School Staff's Perspectives on the Adoption of Elementary-School Physical Activity Approaches: A Qualitative Study

There is a need to understand how schools adopt physical activity approaches (curricula, programs and practices), but few studies report on this process.

To obtain elementary school staff's perspectives regarding how their schools are currently adopting physical activity approaches.

We recruited 15 participants from four job types in an urban Texas school district to participate in semi-structured interviews. We coded and analyzed interviews using directed content analysis and iterative categorization.

We identified four themes pertaining to how the district, schools, and teachers contribute to the adoption of approaches. Themes included: (1) Staff identify new approaches through numerous channels; (2) Adoption occurs at multiple organizational levels; (3) District staff fulfilled a supporting role in the adoption process; and (4) School staff's perceptions of approach characteristics influence adoption.

We found that schools adopt physical activity approaches at both the district- and school-level. Additionally, multiple stakeholders played a role in the adoption process and those roles varied across approaches.

Time, money, space, staff, competing priorities, limited information, the school's mission, and the benefits an approach provides to children are factors that researches and practitioners should consider when starting a new physical activity approach.