athletes themselves, the fourth was not a former student athlete, but had family members who were; all had an understanding of what it means to be a student athlete.In comparison to sports, the educational affordances are fewer.
This study is based on Finland's data drawn from the Erasmus+ Sport project 'Ecology of Dual Career' (ECO-DC) that received ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of the relevant university.The environment and its complexity were investigated from multiple perspectives within a real-life context in the form of an ethnographic case study wherein we study the form of life, affordances and effectivities in a well-established sports environment in Finland.We position ourselves within the philosophical realm of critical realism, which subscribes to an assumption that there is a reality independent of our knowledge of it (ontological realism).However, we also maintain that our knowledge is theory-laden and fallible (epistemological constructivism) (Maxwell, 2017).Our chosen methods provide us with a thick description of the environment and our stance aims to explain the social-psychological phenomena behind it.Finally, we transformed the DCDE working model into an empirical model based on the data collected in the environment.

Data Collection
An ethnographical case study approach was chosen for data collection in order to study the balance of the domains in the environment, the ecological dynamics that showcase it, and the culture that may explain it.Hammersley and Atkinson (2007), explain that ethnographic research consists of participating in the daily lives of people, observing them, and interacting with them, while collecting available data that is relevant to the issue studied.
To this end, the first and second author travelled to the environment and in doing so, we employed participant observation (Spradely, 1980) due to its ability to enhance one's understanding of a culture (Tangaard, 2006) as well as in an attempt to achieve contextual sensitivity.We conducted 14 semi-structured interviews and 17 hours of observations within the environment (dormitories, school, and practice) and an additional five days of observations during competitions.Observing the student athletes for five days outside of their environment provided a meaningful insight into their forms of life outside the environment.
During the stay in the environment, we collected documents both physically and online, and supplemented the interviews with an additional four non-structured interviews with key stakeholders at a later date.The interviews were 20-150 minutes long each; participants included student athletes, their parents, teachers, coaches, school principal, student counsellor, mental trainer, dormitory 'mother' and academy director.The first author, whose background is in education, observed teachers and student athletes within the school as well as the dormitories, whereas the second author, whose background is in sports, observed coaches and student athletes during practice and competitions.

Data Analysis and Interpretation
Our data analysis included transforming the working DCDE model developed within the ECO-DC project into the empirical model based on a rich data set consisting of interviews, observations, and documents.First, the first and third author discussed the organisation of the environment and mapped first version of the DCDE empirical model immediately after the ethnographic phase.Next, the first, second and third author discussed and modified the model several times over meetings as they were immersing in the collected data.
The second author analysed the data by conducting a thematic analysis at the latent level (Braun, Clarke, & Weate, 2016), which was connected to deductive and inductive processes, in what may be described as the abductive approach.Abductive reasoning allows for moving between meanings and the theoretical framework throughout the analysis, which is a process that the third author facilitated, and it also acknowledges the creative process of interpretation when viewing participants' experiences through a theoretical framework (Atkinson & Delamont, 2005;Ryba, Haapanen, Mosek, & Ng, 2012).We chose this approach to better understand the participants' experiences (inductively) and to explore how these experiences could be understood (deductively) in the light of organisational culture (McDougall et al., 2019;Schein, 2017), ecological dynamics (Davids et al., 2016;Immonen et al., 2018), and inspired by the HEA (Henriksen et al., 2010).Once data analyses were complete, the DCDE model was refined and presented for feedback in the environment, after which it was finalised into the current version.The divider between the sports domain and the private life domain differs in colour and style to depict the lack of a clear boundary between the two as we found that the non-sports related affordances were limited in the environment.For example, student athlete 'Johanna'

The Empirical Model
[pseudonym] expressed that living away from the dormitories has been beneficial to her due to the decreased presence of other athletes training.According to Gibson (as cited in Davids et al., 2016), affordances are not always necessarily positive; they may have negative consequences and it seems that 'Johanna' may have viewed the sport driven form of life of athletes as such.

