Challenges in conducting budo education in junior high schools: A quantitative analysis of the answers to an open-ended question

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges in conducting budo education in junior high schools through a quantitative analysis of the answers to an open-ended question obtained from physical education teachers. A questionnaire survey was given to 1,066 physical education teachers who are working at junior high schools, which were randomly selected from a list of all public junior high schools in Japan. A total of 302 responses were received between the end of November and the end of December 2014. The responses of the 269 respondents who answered the open-ended question about challenges of teaching budo in junior high schools were analyzed. The main results are as follows:

1.The biggest challenge was related to budo equipment, followed by facilities.

2.The most common category appearing in the answers was “equipment”, which coincided with categories such as “facilities”, “instructor”, and “kendo”. The second most common category was “teaching method”, which coincided with “technique” and “instructor”; and the third most common category was “safety” which coincided with “instructor”, “technique” and “facility”.

3.The challenges were different depending on what type of budo is taught in the physical education budo class.

4.There were no differences in the challenges according to the format of the class or the teachers’ budo experience.

The results indicate that there are some underlying problems surrounding the conducting of budo education in Japanese junior high schools that are not influenced by the format of the class or the teachers’ budo experience. In order to resolve these issues, it appears that efforts should be made in a mutually complementary manner rather than addressing each problem individually.