Disability, gender, and rurality in school physical education: teachers’ perceptions of intersecting inequalities in China

In China, students with disabilities in rural schools not only face disability-related barriers but also structural inequalities arising from the urban-rural divide caused by the household registration system and persistent gender norms. However, how these dimensions intersect remains largely unexplored. This interpretivist study examines how rural physical education teachers perceive students with disabilities, focusing particularly on how disability, gender, and urban-rural identity interact in their perceptions. The study conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 physical education teachers from rural schools in four Chinese provinces and analyzed the data using reflective thematic analysis guided by the theory of intersection. The study found that teachers perceive rural girls with disabilities as being in a uniquely marginalized position. These students are consistently described as becoming ‘invisible,’ facing a lack of expectations, withdrawal of family investment, and systemic neglect – fundamentally different from the experiences of boys with disabilities or urban students. This invisibility stems not from a simple accumulation of disadvantages but from the interaction between gender norms that exclude girls from physical activities, rural structural constraints limiting resources and training, and disability-related barriers that exacerbate these inequalities. Teachers’ own positional awareness, including their gender and rural background, shapes how they perceive and interpret these intersecting dynamics. This study contributes to intersectionality research by demonstrating how urban-rural identity functions as a meaningful dimension of intersectionality and by placing the experiences of rural girls with disabilities at the center of the study. This group is often obscured in both educational practices and research. The findings emphasize that achieving meaningful inclusion requires addressing the structures that create this obscured intersectionality.