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Table 2 Summary of the emerging themes for the Daily Physical Activity (DPA)and the Food and Beverage Sales in Schools (FBSS) guidelines

From: From policy to practice: implementation of physical activity and food policies inschools

DPA themes

FBSS themes

Relative advantage

• It’s better than what we were doing

• We needed this

• We had a better way of doing this before

• It would be better if we didn’t loserevenues

Compatibility

• It fits our philosophy

• It fits my philosophy

• We like it versus it does not fit in my schedule

• The school community was on board

• There are favorable social norms

• There are favorable social norms

• Whose responsibility is it? We believe it is thefamily versus schools need to help those that don’thave

• Whose responsibility is it? We believe it is thefamily versus schools have a social responsibility to notprofit from selling children unhealthy food

• This takes special skills

• We (teachers) resent the top down approach taken forimplementation

• We can’t follow it all the time, we need“one-time” exceptions

Complexity

• We struggled with the lack of guidance

• We found it difficult to understand the scope of theguidelines

• We’re (elementary teachers) not clear whatcounts toward DPA

• We have to figure out what to do about decreasingprofit margins

• We’re (elementary teachers) not clear thatactivities should be structured to count toward DPA

• We (teachers and Parent Advisory Council (PAC))struggle to find suitable fundraising alternatives

• Evaluating implementation of DPA is hard

• We can be perceived as overstepping our boundaries aseducators

• In higher grades it does not work as easily

• This pits the administrators against the parents

• We can’t meet all curriculum expectationsversus it helps us meet our expectations

• We struggle with food insecurity

• We have to navigate cultural relevance

• Our regional climate limits us

Facilitator

• Having ready-made provincial resources helped us(elementary teachers) with implementation

• Having provincial resources helped us withimplementation

• This requires schools to have the appropriateresources

• Having access to a local nutritionist is helpful

• It is easier when physical education (PE) was apriority

• Having local suppliers that comply with theguidelines is necessary

• Having a PE specialist in elementary grades helps alot

• Having mandated guidelines is useful ammunition foradministrators

Observability

• Some of us have noticed positive impacts (increasedmental alertness and focus, improved academic performance,improved classroom behaviors, students enjoy being active,positive attitude shift toward physical activity, andincreased positive student/teacher interactions)

• Some of us have noticed positive impacts(students/teachers are healthier, increased awareness abouthealthy eating, positive attitude shift toward healthyeating, and involved in more “green”initiatives)

• We lost revenues

• It decreased teachers’ autonomy

• We had to reduce curricular and/or extracurricularactivities

• It’s just more work for us (teachers &schools)

• We have noticed students selling unhealthy food

• We are encouraging students to falsify their physicalactivity data on their report cards

• More students leave school grounds at lunch –as a result they skip more classes and we are more concernedabout their safety