In recent years, campus football has emerged as a pivotal strategic initiative for advancing the integration of physical education and academic curricula, deepening educational reform, and revitalizing youth sports in China. However, at the practical ...
In recent years, campus football has emerged as a pivotal strategic initiative for advancing the integration of physical education and academic curricula, deepening educational reform, and revitalizing youth sports in China. However, at the practical level, the fragmentation of goals, dispersion of resources, and discontinuities in governance among diverse actors have constrained the high-quality development of campus football. Accordingly, this study adopts the theoretical framework of multi-actor collaborative governance to investigate the mechanisms and operational logic of collaboration among educational authorities, sports bureaus, schools, and social organizations in promoting campus football, focusing specifically on primary schools in Shandong Province. The purpose is to elucidate the intrinsic mechanisms and pathways through which multi-actor collaboration drives the revitalization of campus football.
Methodologically, this research employs an integrated approach combining literature analysis, semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, and empirical analysis, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative designs. First, through a systematic review of literature and policy documents, a theoretical model of “collaborative governance–process collaboration–campus football revitalization” was established. Second, in the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with officials from education departments, physical education teachers, and club coaches in Shandong Province were conducted to identify key elements and typical characteristics of collaborative governance. Third, in the quantitative phase, data from 110 valid questionnaires collected across Jinan, Weifang, Tai’an, and Binzhou were analyzed using and Bootstrap methods. Reliability and validity tests, baseline regression, and mediation analyses were performed to empirically verify the relationships and transmission mechanisms between collaborative governance and campus football revitalization.
The findings reveal that: (1) Collaborative governance exerts a significant positive effect on the revitalization of campus football. Actor collaboration, strategic alignment, and resource synergy among education, sports, school, and social institutions substantially promote the expansion, quality enhancement, and systematization of campus football. (2) Process collaboration functions as a significant mediator between collaborative governance and football revitalization. Specifically, resource aggregation forms the foundation of synergy, innovation stimulation constitutes the key pathway for optimizing mechanisms, and efficiency enhancement represents the core link transforming collaborative outcomes into revitalization achievements. (3) Noticeable differences exist in the level of multi-actor collaboration: the cooperation between government and schools is relatively close, whereas the participation of social organizations and parent groups remains limited, and interdepartmental information-sharing mechanisms require further improvement. (4) Regional disparities affect collaborative performance—developed regions exhibit more efficient collaborative mechanisms, while less-developed areas still face constraints in resource integration and policy implementation.
Based on these findings, this study proposes an optimization path for campus football revitalization under multi-actor collaborative governance: (1) strengthen the institutional leadership of government departments through top-level design and establish a normalized interdepartmental collaboration mechanism; (2) enhance the pivotal role of schools within the collaboration system to facilitate the integration of internal and external resources and develop unified football curricula; (3) invigorate the participation of social organizations to form a triadic pattern of co-construction, co-governance, and shared benefits among government, schools, and society; (4) employ digital technologies to optimize resource allocation and process management, thereby improving the efficiency of collaborative governance; and (5) establish performance evaluation and incentive mechanisms to ensure the sustainability of collaboration.
The originality of this study lies in its systematic exploration of the operational mechanisms of campus football revitalization from the perspective of multi-actor collaborative governance. It constructs an analytical model of “collaborative governance–process collaboration–revitalization performance,” thereby extending the application of collaborative governance theory within the domain of sports governance. Furthermore, by integrating qualitative and quantitative empirical analysis, this study provides a verifiable research paradigm for reforms in physical education within basic education in China. The research findings not only offer practical guidance for improving the campus football governance system in Shandong Province but also provide theoretical foundations and policy insights for promoting high-quality campus football development nationwide.