From the Lens of Gender: The Influence of School Gender Education on Sports Involvement of Adolescent Students

The idea that students would benefit from sports participation has been widely accepted over the last decade. A study about the relationship between academic performance and physical activity finds out that Kids who engaged in vigorous physical activities scored 10% higher in math, science, English, and social studies than students who did not or did little engagement in intense physical activities. Unfortunately, there exists a huge participation gap between girls and boys when it comes to sports. Research shows that there is about a 25 percentage point gender gap in school sports participation in the 21st century so far. With this par-ticipation gap, girls are gaining much fewer benefits than boys from sports par-ticipation. With a focus on the influence of school gender education on sports involvement of adolescent students, this paper employs a self-developed exten-sion of analytical frameworks from relevant Chinese and Western literature to discuss the current situation of sports involvement, the current gender education curriculum, and the influence of gender education on sports involvement through case analysis. Based on the study, suggestions will be proposed for the further development of the gender education curriculum.