‘It’s not doable!’ Exploring physical education teachers’ perspectives on the policy change of sport and physical education in Chinese universities

ABSTRACT

In China, a decline in adolescents’ physical fitness plus increased risks of chronic disease and obesity have led to recent policy changes in sport and physical education (PE) within the contexts of schools and universities. Although there has been increased research interest in issues related to youth sport and school sport, few studies focus on the university context. There is remarkably little bottom-up study examining how universities react to macro level policies in particular. Using case-study approaches, our research aims to explore PE teachers’ perceptions regarding the roles of sport and the fitness test programme for university students along with these staff members’ reactions to and perspectives on recent national policy changes. Guided by a theoretical framework for education policy analysis, the empirical section of this paper uses a series of interviews conducted with a range of senior sport staff members and PE teachers from the sport departments of four case-study universities in Tianjin, China. The paper reveals that the role and value of sport has indeed been upgraded against the background of a serious policy change at the national level; but variations are also apparent in the implementation of the policies at university level, with these variations affected by individual interests and perspectives and by universities’ contextual constraints. The paper ends with an analysis of the implications associated with micro level policy analysis for university sport development in China.

KEYWORDS:

• University sport
• PE
• fitness test
• policy implementation
• China

Disclosure statement

Whilst one of the researchers of this study was known to some of the participants, this researcher had took great care to avoid any subtle pressure and to ensure that decisions about participation were not seen to be influenced by this pre-existing relationship. There was no other personal,  professional or other interests or relationships between the researchers and participants, therefore, providing no concern to the validity of findings.

Notes

1. Municipalities are directly under the central government in China and have the same rank as provinces.

2. This study obtained ethics approval in June 2016.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partly funded by the 13th Five-years planning program of education science in Tianjin (HEYP5026).

Notes on contributors

Xuedong Chen

Chen Xuedong is a Lecturer in Sport and Physical Education in Civil Aviation University of China. He obtained his MA degree in physical education and training from Nanjing Sport Institute (China). Chen’s current research focuses on physical education and sport development in higher education.

Shushu Chen

Dr Shushu Chen is a Lecturer in Sport Policy and Management at University of Birmingham. Her principal research interests lie in the field of sport policy and management, particularly focusing on Olympic legacy evaluation and sport development in China.