The Role of Coaches
The core of the environment was the strong relationship between the student athletes and the coaches.The coaches' official responsibilities comprise training and informing teachers of upcoming competitions and training camps, helping student athletes to book appointments for expert services like the environment's mental trainer, test centre, physiotherapist et cetera, as well as create plans for individual athletes with experts.
However, coaches were also the closest persons to the student athletes in the environment, typically made themselves available outside of their working hours and thus partook in many unofficial tasks, such as helping student athletes with homework and major tests (matriculation examinations), as well as their personal problems, alongside the official duties.
Regardless the nature of the issue the student athletes were faced with, they would typically turn to their coaches for assistance.On the one hand, this resulted in a strong bond between the two, but on the other hand, it led to the coaches being overworked and dealing with issues they had no training for, which is concerning for two reasons: 1) student athletes may not have the required effectivities to recognise other affordances in the environment or they may not trust them; and 2) the organisational culture within the environment is fragmented to the point that coaches feel they cannot trust agents in the other domains.The former was supported by none of the interviewed student athletes naming key agents besides coaches; and the latter may be supported by coaches choosing to rely on themselves rather than redirecting student athletes to more relevant agents.The first and second author also discovered clear tensions between the coaches and the teachers specifically in the meeting they presented the findings of the study in.These tensions surfaced after a coach unrelated to the study stated that teachers did not understand coaches' work and that maybe they could learn to do so in the future, which was met with a negative reaction from the teachers.However, interestingly, all of the teaching staff interviewed (four) had some level of expert knowledge of a student athlete's life as they had all either been student athletes or had one in their family, which means that they likely possess some insight on the topic, although that is not to say that they possess a nuanced understanding of coaches' work or know all there is to know about being a student athlete.Although it is unclear whether the teaching staff had shared their experience, we recognise it is a notable affordance that may aid in bringing together the teaching and sports staff, as well as encourage student athletes to rely more on their teachers of their own volition.
Additionally, the coaches benefit from annual in-service training, both by the sports academy and the Olympic Committee, discussions arranged for them by the sports academy, and conferences offered by the sports association, all with the aim of further developing the coaches' skills and knowledgebase.In other words, the coaches' effectivities are wellmaintained and continued to be systematically developed, which made the coaches very valuable assets to the environment.

The Sports Domain and the Private Domain
As can be seen in Figure 1, the sports domain was dominant and encroached on all the other domains.In terms of affordances, this domination was visible in how the sports facilities were prioritised and staff training.For example, the academy was investing in a notable piece of rental equipment despite the school using somewhat outdated teaching equipment (e.g.lack of online material, cited by the student counsellor and observed by the first author), the lack of teacher training (cited by teacher 'Milla' [pseudonym]), and mould issues in the school that were affecting students and teachers.Student athlete 'Johanna' counted herself lucky and described the mould issues as: Well it doesn't bug me when I'm healthy… but when I was sick … and I had to go to school to take a test so that's when I noticed that like, my head felt like it was gonna explode and I couldn't stop coughing ... It was particularly difficult to separate the sports domain from the private life domain because besides spending time in each other's rooms, common room and sauna, the student athletes chose to do sport related activities in their free time and did so mostly with athletes from their own sport.Based on our interpretations of the interviews with student athletes and the observations, the link between peers was strong whereas the link between them and their family had weakened since relocation to the environment.Concretely, student athlete 'Paavo' was the only one out of the six student athletes interviewed that contacted his family on a daily basis, with others reporting to not seeing or contacting their family often, and student athletes overall speaking little about their parents even after probing.If student athletes spoke of the importance of their family, besides student athlete 'Johanna', only the financial support that enabled the athletes to remain in the environment and the support provided when an athlete was struggling were mentioned.For example, student athlete 'Anniina' found that she seldom had much time to miss her family nor did she see them often, and student athlete 'Tanja' noted she might call her family if she had a day off and her friends were busy, and she had nothing else to do, which was also cited as a reason for visiting home: "so if I know I've got a lighter week ahead of me, I like to go home because I know there's like, more stuff to do besides just chilling or doing sports".
