Health and Wellbeing of Cypriot Pupils. The Need for Change and Physical Education Teachers to Embrace Physical Literacy in the Curriculum

Abstract

The chapter presents a situational review of Cyprus’ Physical Education (PE) provision in respect to its attempts to improve the health, wellbeing and life chances of children and young people. We first present the worldwide challenge to children’s health, that is the lack of their physical activity, and then describe the Cyprus school system and PE offer that is tasked with addressing this worldwide challenge. Physical Literacy (PL) is then presented as the theoretical and practical concept by which teachers and schools can achieve real change in Cyprus. We then describe our efforts to investigate PE teachers’ current philosophies, their knowledge of PL, and their willingness and perceived ability to make meaningful change in their practice in order to improve children’s health and cultivate physical literacy. Results demonstrate there is strong motivation for change built upon dissatisfaction with the present curriculum implementation and school organisation. Finally, a body of work is outlined which could offer our profession the evidence base on which to justify our call to action to embrace PL in PE. The promotion of these research projects can provide a framework for all countries to collect the data which will finally provide the leverage needed to force governments to reconsider their PE provision and help teachers make the changes that are so desperately needed.