Reporter | Xu Luqing
Edit | Yellow Moon
On May 1, the newly revised Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China came into effect, the first major overhaul in nearly 26 years since its enactment in 1996. When the new law was officially released, some people misinterpreted the "coordinated development of general employment" as "the diversion of general jobs after the cancellation of junior high schools", which was once on the weibo hot search and was later refuted by professionals. The last time vocational education attracted attention was in 2021, when the Ministry of Education released a message saying that "the occupational-general ratio of education at the high school level is generally the same", and the 50% vocational school diversion ratio has caused a large number of parents to be anxious. From the concern of "general job diversion", it is not difficult to see that people generally lack confidence in vocational education, and the future of children who go to the road of vocational education seems to be more confusing than choosing a college entrance examination university.
For a long time, we have focused a lot on the educational plight of urban middle-class families, ignoring that 40% of students in addition to educational competitions do not attend ordinary high schools and are diverted to vocational schools. Many of them come from rural areas, and some are children of urban migrant families, who cannot enter urban public high schools due to household registration reasons, and can only choose to return to their hometowns or study secondary vocational schools in the local areas. The other side of the neglect is the stereotype, in the visible social evaluation, they are often "bad students" or "losers", and the study life of vocational schools is also "not doing the right thing" or "mixed life".
On the occasion of the introduction of the new law on vocational education, Interface Culture (ID: booksandfun) organized a roundtable discussion to try to analyze the current problems of vocational education in China, the possible impact of the new law, and to see the structural dilemmas and solutions faced by vocational school students. The two interviewees were Liang Zicun, founder of the public welfare organization HOPE Academy, and Su Yihui, associate professor of the School of Humanities of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
This roundtable discussion made us realize that the label of "chaotic life" for vocational school students echoes the plight of "unstable workers" and the prejudices in the context of solipsism. The militarized management of vocational schools stems from the "fear of trouble" and is also a key part of creating a gentle labor force for society. From the 1980s to the present, vocational schools have gone from an enviable way out to a forced choice, against the backdrop of the commodification of labor and the decline in the status of skilled workers. The new "Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China" launched this time emphasizes that vocational education and general education are not different levels, but different types, and to achieve this vision, in addition to the improvement of the vocational education level itself, we also need to respect the value of labor more in social culture and establish a supporting guarantee for workers. The "school-enterprise cooperation" emphasized in the new law may lead the "enterprise to lead the school's nose", the uneven distribution of school resources, and the chaos of vocational school internships, which may lead to "school-enterprise cooperation", which are also issues that urgently need social attention and concern.
Both respondents believe that vocational education is not about "controlling students", nor is it just about creating human resources that meet the needs of the country, but should help each student explore their interests and potential and live their own lives. As educator Huang Yanpei said: "Vocational education does not cultivate a tamed labor force, but a self-respecting and creative worker." ”
01 The dilemma of vocational school students: "mixed days" stigma, stereotyped gender culture and militarized management
Interface Culture: Criticism and accusations of "chaotic life" of vocational school students seem to be very common, what are the structural reasons behind this?
Su Yihui: Many scholars have done research on the phenomenon of "chaotic days". Some scholars believe that this phenomenon is formed because our institutional space does not give these students a way to rise, so students give up on themselves in the process. But from my own observations, I found that more students felt confused about the future and doubted about life. Of course, for many rural students attending vocational schools, the household registration system does restrict their channels of upward mobility, which is one of the reasons for their confusion. Another reason is that in this fast-moving society, workers are in a state of instability. For vocational school students, the future is also extremely unstable, and it is difficult to grasp themselves, and brushing mobile phones to find fun is a kind of control of the present. The "chaotic" state is essentially a response to instability.
For some vocational school students with childhood trauma, "mixed days" is also a way to respond to trauma. Some vocational school students I met were subjected to various "stigmas" and prejudices from society in the environment of growing up from childhood to adulthood, were not valued, and were labeled as "poor students", and some classmates also encountered family changes and campus bullying. In the face of these traumas, "mixed days" has also become a way for them to struggle and deal with the trauma to some extent.
Liang Zicun: "Mixed days" is a general and inaccurate summary, such as being used to accuse students of not doing "serious things", not listening to teachers in class, brushing mobile phones every day, etc., but many people ignore the real situation behind "mixed days".
The first is that students are confused about their future and future, but this is a common situation for adolescent children, not specific to vocational school students. This confusion should also be seen as the focus of our education, helping students to explore themselves and plan for the future.
The second situation is that students may not like a certain way of teaching and attending classes. At present, many courses in vocational schools use rigid education methods, and the teaching of our vocational education cannot meet the needs of students. When I take students out to do community activities and research, the status of students is completely different from usual.
The third situation is related to the psychological condition of the students, many times their psychological condition is not good, it seems that they are "mixing days", in fact, they are wrestling with past experiences and setbacks. The mental health problems of vocational school students are often in primary and junior high schools, and behind them may be poor family relations, parents do not approve, and they are ignored from an early age. There are also many students who have had bad experiences in previous schools, such as encountering school bullying. In addition, I believe that these hurtful experiences are often affected by the education system, such as students may not have high grades and rankings, and social evaluations that they have no future, which further exacerbates the situation that children are not recognized at home and in school.
Interface Culture: Ling Minhua, a scholar at the University of Chinese in Hong Kong, has done research on the stigma of vocational school students, and people generally believe that vocational school students are intellectually inferior and morally inferior, and label them as "bad students". How do these stigmas in turn affect education within vocational schools and the self-development of students?
