Introduction: At present the general public has an erroneous image as to the PE teacher's role and increased awareness of the contemporary isseus faced by PE teachers today is required to advance the profession in China. Accordingly this paper used survey techniques to identify current perceptions of the PE teachers role as the basis for developing stratagies for reform where necessary. The redevelopment of outdated roles of PE teachers and a system reform that develops PE teachers is needed in order to completely upgrade the professional level of these educations. Methods The survey used a questionnaire designed to identify perceptions of the public, PE teacher and students of the PE teachers` role across a number of key areas such as teaching, coaching, management, supervision, friend and research. The data was analysed to provide basic descriptive information. Results The results from the statistical analysis of the survey data indicated that PE teachers were identified with a number of roles. Twenty-seven % of those surveyed believed that the essential role was that of sports manager, whereas 23% identified the teaching role as the principle function. Other roles identified included: coach, 19%, sportsman 14%, official 8%, supervisor 3% and father 6%. The PE teachers perception of their role was in the order of teaching (47%), recreation (16%), friend (30&) and research (5.7%). Students perceptions of the PE teachers role were classified and ranked in order of their percieved priority as follows: "health director roles" (41%), "friend role" (19.6%), "educational role" (15.2%), "art role" (12.6%)and"research type" (8.7%). This suggests that college students are more aware of the health role because of their perceived importance of this role. Conclusions Currently, the general public has an erroneous image of the PE teacher's role and an image which differs from that of students and the PE teachers themselves. Increased awareness of the key roles among these groups relative to priority issues in society such as health is required. To support this the redevelopment of some of the outdated roles of PE teachers and a system of reform relative to the professional development of PE teachers is needed to upgrade professional standards in PE
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