Empowering Teachers to Equip the Next Generation With Specialised Sport Education: Physical Education Teachers, Tennis Pedagogy, and <scp>SDG</scp> 4

ABSTRACT This article examines how physical education teachers can be empowered to deliver specialised sport education through tennis pedagogy, linking the analysis to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education). Rather than treating specialised sport as an elite or performance‐oriented domain, the study conceptualises tennis as a school‐based educational practice shaped by teachers' professional learning, pedagogical agency, and institutional conditions. Data were generated through an open‐ended qualitative questionnaire with 12 physical education teachers across primary, secondary, vocational, and higher education contexts in China. Thematic analysis shows that teachers consistently reframe tennis as an “educational tool” that can foster rule awareness, integrity, respect, self‐regulation, and strategic thinking, and that they judge success primarily by students' interest, inclusive participation, and sustained engagement rather than competitive outcomes. Teachers build competence and confidence through both formal pathways (e.g., coaching certification and structured training) and informal routes (peer exchange, lesson study, self‐directed learning, and iterative classroom experimentation). However, inclusive tennis pedagogy is highly contingent on uneven institutional conditions. Limited lesson time, large classes, court scarcity, delayed equipment renewal, and weak recognition within assessment and school priorities constrain teachers' capacity to sustain progressive learning and meaningful participation for mixed‐ability groups. The study argues that advancing SDG 4 through school‐based sport education requires more than curriculum aspirations: it depends on strengthening professional learning ecosystems and the infrastructural and institutional conditions that enable teachers to sustain high‐quality, inclusive specialised sport education for future generations.