Dr Andrew Higham PhD, MSc, PGCE, FHEA
Associate Lecturer in Sport Psychology
- School of Sport and Physical Activity
- Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre
- Health Research Institute
Summary
Andrew is an Associate Lecturer in Sport Psychology. His primary research interests focus on well-being, mental health and morality in professional sporting contexts. He is also interested in creative qualitative research approaches, such as photo-elicitation, video docuseries analysis, and longitudinal interpretative phenomenological analysis. Andrew teaches a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate sports science and sports psychology modules.
About
I completed an MSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Psychology in 2019 at Sheffield Hallam University where I was awarded the Centre for Sport and Exercise Science: Postgraduate Sport and Exercise Psychology Prize for 'Outstanding Academic Achievement'. Afterwards, I was awarded a PhD scholarship at Sheffield Hallam University which I completed with no corrections in 2024 entitled, "An Exploration of Professional Coaches’ Well-being Experiences Within Football Club Contexts".
Throughout my PhD scholarship, I actively published my work and attended various national and international research conferences to disseminate my work on professional football coaches' well-being. Personal highlights were attending the International Council for Coaching Excellence's (ICCE) Global Coach Conference in Singapore (2023) and the European Congress of Sport and Exercise Psychology's (FEPSAC) Congress in Innsbruck, Austria (2024). This has since resulted in me being invited onto academic podcasts, writing for media outlets (The Conversation), and delivering educational workshops for professional sporting organisations/clubs. Following my PhD related activities, I was appointed as an Associate Lecturer in Sport Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University where I teach across various undergraduate and postgraduate sports science modules. I currently supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students who are interested in the field of sport psychology, specifically those who are researching sport personnel's lived experiences of well-being and ill-being.
Teaching
School of Sport and Physical Activity
College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences
Courses taught:
BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science
MSc Sport and Exercise Psychology
MSc Applied Sport and Exercise Science
Modules:
Scientific Principles for Sport
Psychology of Learning, Wellbeing and Sport Performance
Research Methods in Sport and Physical Activity
Advanced Assessment and Evaluation in Sport and Exercise Science
Research
- Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre
- Health Research Institute
Publications
Journal articles
Higham, A., Newman, J., Rumbold, J., & Stone, J. (2024). “Being a woman in the men’s game, it’s brutal”: a longitudinal photo-elicitation exploration of a woman football coach’s well-being. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 1-26. http://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2024.2437169
(2023). International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) 14th Global Coach Conference. International Sport Coaching Journal, 10 (S1), S1-S40. http://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2023-0102
Newman, J., Lickess, A., & Higham, A. (2023). Fighting the system: Psychology consultants’ experiences of working with cases of maltreatment in sport. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. http://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2023.2274455
Higham, A., Newman, J., Rumbold, J., & Stone, J. (2023). You wouldn’t let your phone run out of battery: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of male professional football coaches’ well-being. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. http://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2023.2260377
Higham, A., Rumbold, J., Newman, J., & Stone, J. (2023). Using video docuseries to explore male professional football head coaches’ well-being experiences throughout a season. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 69. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102488
Higham, A., Newman, J., Stone, J., & Rumbold, J. (2021). Coaches’ Experiences of Morality in English Professional Football Environments: Recommendations for Creating a Moral Atmosphere. International Sport Coaching Journal. http://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2021-0026
Conference papers
Newman, J., Higham, A., & Lickess, A. (2024). Tackling cases of maltreatment in sport: The experiences and recommendations of sport psychology consultants. (Abstract only). In FEPSAC 17th Congress 2024, Innsbruck, 15 July 2024 - 17 July 2024. https://fepsac2024.eu/assets/images/FEPSAC%20CONGRESS%202024%20FINAL%20Abstractbook.pdf
Higham, A., Newman, J., Rumbold, J., & Stone, J. (2024). Can a picture speak a thousand words? A longitudinal photo-elicitation exploration of football coaches’ well-being experiences and sensemaking [abstract only]. In FEPSAC 17th Congress 2024, Innsbruck, (pp. 779-780). FEPSAC: https://fepsac2024.eu/assets/images/FEPSAC%20CONGRESS%202024%20FINAL%20Abstractbook.pdf
Theses / Dissertations
Higham, A. (2024). An Exploration of Professional Coaches’ Well-being Experiences within Football Club Contexts. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Stone, J., Rumbold, J., & Newman, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00659
Postgraduate supervision
Current PhD students:
Oliver Rogerson: AI-based ill-being detection systems for sport coaching