Abstract
Today’s socio-economic, ideological and political changes affecting the fields of education and training lead the relevant actors to question the meaning of their work. This contribution focuses on the representations and values of judo instructors. Its aim is to identify how they deal with the occasionally contradictory forms of logic underpinning their activity. The background of the study is twofold: psycho-social, relating to representations, values and professional involvement, and sociological, relating to perception of work and professional recognition. At the methodological level, following an ethnographic approach, two series of semi-directive interviews were conducted in 2016 by a team of four researchers in the Occitanie area. In addition, data was collected in October-November 2016, during a professional meeting and later online from a self-administered questionnaire. The analysis of the compiled data allows us to gain a better understanding of the shared values and the tensions many judo instructors are faced with in their day-to-day activities. In particular, the results highlight and illustrate the range of dilemmas instructors have to deal with, between pleasure and effort, leisure activity and competition, tradition and change. Judo instructors increasingly have to ensure the profitability of their activity structure, but at the same time without losing the fundamental values of judo and while balancing family and career. The study sheds light, at least in part, on the perception of work that these instructors build in order to adapt to changes and to maintain the meaning of their activity.