Table 3 Sample quotes or explanations for the themes that emerged for theDaily Physical Activity (DPA) guidelines ^*

Relative advantage

It’s better than what we were doing“..daily physical activity it seemed veryoverwhelming. But it didn’t take very long before itwas “you know what, this is, this is great, this issomething that should have been done a lot sooner.”(Elementary teacher)

We had a better way of doing this before“…the Ministry needs to look at ways toget more PE specialists out in the schools… If we hada PE specialist and we had it .. all the students in theschool would get a much higher level of quality out of theirphys ed.” (Elementary teacher)

Compatibility

It fits our philosophy “I like the philosophy,…,a healthy society is absolutely part of what weshould be encouraging and in education and setting the stagefor a person’s healthy lifestyle and a vision of beinghealthy and active all their life…it’s all good.” (Elementary principal)

We like it “I think it’s an awesomeidea.” (middle/high school teacher) versus it doesnot fit in my schedule “Teachers would love todo it. But again, …their day will not allow it.”(Elementary principal)

There are favorable social norms –Overwhelmingly, all informants talked positively aboutphysical activity.

Whose responsibility is it? We believe it is the family“I get that physical education should be partof our curriculum but I also don’t think it’sthe school’s job solely to teach healthy living, Ithink it should also come from home … but telling theschools that they need to do it, yeah, … I don’tnecessarily agree with it.” (Elementary teacher)versus schools need to help those that don’thave “…these kids really need that time… because I know a lot of them do not get outside ofschool exercise. Like they’re not in soccer,they’re not into dance; they’re not into hockeyor whatever.” (Elementary teacher)

This takes special skills “…even though,everyone to my knowledge in Canada has to take a PEmethodology course, there are very very manypeople…teaching in elementary school who areuncomfortable with PE, they’re uncomfortable withgetting the students to do activities, and gym results indodge ball for a lot of the year.” (Elementaryteacher)

We (teachers) resent the top down approach taken forimplementation “…they think the idea(DPA) is good but they’re questioning the wayit’s being implemented, yeah, more so than with thefood.” (High school teacher)

Complexity

We struggled with the lack of guidance “I thinkthe schools were looking for some guidance from thedistricts, the districts dumped it back to theschool…it would be nice to have a specific guidelinesaying ‘this is what you’re doing, this is howyou do it… different schools [in this school district]are having to come up with … different models toimplement in theory the program that could be justimplemented across the board. So I would say, whyisn’t the district just coming up with a common modelthat everybody is supposed to follow and you just doit?” (Middle/high school principal)

We’re (elementary teachers) not clear what countstoward DPA – How much physical activitystudents need to accumulate? Is it 15, 20, 30, and 60minutes per day or 10 minutes in addition to PE. Can DPA beaccumulated at recess or lunch time and what aboutnon-instructional hours? Does only vigorous physicalactivity counts toward DPA but what about strength trainingactivities?

We’re (elementary teachers) not clear thatactivities should be structured to count toward DPA“I know that some schools feel that the recess lunchtime should be part and parcel of the DPA just formanagement reasons. But I mean you can’t guaranteethat your kids are going to be active out there at recessand lunch. Some of them might just stand there and be, youknow, bystanders.” (Elementary teacher)

Evaluating implementation of DPA is hard“We’re meeting the requirements of having iton the report card, and encouraging parents to work with thekids to meet it…but if you asked me to pull out theactual guidelines and show you step by step how we’reimplementing – no.” (Middle/high schoolprincipal)

In higher grades it does not work as easily“…it fits into an elementarytimetable… in an elementary school you can add thoseminutes in; much harder to do in a secondary where they aregoing from teacher to teacher. And every teacher is mandatedto spend so many minutes with their kids and nowyou’ve got 30 minutes added in. Elementary: okay,secondary: difficult. “ (Middle/high schoolteacher)

