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Schools are important settings to promote health as they provide a context where children and young people learn to develop competencies to understand and influence their lifestyles and living conditions. This requires a school climate that encourages democratic learning processes and empowers students to become agents in their own lives. This process can be supported by taking an asset approach which focuses on opportunities and resources to enable change. It also requires methods that enable students to express their perspectives and engage in dialogue with peers and adults. Based on a case study in the Netherlands, this paper explores the use of two methods to actively engage Pre-Vocational Education (PVE) students in peer dialogue about their perspectives on active lifestyle, thereby rapidly mapping their assets instead of their needs. For this purpose, two action research methods were adapted and field-tested: the Structured Interview Matrix (SIM) and Photovoice. We describe the optimization process of these methods to fit with PVE-students in classroom settings. The protocols developed were applied in different PVE-schools with children aged 12-14 years and adapted iteratively based on the evaluations by critically reflecting on the experiences. We conclude that a combination of these methods (labelled Triple I) provides students with real opportunities to visualise their perspectives and engage in mutual deliberation. It also allows for efficiently collecting qualitative data from a large group of participants in an engaging way.

Summary Physical activity (PA) contributes to health throughout life. In particular, young people can benefit from this. Schools can play a key role in providing learning conditions to experience meaningful PAs aimed at inspiring students to lifelong PA. In this article, we argue the need for a salutogenic approach in schools focussing on respecting and enhancing adolescents’ agency with regard to their PA. This approach entails listening to adolescents’ perspectives and inviting them to participate in actively designing and carrying out PA as a prerequisite for their inclusive engagement. We unpack the concept of agency by drawing on insights from the Capability Approach. This provides input for the integration of agency in health promoting schools and salutogenic approaches, to enhance PA-related agency. Finally, we outline a research agenda to, eventually, create opportunities for students in schools to expand their PA-related agency. Lay Summary Physical activity (PA) contributes to health throughout life. Schools can play a key role in fostering meaningful PA experiences to inspire students to lifelong PA. This requires schools to focus on students’ personal aspirations, providing them with the space to develop their autonomy and find opportunities to decide and act upon expanding their agency with respect to the physically active lifestyles they deem meaningful.

Regular physical activity (PA) contributes to lifelong health and well-being. Adolescents in the Netherlands do not engage in sufficient PA, leading to serious health risks. The purpose of this study is to inform PA-enhancing strategies. This paper offers a unique method for analysing students’ perspectives about opportunities for PA in their school environments. The research method combines two approaches: a Health Promoting Schools (HPS) approach, which supports children’s development by using the school setting to promote PA, and a salutogenic approach, which engages all students in dialogue and reflection to identify factors or ‘assets’ that enhance their PA. Ninety-three students aged 12–14 from four secondary pre-vocational education schools participated in two group sessions in which the structured interview matrix and photovoice methods were employed. In these sessions, the students interacted with each other about four asset categories: talents, passions, the social environment and the physical environment. Thematic analyses of their dialogues led to three main insights: (a) students must perceive the activities as meaningful, appealing, contextually possible and manageable; (b) they use a wide variety of reasoning processes when deciding whether to engage in PA; and (c) it is valuable to invite students to share their individual perspectives on assets related to PA. All these aspects connect to the goals of both HPS and salutogenesis. We conclude that shifting the focus towards developing school-based interventions that build on student perspectives and active participation provides students with realistic opportunities for shaping PA and motivates them to be more physically active.

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