Although one possible reason behind student athletes not mentioning their families may be due to location of the environment, it is difficult to enter or exit via public transportation due to its sparsity and because underage students cannot get a license, and it may be difficult for families to visit due to a lack of accommodation.It is also possible that student athletes simply take their parents for granted.For example, father 'Jaakko' reported a close relationship with his son, which culminated in the two being able to discuss anything, contacting each other three times a week, and the student athlete visiting home twice every three months, with 'Jaakko' possibly visiting his son in the environment within that timeframe as well.This could indicate that the location of the environment may be a hindrance, but ultimately not the key issue, with the relationship between the student athlete and their parents playing a more significant role.Furthermore, 'Jaakko' praised the environment for its improvements in the sports domain and professionalism, noting that, in his opinion, it is important that the best student athletes receive the most support in the environment, and that the student athletes whose sport motivation decreases are not the environment's responsibility.Interestingly, 'Jaakko', despite being a teacher, also did not seem to take any interest in his son's education, only mentioning education in relation to communication with the school, which was stated to be the responsibility of the student athlete's mother and the reason why he did not know anything about it.
Conversely, mother 'Tuula' noted that she and her daughter's father, whose relationship with the student athlete was stated to be better, had wished that their daughter would not enter the environment and arguments had ensued, although the parents had supported their child in her decision in the end.Ultimately 'Tuula' expressed her worry over her daughter and reported to attempting to stay in touch daily, but also noted that her daughter would occasionally hang up without a warning, and that she may not be aware of everything happening in the environment.Moreover, 'Tuula' stated that she only communicated with the school when necessary (clearing extended absences with the principal) and that whereas the communication with the coaches had been better in comparison to school initially, however, 'Tuula' felt that once her daughter began to show signs of struggling (overtraining, being ill repeatedly), the communication had become less frequent and mostly took place indirectly through the student athlete.'Tuula' also noted that prior to the struggles, her daughter's coach had been inflexible in regards to the training program, insisting certain matters be done in a certain way, which implies that some attempts had been made at discussing and changing the program prior to the struggles, and that to 'Tuula's' knowledge (satisfactory) actions had not been taken.'Tuula' had also noticed that after spending an extended period of time at home, her daughter was more energetic and expressed her emotions more freely in comparison to before, which is an important notion because it showcases the importance of student athletes maintaining good relations with their parents and the need for a break away from the environment.Furthermore, from a developmental point of view, this is a life stage for upper secondary school aged young people wherein peers become more important to them and although it is possible that they take their parents for granted, it does not mean that their relationship is weak.However, it is also concerning that student athletes typically did not mention their families beyond financial needs and that the communication between the domains and the families was poor, as student athletes have important developmental tasks they must complete (e.g.such as exploring their identity, social relationships, sexuality) in this life stage and a weak relationship with one's family is not beneficial.It also further highlights the issue present in the environment wherein the student athlete's form of life is predominantly about sports, their coaches, and their peers, as connecting with family and socialising with people with diverse views would also be important.
In this sense, the form of life of a typical athlete was to eat, exercise, attend school, and train with the same few people every day, which may be harmful to their overall development because, according to Savickas (2013), personality is built outside in rather than inside out, meaning outside agents are essential in moulding one's personality, and because personal development is fostered by change, which is triggered by other people.Savickas suggests that the reason for this is that individuals are reluctant to exit their comfort zones and require others to push them.Therefore, if the individual were to be surrounded mostly by other likeminded people, they run the risk of not venturing outside of their comfort zone and thus, missing meaningful opportunities for growth.Moreover, an imbalanced environment may also be stressful: student athletes 'Miika' and 'Johanna' stated that they wished to move out of the dormitory specifically due to needing a break from sports and finding it difficult to get one while living in the dormitory.
