Prioritization of barriers of trans-sectional cooperation in student sport using the interpretive structural model

Cooperation is a kind of multifaceted, constructive, and beneficial link between the individuals in which the principle of the human equality is taken into consideration. Cooperation in various fields, especially in the field of education is of great importance and necessity, so that the main axis of any country’s development is based on the cooperation in education. Based on the existing research, trans-sectional cooperation in the student sport, despite lots of benefits and necessities is not satisfactory and it has been faced with many barriers. Therefore, the present study aimed to prioritize the barriers of the trans-sectional cooperation in student sport using the Delphi qualitative method, the fuzzy screening and the quantitative method of interpretive structural modeling. The present research is applied in terms of the research purpose, and it is descriptive with survey design in terms of the data collection procedure. To conduct the research, first, a list of the barriers to trans-sectional cooperation in student sport (14 categories) were identified using the Delphi qualitative method through analyzing the content of the existing literature and 15 interviews with experts. Using fuzzy screening method, the barriers approved by the experts were extracted (12 categories). Then, using interpretive structural modeling, the relationship between the barriers of cooperation was determined and they were analyzed integratively. Finally, MICMAC method was used to cluster them. Since this method is based on the opinion of the experts, the views of 8 student sport authorities, experienced physical education teachers and the academic professors were used. The results showed that the upstream documents and not being aware of the penetration power of 12 and the dependency power of 6 were the most influential barriers to trans-sectional cooperation in student sport. Therefore, many barriers to the cooperation can be removed by modifying the upstream documents and raising the level of the community awareness through the capacity of the media, clerics and celebrities.