| Improving teachers’ qualifications is the prerequisite for improving education quality.Physical education teachers play a critical role in ensuring the quality of physical education.Their professional abilities directly impact the effectiveness of school sports programs and the implementation of various policies.However,the current state of physical education teacher education in China is facing significant challenges.Developing and implementing policies for teacher education can promote the improvement of their professional skills and,in turn,enhance the effectiveness and quality of school sports programs.Therefore,policy instruments are essential for researching and implementing physical education teacher education policies.Policy instruments can guide policy-makers in adjusting and improving policies,and they can also help policy implementers in enforcing policies,thereby improving the quality and level of physical education teacher education.This study uses a policy tool perspective to construct a three-dimensional analysis framework for policy texts based on three dimensions: policy tool type,policy stage,and policy theme.Through cross-analysis,the study aims to understand the situation in each dimension and investigate the relationship between the internal and external aspects of policy texts.The purpose of this study is to more accurately understand and grasp the physical education teacher education policies,promote the development of school sports,and provide theoretical basis for policy makers and the improvement of the quality of physical education teacher education.This study focuses on the physical education teacher education policies issued by the national departments,such as the CPC Central Committee and the State Council,from October1 st,1949 to December 31 st,2020.The study adopts methods such as literature review,text analysis,statistical analysis,and comparative analysis to investigate the policy tools,policy stages,and policy themes of the physical education teacher education policies.The following conclusions are drawn from the study:(1)The physical education teacher education policy system in China is becoming more complete.From the perspective of policy issuers and policy types,the issuers of physical education teacher education policies have become more diverse,and the policy types have become more varied.In terms of policy tool types,the physical education teacher education policies cover authoritative,incentive,advisory,capacity-building,and systematic reform policy tools.From the perspective of policy stages,the physical education teacher education policies have evolved from focusing on developing the quantity of physical education teachers to improving their quality,and the number of policies issued by the government has been increasing.In terms of policy themes,the physical education teacher education policy system in China has formed a comprehensive system that emphasizes teacher management and covers pre-service training,in-service training,teacher qualification,and educational platforms for physical education teachers.(2)Policy tools are dominated by systematic and reform-oriented policy tools,and various policy tools coexist in an unbalanced manner.In the policy of physical education teacher education,all five types of policy tools are used to varying degrees,with systematic and reform-oriented policy tools as the main type,and authoritative and persuasive policy tools as support.Secondly,the use of authoritative policy tools is not as much as that of systematic and reform-oriented policy tools,and the use of persuasive policy tools accounts for a considerable proportion,indicating that the policy is not highly mandatory and the specific policy implementation is difficult.(3)Policy tools prioritize the achievement of long-term goals and overlook the attainment of short-term objectives.Physical education teacher education is a long-term endeavor that requires a mutual interaction between achieving short-term goals and pursuing long-term objectives,namely,the coordination between incentive policy tools such as "rewards," "honors," "commendations," and capacity-building policy tools such as "education," "training," and "cultivation." The proportion of capacity-building policy tools is relatively high in the physical education teacher education policy,while the proportion of incentive policy tools is relatively low,indicating that more capacity-building policy tools are selected in the entire physical education teacher education policy system,and there are fewer choices of incentive policy tools.(4)Policy tools are guided by the dominant policies,showing a spiral upward trend.The number of promulgated policies in physical education teacher education shows a certain periodicity,guided by dominant policies and exhibiting a spiral upward trend as a whole.The formulation of basic policies affects the number and content of policies in physical education teacher education,with the number increasing in a spiral pattern and the content tending towards diversity.The focus of physical education teacher education policy changes with the times,shifting from an emphasis on the quantity of physical education teachers to their quality.(5)The allocation of policy themes is uneven,and there are differences in policy tool configuration.Although physical education teacher education policies are involved in all five policy themes and highly value teacher management,there is a lack of policies on teacher qualifications and educational platforms.From the two-dimensional analysis framework of physical education teacher education policies constructed in this study,there are certain differences in the use of policy tools among policy themes.This difference is reflected in the relatively sufficient supply of policy tools for teacher management,post-service training,and pre-service training themes,while the supply of policy tools for teacher qualifications and educational platform themes is relatively scarce. |
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