It should also be noted that the environment valued sports achievements highly and commonly only the students who had achieved success in competitions would receive recognition on the academy's website and on social media, which is significant in that the sports academy is responsible for marketing the environment to potential students and in that especially the successful athlete alumni are used in recruiting new students.For example, the names of multiple athlete alumni are mentioned on the school's website and student athlete 'Johanna' also recites the names of several successful athlete alumni as potential reasons for enrolment.Furthermore, some valuable affordances, such as the services of the mental trainer, were reserved for elite athletes and coaches only, and although the student athletes were supportive of each other and their teammates, the focus on achievements may have contributed to the perceived difficulty of having a break from sports in the dormitory, as evidenced by student athlete 'Anniina's' statement: "Yeah and maybe that's just the thing that we have here, there might be some difficulty in focusing on your own thing when you're just looking at other people".Moreover, a gatekeeper noted that the possibility of a rating system where talented athletes would be prioritised has been discussed.It may also have ultimately contributed to the coaches choosing the authoritarian style, which, according to Lockwood and Perlman (2008), is a coaching style where a coach provides direct instruction to student athletes and makes all the decisions for them, which, while enabling athletes to achieve precise performances and maintain discipline amongst athletes, does not support them in growing into independent athletes.For example, the divergent coaching style requires athletes to practise their skills in multiple ways and to learn decision making skills, which help them develop their creative side and learn responsibility over their learning (Lockwood & Perlman, 2008).
Since our research was not concerned with the reason behind the environment's coaches choosing the more authoritarian coaching style, we can merely speculate that it may have had to do with the expectations of producing elite athletes or because this style of coaching has been used successfully in the environment until today.As cited by the academy director, elite athletes are a significant source of income and a means of recruiting new athletes, which is also visible on the school's website (13 mentions of athlete alumni on the front page for sports upper secondary applicants (school's website, 2020b)).Hence, although this coaching style may have been successful in the past, we recognise that the affordances for the study domain that would have naturally existed within the sports domain in the form of informal learning were overlooked as a result of this style.Moreover, through observations and interviews, we noticed that the opportunities within the school were treated as less important by student athletes.For example, it was common for student athletes to prioritise sports by skipping class, leaving homework unfinished, and arriving late, which may be due to sports being the reason the interviewed student athletes chose this environment.Student athlete 'Viljami' expressed that "because all the main goals are in sports so that might be why it's sort of hard to get motivated for school to the extent that you need to be or should be".
We consider this phenomenon deserving of attention because it may lead to gaps in education as evidenced by the cases in Edwards's (2019) article, where colleges were creating fake courses for their student athletes, and because the interviewed student counsellor noted that student athletes typically do not begin to consider future career prospects besides that of a professional athlete until the end of their secondary education or, commonly, after it.As stated before, due to the recent changes to the Finnish application system, this phenomenon and the imbalance of the domains is becoming serious risks to the student athletes' future DC and, worse yet, it seems as though the environment itself is turning its plentiful sports related affordances into a threat to individual development.

The Study Domain
As mentioned above, the study domain was visibly not as valued in the environment as sports.We saw physical evidence of this in classrooms being named after alumni who had achieved success in sports and in the ways funds were prioritised: the sport facilities were top-notch and were being upgraded, whereas equipment and material used in education was somewhat outdated (e.g.lack of online material).Moreover, teacher 'Milla' also noted that teachers do not receive annual teacher training (coaches do), teacher 'Emmi' stated that some coaches would skip the once per semester meeting set up between homeroom teachers and coaches, and sports were repeatedly cited as the reason for student athletes to enrol in the school to the point that education was barely mentioned beyond the scope of graduating one way or another (even on the school's website for applicants, where studies and studying are mentioned a total of four times versus 13 mentions of athlete alumni and nine mentions of sports or training (school's website, 2020b)), which, although less physical, were clear signs of the lack of value assigned to the study domain.It was also not always clear whether the purpose of coming to school was to learn, to socialise with sports peers, or to utilise the free lunch opportunity provided by Finnish schools, although this may be true for non-athlete students as well.However, in comparison to the goals for high achievement set in sports, the goal in upper secondary education was to graduate rather than meet specific grade or career related goals, despite the upcoming, known changes to the application process.According to Kalenius (2014), in order to find employment in Finland, one is typically required to possess a profession or a master's degree, which means that early and continuous career counselling would be important to the student athletes' future, yet according to student athlete 'Viljami', there is no guidance for tertiary education opportunities unless the student actively and independently seeks the information out themselves.The interviewed student counsellor, however, refuted this claim by stating that such guidance is available to student athletes, they simply choose not to utilise it during their studies, which suggests that it may be more likely that the sources able to provide guidance are not recognised as affordances by student athletes, or that they are not being encouraged to use them by agents they consider role models.For example, as stated before, student athletes viewed coaches as their mentors and role models, yet we found that while coaches encouraged studying, they did not encourage the continuation of their studies after graduation.There was also no mention of concrete actions taken to promote education, rather, student athletes were advised to prioritise sports and complete homework if there was time left.
