Soccer Changes Lives: From Learned Helplessness to Self-Directed Learners

Coaches Across Continents uses a three-year Hat-Trick Initiative to work alongside partners in developing communities globally. This paper examines their Chance to Choice curriculum, and shows how they use this to guide local community coaches, teachers, and leaders from learned helplessness towards self-directed learning. Program participants learn applicable life skills in parallel to football skills on the field. They become self-directed learners with growing ability to challenge the existing order and thus to change their lives, their communities, and their countries.