In New Zealand, as elsewhere, active school travel has declined over recent decades. The emergence of physical inactivity as a global health concern has heightened the need for strategies to reverse this decline. In this paper we question whether ‘exemplar schools’ - those with comparatively high active school travel rates – offer lessons for other schools. We report on a qualitative investigation in these schools to understand school-level enablers and interactions across socio-ecological domains. Nine schools (three primary, four middle, and two secondary) were identified through local government contacts across New Zealand – reported estimates of active school travel rates were between 43% and 61%, compared to the New Zealand national rate of 31%. Semi-structured interviews with school representatives explored: school values, policies, and practices; local culture and norms; and perceptions of the street environment. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and analysed thematically. Interview data suggest an interaction between: local community culture and values; school culture and practices; and the physical environment, whereby these elements positively reinforce each other to contribute to active school travel rates above the norm. This interaction was common across all schools; however, context-specific variation in active school travel enablers was evident. Schools supported active travel because physical activity is believed to aid student learning, and this support was conditional on a traffic safety threshold being met. This qualitative inquiry complements other quantitative research by providing narrative around the complex socio-ecological interactions underpinning active school travel. Findings suggest that a thorough understanding of school values and priorities, and community culture are needed to design a context-specific mix of interventions to increase active school travel. Several other implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 22 citations exist upstream.