From performance instruments to educational subjects: gaps in learning rights and dual-Career support for student-athletes in Taiwan's school sport class system

Under the pressures of academic credentialism and a competitive performance culture, student-athletes in Taiwan's school sport class system face structural barriers to their learning rights and dual-career development. This paper draws on Meyer and Rowan's concept of decoupling as the primary analytical lens, together with ecological systems theory, dual-career theory, and Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital as supporting perspectives. Using document analysis and policy analysis, the study reviews academic literature, regulations, and official reports published between 2000 and 2026 to examine how the system shapes students’ academic opportunities, dual-career support, and well-being. The analysis reveals a decoupling between policy discourse and organisational practice: although policy language has shifted toward student development, school organisation, evaluation and resource allocation continue to be dominated by competitive performance. Within this structure, academic disadvantage is reproduced through cultural and institutional mechanisms rather than individual inadequacy, and dual-career support remains fragmented due to the absence of an integrated structure connecting curriculum, tutoring, psychological services, and career preparation. Student-athlete well-being and human rights are consequently deprioritised. This study contributes to critical scholarship on sport education by applying decoupling theory to a non-Western sport class system and by arguing that student well-being should serve as the standard for evaluating institutional legitimacy. Reform must move beyond discourse to structural reorganisation, with students recognised as whole persons at the centre of the system.