Globally, nation states have concerns about health, and this has led to a proliferation of initiatives and policies, which either have a direct or indirect influence on education in schools. This article focuses specifically on how China, with the largest public education system in the world, has sought to transform the health of the nation through national curriculum reform informed by policies from other nations, which has significant implications for physical education (PE). Guided by Charmaz’s (2014) grounded theory, 22 PE teachers from 13 secondary schools in the north of mainland China were interviewed to provide a unique insight into how changes in curriculum were taken up and responded to. Analysis of data from this study indicated that the demands of implementing the new curriculum have their origins in complexities that go beyond individual teachers’ perceptions of health and change. Teachers expressed concerns about the reforms and there were several further contextual factors limiting the realisation of curriculum reform guided by the maxim of ‘Health First’. Teachers were uncertain of how to enact changes and reorientate their practices so that they were in line with the expectations of developing health through PE. The development of an examination in PE also strongly influenced the teachers’ perceptions of what to prioritise.

With neo‐liberal policies dominating across the world, the marketisation and outsourcing of physical education is now common. Within this context, we argue the need for a ‘shifting perspectives’ agenda that will firmly establish the educational credentials of physical education in the future. Accordingly, we present the view that the ‘curriculum voice’ of physical education teachers will be central in mounting a challenge to this neo‐liberal agenda. In this first study within a longitudinal project, the focus is on final year student teachers studying an undergraduate degree in physical education. Using ecological concepts, we analysed 20 student essays as they seek to describe their personal visions for physical education. Acknowledging the aspirational nature of these visions, findings reveal that each student vision was influenced by different ecological factors and was subsequently personalised. The findings also reveal that while there may be overarching similarities across the visions, the educational subcomponents and theoretical constructs that make up these visions differ across all students. In conclusion, we argue that the findings suggest that, if supported and developed in the future, that these student visions may indeed turn into the ‘curriculum voice’ of a ‘shifting perspectives’ agenda.

The current neoliberal political climate in education has narrowed the focus of teachers' professional development and reduced their work in the classroom to a simple and predictable process. In this article, we challenge this view by deploying a range of complexity thinking concepts to present an account of teachers as self-organising, inquiring, and emergent professionals, whose classroom practice is constantly evolving as they negotiate different boundaries and make connections across the nested layers of the education system. Lesson Study is recognised as a collaborative, school-based, and long-term form of professional development that appears to have the potential to foster these complex and adaptive features of classroom practice. To this end, in the closing stages of this article, we present examples from our involvement in two longitudinal research projects in Scotland. The project leaders have set up appropriate contexts for Lesson Study that are ripe for a focus on complex adaptive practice in the future. We share our next steps in these two projects but remain realistic about the implications of developing complex adaptive practice through Lesson Study in the current political climate.

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This paper presents the view that Lesson Study has the potential to make a significant contribution to future developments in primary physical education. To set the paper in context, we explore the concerns that have long been voiced about primary physical education, particularly the nature of the professional development experiences of generalist primary class teachers. Contemporary approaches to teachers’ professional development, one of which is Lesson Study, are presented as having some potential in addressing these concerns as they are focused on teacher collaboration, autonomy and agency. Building on this background, the paper reports on a longitudinal physical education Lesson Study investigation that took place in one primary school in Japan: a country where Lesson Study has been a key feature of teachers’ professional development for more than a century. Working with 30 teachers over a three-year period, the findings highlight how the long-term, collaborative and situated nature of the Lesson Study experience helped create a positive context for the teachers’ professional development in physical education. Specifically, the findings reveal that the shared planning, observation and reflective experiences over time helped the teachers develop a more positive and detailed view of physical education. The paper concludes by proposing that Lesson Study, as a long-term, collaborative and situated endeavour, has the potential to foster productive developments in generalist teachers’ enactment of the primary physical education curriculum.