Thesis
Curriculum reform in China : physical educators’ engagements with, enactments of and reflections on the new Physical Education and Health curriculum
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2025
- Thesis identifier
- T17526
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202250492
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- This thesis examines how the compulsory education curriculum reform introduced by the Ministry of Education of China (MoE) in 2022 reshapes physical education and health (PEH). The new PEH curriculum prioritises the development of core competencies, aiming to enable students to cultivate appropriate values, develop essential characters, and foster key abilities through the learning process, including motor abilities, health behaviours, and sports morality. By integrating global educational trends with a framework rooted in Chinese sociocultural values, the curriculum seeks to nurture a generation of well-rounded individuals, emphasising moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labour development. This thesis takes a critical approach, drawing on key ideas from poststructuralism, curriculum theory and critical policy studies, to explore how physical educators engage with, enact, and reflect on the new curriculum. Data were generated through conversational inquiry, via individual interviews with 18 physical educators, including teacher educators, teacher-researchers, and in-service teachers in Shanghai. Thematic analysis was employed to interpret findings, presented across four chapters. Chapter 5 reveals that physical educators’ engagement with the new curriculum was mediated by their professional roles, institutional positioning, and broader ideological forces shaping curriculum policy. Chapters 6 and 7 demonstrate that physical educators enact the curriculum dynamically, navigating interpretation, adaptation, negotiation, and, at times, resistance. Chapter 8 identifies traditional norms and socio-cultural contexts as significant barriers, highlighting tensions that impede the realisation of the reform’s progressive goals. By critically examining the interplay between policy and practice, this study contributes to the literature on PEH pedagogy and the global discourse on curriculum reform. It offers nuanced insights into the complexities of curriculum change and provides valuable implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers working to transform physical education and health in China and beyond.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Kirk, David, 1958-
- Landi, Dillon
- Resource Type
- DOI
Relations
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PDF of thesis T17526 | 2025-10-31 | Public | Download |