Stepping into new roles: role transition experiences of non-specialist physical education teachers in rural schools

Although physical education (PE) is widely recognized as essential to students’ holistic development, rural schools with limited educational resources often resort to assigning teachers who are qualified to teach other subjects to teach PE. In such contexts, non-specialist PE teachers are frequently assigned to teach the subject and must rapidly adapt to their new roles without systematic preparation. Drawing on transition theory and the work role transition model, this study adopted an interpretive qualitative approach to examine the PE teaching experiences of 20 non-specialist PE teachers from five rural schools. Through individual interviews, group interviews, and classroom observations, the study identified three core themes: (1) identity suspension: unstable role identification under involuntary work transfer in PE; (2) practice adaptation: gradual development of instructional competence through everyday teaching practice; (3) role legitimization: progressive stabilization of teaching roles among non-specialist PE teachers. The study found that the role transition of non-specialist PE teachers does not primarily revolve around the enhancement of sport-specific or athletic skills. Instead, this transition gradually stabilizes through sustained responsiveness to classroom demands and the cumulative accumulation of everyday teaching practices. While this process to some extent sustains the routine functioning of PE curricula in rural schools, its realization relies heavily on teachers’ emotional labor and the deployment of strategic coping practices within instructional contexts. Overall, the findings illuminate the practical pathways through which non-specialist PE teachers engage in PE instruction in rural schools, thereby shedding light on the persistent gap between PE teachers’ professional development trajectories and the structural allocation of educational resources in rural schools.