According to Savickas (2013), children resolve conflicts in their life by looking to role models who have had similar issues and have managed to solve them, which means that in order for student athletes to take their studies and future career aspirations besides that of a professional athlete more seriously, it would be crucial for coaches to support their efforts.This idea was supported by teacher 'Emmi's' observation that the attitude of popular sports was detrimental to the overall attitude of the group: if a popular sports peer viewed education as valuable, the other athletes in the group tended to do so as well, and vice versa.Moreover, this specific environment also had a high number of teachers with personal knowledge of a student athlete's life: they have potential to provide unique support to the athletes of the environment.If the coaches and the teachers were to communicate better and work towards the same goals together, they may be able to greatly improve the effectivities of each other and the affordances of the environment, which would likely benefit the students greatly.
Although there were no grade or career specific goals in the environment, the study domain seemed results oriented as well.The first and second author observed student athletes taking tests seemingly frequently during their observations, although it is difficult to ascertain whether student athletes were being tested more frequently than upper secondary students normally would be based on a short period of observations.The high number of tests may, for example, be due to student athletes travelling often for competitions, which could cause tests to build up over time.This interpretation is supported by teacher 'Milla's' comment: "because student athletes are quite often not here during tests or even retakes .. I'd say that I do that on a weekly, sometimes even daily, basis, have student athletes take tests they missed ..", although it is not possible to rate the overall frequency of testing in a Finnish school based on one teacher, or even one course, as teachers have full authority over their educational methods.It was, however, clear that the current system was putting a strain on both the teachers and the student athletes: all the interviewed student athletes besides 'Johanna' felt that their workload for school was high and student athlete 'Paavo' in particular felt that he had little time to himself.He described his daily life being consumed with training, travelling to or being at school, or doing homework.'Paavo's' testimony is consistent with past research (c.f., Elliott, Drummond, & Knight, 2018;Ryba et al., 2017) and it is also concerning that the student athletes' perception of their form of life is that they are always partaking in school or sports related activities.This perception lacks the private life domain that is an integral part of the holistic view, it does not support achieving the important developmental tasks set for the life stage upper secondary school aged youths are in, and both may lead to future issues.For example, if student athletes feel that they are not getting a break or enough rest, any amount of work may feel high regardless of the actual amount.
There may even already be some evidence of this happening as student athlete 'Johanna' stated that she does not necessarily do schoolwork while she is away competing, and both 'Anniina' and 'Paavo' confessed to forgetting to or not doing their homework at times.Teachers 'Jaana' and 'Emmi' drew attention to well-being and managing one's energy as well, with the former noting the importance and difficulty of student athletes managing their energy and with the latter expressing the necessity for student athletes to determine and maintain boundaries for what they consider to be enough on their behalf (and that others have to accept it as well).
