Boyle, S., Jones, G. and Walters, S. (2008) Physical activity among adolescents and barriers to delivering physical education in Cornwall and Lancashire, UK: A qualitative study of heads of PE and heads of schools. BMC Public Health, 8 (1). p. 273. ISSN 1471-2458
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Recent initiatives have been introduced by the UK government into secondary schools to increase pupils' access to physical activity (PA). Despite this, not enough is known about pupils' levels of physical activity or whether the delivery of these initiatives in schools facilitates or creates a barrier for pupils' PA. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of adolescents PA levels from the perspective of those responsible for delivering physical education (PE) in schools; heads of PE (HOPE) and heads of school (HS).
METHODS:
Seventeen semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out with a snowball sample of HOPE and HS in schools in the Northwest and Southwest of England. Thematic data analysis using NVIVO was used to identify emergent themes.RESULTS:17 core themes were generated, 12 of which confirmed the findings from similar research. However, five themes relating to 'ethos of performance/elitism', 'lower fitness leads to lower ability', 'undervaluing activities within PE dept' or school as a whole', 'role of the school' and 'PE department doing all it can' offer valuable new insight into the factors which may encourage or prevent PA inside or outside the curriculum.
CONCLUSION:
Despite many positive perceptions of the delivery of PE in schools, it is evident that barriers still exist within that delivery which discourages physical activity. More research is needed to particularly address the complex issues of elitism and the ethos of PA in schools.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2008 Boyle et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Sheffield Import |
Date Deposited: | 02 Oct 2009 14:23 |
Last Modified: | 08 Oct 2009 09:26 |
Published Version: | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/273 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Biomed Central |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/1471-2458-8-273 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:9617 |