Perspectives of Taiwanese high school physical Education teachers and scholars on the integration of physical literacy into physical Education curriculum

This exploratory qualitative study investigates how Taiwanese senior high school physical education (PE) teachers and university-based scholars conceptualize and enact physical literacy within the context of competency-based curriculum reform. Adopting a single-case embedded design, the study involved semi-structured interviews with seven high school PE teachers and three teacher-educators purposively selected for their involvement in curriculum reform. Follow-up interviews were conducted with selected participants to clarify analytically significant areas of convergence and divergence. Data were analyzed through iterative thematic analysis, incorporating both inductive coding and theoretically sensitized interpretation. Findings reveal shared endorsement of competency-based and student-centered approaches, yet persistent tensions regarding the role of foundational motor skills, student autonomy, and assessment reform. Teachers tended to prioritize skill competence and pragmatic feasibility under structural constraints, whereas scholars foregrounded holistic development, motivation, and lifelong engagement. Interpreted through curriculum implementation theory and professional knowledge frameworks, these divergences appear less as ideological opposition and more as layered interpretations shaped by positional responsibility and institutional context. Given the small, purposively selected sample within a specific reform setting, the findings provide exploratory insight into mechanisms shaping physical literacy integration in Taiwan, rather than evidence of national implementation patterns.