This study aimed to qualitatively clarify the actual situation of high school health and physical education teachers’ “long-distance running lesson view” and the factors that formed it. In all, 738 high schools were randomly selected throughout Japan (15% sampling rate), and a survey was conducted by mail to health and physical education teachers in February 2023. Of the teachers in the 738 schools surveyed, 199 responded (response rate: 27.0%). Data from 152 teachers in schools were analyzed after excluding 47 schools with teachers that failed to complete the questionnaire. The results of this study revealed the following: (1) The “perspective or view regarding long-distance running classes” held by high school health and physical education teachers were mostly “attitude toward long-distance running classes,” and “the actual condition of students” after entering the profession was cited as a contributing factor to this perspective. (2) The period before entering a teacher training program and the period during which they were enrolled in a teacher training program were rarely cited as factors contributing to the high school health and physical education teachers’ “perspective regarding long-distance running classes.” This could be because few opportunities existed to question the “long-distance running perspective regarding teaching” prior to their entry into the teaching profession, or because teachers’ long teaching experience may have overridden their perspective regarding teaching prior to their entry into the teaching profession.
