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From leadership research to district action: Personal Development of Adolescent Peer Leaders of a Whole‐of‐School Physical Activity Programme: Expectations Versus Outcomes

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

ABSTRACT Background The Active School Flag (ASF) programme for second‐level schools in Ireland is a whole‐of‐school physical activity initiative involving adolescents as peer leaders. This study explores how the peer leadership of this programme influenced adolescents' skills, competencies, perceived health, and school experience. Based on situated expectancy‐value theory (SEVT), we examined how outcomes met peer leaders' expectations as this can influence motivation for their peer leader role. Methods Data from peer leaders' focus groups and teacher interviews conducted at beginning and end of academic year were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Informed by SEVT, results were synthesized to identify how expectations compared to experience. Results The ASF class fulfilled peer leader expectations, providing a comfortable learning environment. Navigation of implementation challenges resulted in unexpected personal growth opportunities including developing problem‐solving skills. While at the outset peer leaders expected ASF would become more recognizable among the school community, this was unfulfilled. Implications for School Health Policy, Practice, and Equity School‐based programmes need to resource and support peer leaders when undertaking challenging tasks. School management should formally recognize peer leaders. Conclusions SEVT extends understanding of ways to encourage and sustain peer leaders' programme involvement. This study highlights added‐value and complexities of student‐led initiatives. Keywords: adolescent, expectations, peer leader, physical activity, school

Study methods

Schools selected were in the second stage of ASF. KM and CW explained the study to ASF coordinators at a standing online ASF training meeting. Following this ASF coordinators received a formal email invitation asking them to participate in an interview and to nominate three to eight peer leaders to complete focus groups.

Limitations

Only schools at the second stage of ASF were invited to participate, therefore results may not reflect peer leaders' experiences in other programme stages. Convenience sampling by teachers may have resulted in selection based on students' availability, teacher's preference or perceived suitability. Therefore, findings may not fully represent perspectives of the broader student population. Peer leaders' level of engagement in the ASF was not explored which may have influenced reported experiences. Researchers' identities and the focus group format may have influenced the experiences peer leaders felt comfortable sharing. Just over half of the peer leaders that participated at the beginning of the year also participated at the end, therefore findings may overrepresent the experiences of more motivated and engaged peer leaders.

A 90-day district inquiry

  1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
  2. Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one school improvement question with teachers. Protect a short shared planning cycle, agree an instructional change and use a common rubric for examining student work. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
  3. Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
  4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Review implementation fidelity, teacher time and independently scored student work against a recorded baseline. Examine access differences and competing explanations before attributing changes to leadership. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Kathleen McNally; Elaine Murtagh; Kwok Ng; Caera Grady; Catherine B Woods. Personal Development of Adolescent Peer Leaders of a Whole‐of‐School Physical Activity Programme: Expectations Versus Outcomes. The Journal of School Health (2026-09-01). https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.70216

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.