We can’t meet all curriculum expectations“…meeting the language arts curriculum, meetingthe math curriculum requirements, social studies, science,health education, PE, computer technology, it’s all ofit and each year the Ministry gives us one more piece. Wellthere aren’t enough minutes in a day; we’ve runout, we ran out years ago.” (Elementary principal)versus it helps us meet our expectations “Idon’t see that as taking away from other parts oftheir curriculum to do this, I see this as all onecurriculum…I would posit that by doing your 30 minutesof exercise you’ve actually helped your social studiesprogram: kids are more primed to learn, they’re moreapt to spend time on it” (Elementary principal)

We have to navigate cultural relevance“…our greatest challenges… is with ourfamilies where English is not the predominant language inthe home. And working with those families to help themunderstand that it’s really important for their kidsto get out and be active outside of school is a challengebecause they might not hold that same valueculturally…Their values might be more onacademics.” (Elementary principal)

Our regional climate limits us “I mean up herein the north it gets cold early in the season so theycan’t go outside everyday right, it’s just notnecessarily practical…I mean in the lower mainland Iguess they can go outside and do some exercises, activities,go for a walk but whatever, whatever, you know, the teachercan or wants to do with them but we have, we don’talways have outside as an option up here.”(Middle/high school teacher)

Facilitator

Having readymade provincial resources helped us(elementary teacher) with implementation “Ithink by way of receiving materials (from Action Schools BC)like that, and then the workshop that we got from the ActionSchools – I think that, all that kind of stuff helps,yeah.” (Elementary teacher)

This requires schools to have the appropriateresources (gymnasium, nearby park or communitycenter, large outdoor field or playground area) “Thisschool being quite small they were able to have access tothe gym a lot more than other schools – like I was atanother school… they had to share all their PE classeswith like two or three or four other classes. So they havethe benefit here of not only having the gym tothemselves…they’re able to sign up for otherextra gym periods which definitely helps.” (Elementaryprincipal)

It is easier when physical education (PE) was a priority– Meaning if the schools had more scheduled PEin place, many PE electives, or many PA classes itfacilitated implementation.

Having a PE specialist in elementary grades helps a lot“(What helps implementation?)…I thinkhaving somebody that’s a real champion when you lookat (PE Specialist name), you know, when she has the kids Imean she works them pretty hard during PE time there’sno sloughing off there. You know the kids are, they’reput to task and they seem to enjoy what they’re doingand that’s the nice thing about having one personpretty well that does all of the PE at the elementarylevel.” (Elementary principal 0936)

Observability

Some of us have noticed positive impacts (mentalalertness and focus, improved academic performance, improvedclassroom behaviors, student enjoy being active, attitudesshift toward physical activity, and increased positivestudent/teacher interactions) “I thought, I would befighting up-against a wall to get this done; and thestudents love it..they crave it. I like ‘okay, yup,yup, what are we doing for fitness today?’ they wantto be in shape and they know it’s important…andthere’s no complaint, there’s nothing”(Elementary teacher) “So it has me thinking during theschool day. How can I get my kids more active? …it’s good to have that in the back of my mind knowingthat … each day, I have to think of how can I get mykids moving.” (Elementary teacher)

It decreased teacher’s autonomy –Elementary teachers have less freedom to structure theirdaily activities.

It’s just more work for us (teachers & schools)“The videos are fun. But, uh, no, it’sjust, it’s an added stress. Yeah, I’m justcranky about the whole dumb thing [laughs].”(Elementary teacher)

We are encouraging high school students to falsify theirphysical activity data on their report cards“The kids have to write in their booklets once a weekfor 10 minutes and they write down everything they did allweek. So, they make it up it’s not worth any marks.It’s a joke. So, but it’s a good start,they’re aware. They’re forced to do it. They canreflect on it and some of them take it seriously but othersdon’t… If DPA had some teeth then those are theones that would benefit. And it’s not just studentswho are overweight…it’s the students whoare…skinny, but you know they’re just nothealthy.” (Middle/high school teacher)