In order to aid student athletes in bearing the workload, some efforts were taken.For example, staff members claimed that student athletes do not have as much schoolwork during the competitive season of their sport, however, student athlete 'Viljami' had an opposing view: in his opinion, student athletes are assigned a disproportional amount of work for being absent, which would cause schoolwork to pile up excessively during the competitive season (e.g. the high number of tests witnessed by first and second author).Although there were student athletes who felt that the school was not flexible enough academically, student athlete 'Johanna' had transferred from a non-sports upper secondary school and said she was doing less work and getting the same or better grades than before, which may indicate that student athletes lack the effectivities to accurately measure the amount of school work or they may simply be overburdened by the system overall.Considering that student athletes collectively felt that especially the freshman year was challenging due to the high number of courses, 35 courses out of the total 75 required, and that some student athletes expressed relief after removing themselves from the dormitory, it may be useful for the environment to reconsider its division of labour.For example, although the purpose of this endeavour was to leave student athletes with more time for sports in the following years of their studies, student athletes are left with little free time and feel burdened.Student athlete 'Paavo' in particular felt that he was left to deal with the challenges alone and wished there had been a better support network.According to Henriksen, Storm, Kuettel, Linnér and Stambulova (2020), having a DCDE support team is beneficial to the success of such environments, which may be an affordance this environment ought to invest in.Meanwhile, key agents in the environment should attempt to create fast acting solutions to safeguard student athletes' futures.One such effort the key agents could undertake is debating and reconsidering the priorities in flexibility of their environment, although we recognise that it is not an easy task as it would require the agents in the environment to improve their communication, find a shared culture, and come to an agreement on the direction to take, which we know to be a slow and difficult process based on literature (e.g.McDougall et al., 2019;Schein, 2017).We also acknowledge that even if the aforementioned factors were in order, shifting the environment's focus to a more balanced one would require significant changes to its operations and systems.For example, because there is a concrete lack of activities besides sports in the environment, even if more time were to be released from sports into the other domains, it is likely that student athletes would continue to engage in sports, which would not solve the issue of imbalance currently present in the environment.Moreover, although it is important that teachers and coaches improve their communication, in order to strengthen the connection between student athletes and their families, the environment would have to invest more into including student athletes' families.We, therefore, fully recognise that developing the environment and solving its issues would require resources and effort that would not be possible to deliver overnight.
The role of flexibility (academic) as a key affordance of a DCDE is easy to recognise as it is explicitly mentioned in six of the eight descriptions of the types of DCDEs Morris et al. (2020) discovered in the context of European Union states, yet the level of flexibility may be difficult to evaluate.On the one hand, teachers were willing to make exceptions and accommodate for sports by remaking tests frequently and allowing student athletes some freedom in terms of classwork, but on the other hand, there are also rules and regulations they must follow.If a teacher has not seen what a student is capable of by receiving enough work, they cannot justify their grading and, thus, cannot grade the student.Incidentally, the interviewed student counsellor revealed that the school has additional solutions for student athletes whose schedule does not work with the school, for example, students may complete school in five years instead of four or they can complete courses in night school.However, these affordances were not preferred, and student athletes were not alerted to their existence.

Reflections
Acknowledging the limitations of a brief ethnographic period in the environment, it was clear that the study domain was underdeveloped and the different domains of the environment were imbalanced as both the teachers and the coaches were overworked, and student athletes reported to having difficulties as well.There was deficiency of certain affordances in the study domain and the private domain (e.g.online material, teacher training, and non-sports related activities in the dormitories) and the effectivities of different agents were not being utilised or recognised in domains, which ultimately caused instability in all domains and led to a one-dimensional form of life for student athletes.
As Gibson suggested (as cited in Davids et al., 2016), affordances may not always have positive outcomes and it is important for people to manage those affordances in order to avoid danger to themselves.Based on our findings, it seems that the dominating presence of sports-related affordances may be causing the other domains to suffer and it may also be nurturing a negative form of life for the athletes as they are willing to skip school and assignments in favour of doing sports.Moreover, student athletes also did not seem to attribute resources to taking care of their developmental needs beyond sports, which could be seen in most athletes not taking the time to connect with their families and non-athlete peers at school.Although this may not have been an issue for the student athletes thus far, it seems highly possible that it will turn into one in the long-run if the key agents in the domains do not work on mutual understanding to form a shared culture and better plan the utilisation of the opportunities they wish to offer to their student athletes.
