“Sitting Pretty?”: A Mixed-Methods Study into the amount of Time Irish Primary School Pupils spend Sitting throughout the School Day.

Abstract

The focus of this study is to investigate the amount of time children in Irish primary schools spend sitting and how much physical activity they participate in during a typical school day. In addition, this study also explores the factors influencing Irish Primary teachers’ capacity to engage in physical activity with their pupils. It examines this issue from three different perspectives; beginning with a broad overview of the current educational landscape in Ireland including National policies, then filtering down to consider various aspects which may influence it at school level and finally by exploring individual teachers’ identity and motivation and how these may impact upon teachers’ everyday practice. This study’s design involved a mixed-methods approach, with direct observations and self-reporting tools being the quantitative methods used, and semi-structured interviews with five primary school teachers being the qualitative methods undertaken. This study found that pupils in Irish primary schools sit for an average of 4 hours and 9 minutes of the school day (73%). All interview participants agreed that a positive school culture and adequate resources promoted their ability to engage in physical activity with their pupils. The main inhibitory factor was identified as “curriculum overload/time pressure” and all participants saw the need for more official curricular time to be devoted to physical education. 4/5 described their initial teacher education training in relation to physical education as insufficient and are open to professional development opportunities. In conclusion, the findings indicate that schools must be adequately resourced, teachers must be sufficiently trained and that official curricular time should be allocated daily to set a baseline of physical activity for each child.