While our visits to the environment have been fairly brief, we feel that each visit has supported our interpretations and has given us valuable experience.However, we also recognise that more interviews and observations, especially from different standpoints, would have enhanced the case.For example, although this was also in part due to the design of the environment, we typically observed agents in the environment we had expertise in ourselves (education, sport) and we recognise that had we switched settings, we may have discovered new phenomena the other would not have in that specific situation.We also recognise the importance and necessity of analysing a broad set of data and debating interpretations.If we were to repeat the research, we would reserve time for a brief shared meeting in the evening to discuss our research journals and findings for the day instead of waiting until a later date.
We would also attempt to cross observe each other's area of expertise.

Recommendations
Despite DC's increase in popularity, and despite the studied environment belonging to one of the categories where formal support should be established between the sports and the study domain (Morris et al., 2020) and the environment's status as one of the secondary schools with a special task in Finland, we found that the channels were poorly established.
There did not seem to be a shared culture in the environment, rather, the environment was seemingly split into two clear subcultures between the sports academy and the school.
Moreover, the three domains were imbalanced in how affordances, effectivities and forms of life were divided and utilised.For example, student athletes did not recognise teachers as key agents, the opportunities afforded to them by the study domain were often either not recognised, or utilised, and the student athletes' form of life was typically exercising, eating, training, and attending school, which does not depict the holistic view of DC.Student athletes was barely mentioned family even after probing and, indeed, most of their time seemed to be spent with their sports peers and coaches.Moreover, neither of the two interviewed parents interacted with the school on a regular basis, one having no knowledge on the topic at all, and with the other only communicating with the school when necessary.
Considering that nearly 70% of student athletes attending upper secondary school in Finland expect to obtain a master's degree in the future (Ryba et al., 2016) and that, in the light of the application overhaul, it seems that student athletes attending secondary schools with a national task may be somewhat more vulnerable to future course related complications due to ability to exclude eight courses, it would be crucial for this environment to ensure all agents within their environment establish better communication and co-operation to ensure the best possible outcome for student athletes, that is, a balanced and sustainable DC that does not happen at the expense of any of the important pieces of a student athlete's present and future life.More concretely, according to the Council of State (Valtioneuvosto, 2017), upper secondary schools with a national tasks are intended for athletes aiming to compete at high levels and such schools ought to "enable the co-ordination of upper secondary studies and competitive sports", which is currently not happening due to the constant prioritisation of sports.Moreover, the environment should also be working to improve the inclusion of families in the student athletes' lives, as well as supporting school-aged young people's learning of challenging developmental tasks associated with their life stage.This is critical because, due to its location, it is the dominant environment for the student athletes' overall development.As it stands, based on our observations, interviews, and collected data, the imbalance in the environment is likely causing student athletes to not receive all the important seeds necessary for their future life design.Furthermore, we recommend that other, similar environments that are going through the same transformation should exercise extra caution in the integration of efforts and interpretations should be debated together in order to build mutual trust and understanding.
Student athletes should preferably be made a part of this process and be allowed to share their experiences to foster understanding of freedoms and flexibilities, as well as responsibilities.
Although there typically are no dedicated DC teams in Finland, we recommend establishing such a team as recent findings suggest that having one contributes to the success of DCDEs (Henriksen et al., 2020), whose role will likely continue to increase (at least in Finland).We also recognise the need for further research in order to better support environments experiencing similar issues.

Conclusion
Investigating a sports environment that recently rebranded (but not yet transformed) from an ATDE into a DCDE through the lenses of organisational culture (McDougall et al., 2019;Schein, 2017), ecological dynamics (Davids et al., 2016;Immonen et al., 2018) and with the support of the HEA (Henriksen et al., 2010) provided us with insights into the functions of the environment and the life of a student athlete it forms.We discovered the imbalance of the environment and explored the reasons behind it, which could be useful in improving this and other environments facing similar issues or circumstances.Other environments transforming from an ATDE into a DCDE should work towards a shared understanding of culture that is built on trust and mutual effort, and key agents ought to learn to recognise the expertise they each possess and utilise it accordingly.We argue that undertaking such efforts is crucial to ensuring sustainability of the environment to support student athletes' dual careers and overall life balance.

Figure 1 -
Figure 1 -The empirical model of a Finnish dual career development environment.