Liang Zicun: Last year, during our camp activities, two students saw a middle-aged man in his 40s and 50s falling to the ground next to the bus stop, and immediately went over to help him up and discuss whether to call 120. One of our interns later said that he was still hesitating to go over when it happened. When I come into contact with vocational school students, I often encounter such things, and the moral level has nothing to do with academic qualifications. In addition, regarding intelligence, everyone has different types of intelligence, such as abstract thinking, image thinking, etc., and poor academic performance can only mean that it is not suitable for learning such things. In addition, the division of "good students" and "bad students" will also affect the relationship between classmates, everyone will judge the classmates around them from the perspective of the teacher, and "good students" and "bad students" do not interact, provoking mutual disapproval among peers.
Su Yihui: I have seen in field research that moral level and academic qualifications have nothing to do with each other. Many of the vocational school students I come into contact with have a kind heart and a strong sense of empathy, but the labeling of "bad students" by society sometimes internalizes into their self-identification. This self-identification affects their self-confidence. The vocational school classmates I have come into contact with have kindness and many other very many advantages, but compared with high school students, they tend to have more inferiority and more disapproval of themselves. Self-denial and self-denial have the potential to form self-limitations in future development, limiting the use of their own potential. We can see that the structure of inequality is actually limited to themselves through their self-internalization.
Interface culture: At present, there seems to be a rare gender dimension in the research and observation of vocational schools, have you paid attention to the female group in vocational schools? Is there any difference between the development and obstacles of boys and girls?
Liang Zicun: The aspects of male and female students being restricted are indeed very different, parents generally have high expectations for boys, if a boy goes to vocational school, there will be a lot of negative evaluation and pressure around, which leads to vocational school boys are more anxious than girls, and the state is not very good. But the constraints for girls may be mainly the preference of parents over daughters, family support is generally not high, parents' expectations for them is to graduate early to work, although there will not be too many negative evaluations, think that going to a vocational school is also very good, but this also affects their future development. For example, some parents hope that girls get married early, some eighteen or nineteen-year-old girls accidentally get pregnant, parents think that the other party can talk about marriage if the conditions are good, and few people care about whether the child is too small, or whether this will affect her future development.
We have done gender education for vocational school students, on the one hand, we are concerned about heterosexual interaction, and whether students can form an equal gender culture. We found that students are deeply influenced by popular culture, the mode of communication between men and women is more traditional, many students will control the other party in intimate relationships, there are cases of breakup violence, and there are also girls who have heard about the experience of sexual harassment. On the other hand, it is hoped that whether boys or girls, there will be no restrictions on future development because of gender - for example, we will discuss professional choices, and there are boys who like children, so can he choose a preschool education major? Girls can choose machinery – help them break many gender stereotypes.
Su Yihui: I found in the field that the vocational education system is full of gender stereotypes. For example, when choosing a major, many girls are expected and encouraged to choose "feminine" majors such as preschool education or other service industries, while boys are expected to work in mechanical, computer, electronic, and transportation-related professions, which are often considered "masculine" majors. Therefore, the process of choosing a major also reflects the reproduction of gender stereotypes to some extent.
In addition, in vocational schools, girls are expected to be obedient and docile. The militarized management of vocational schools also gives high praise to the qualities of meekness and obedience, reinforcing the "gentle" character of women to some extent. Many of the girls' parents and the media they come into contact with (such as various web dramas) are also replicating this stereotype, allowing girls to internalize their identity.
For vocational school boys, in fact, their masculinity is often frustrated, showing a more contradictory state of struggle in the cracks. On the one hand, this stigmatization of vocational school students actually undermines their self-confidence and challenges their masculinity; on the other hand, families and society want them to have mainstream masculinity.
Both boys and girls are still in the process of gender socialization, often exploring how to get along with another gender by falling in love. But our gender education is not enough, so gender-based violence can also occur among students and cause harm. We have done relevant gender projects in schools, hoping to break various gender stereotypes through gender education, so that students of any gender can respect themselves and love themselves and respect each other, not only try to break through the restrictions caused by stereotypes to them, get greater development, but also learn how to treat classmates who are different from themselves equally and reduce the occurrence of gender-based violence.
Interface culture: According to the research of Du Liansen, a lecturer at Jiangsu Normal University, the discipline and management of students in vocational school education is the core content, and skill training has taken a back seat. The school's educational orientation is to "control students", implement militarized and strict management, and do not attach importance to technical education. In your observations and experiences, what are the disadvantages of the current vocational school education?
Liang Zicun: In some vocational schools I have been to, the characteristics of emphasizing discipline are indeed very prominent, and in the past few years, many schools like to mention their own characteristics as "militarized management". Schools are also more common in fear of accidents, such as students have mental health problems, the school may do psychological assessments, more serious sent home to recuperate, partly because to avoid students in school accidents.
These practices do not treat students as dignified people, but only as objects of management, as "troubles". I've also seen some schools say, "Society is like this, and we do this to help students adapt in advance." "I think it's ridiculous that, as educators, what we have to do is correct the lack of certain values in society, and schools are imitating these irrationalities."
If the teacher only reads ppt in class, the students will show that they do not want to listen, and the teacher may think that it is not the problem of their own classroom, but the problem of the students, but the problem of the students because of the stereotype - the students who go to the vocational school are poor students and bad students. But if it is in Tsinghua Peking University, if students do not like a certain course, many people will sleep, at this time, will the teacher feel that it is not good for students? Teachers and students do not recognize each other, and there is often a confrontational relationship in the vocational school classroom.
In addition, the educational resources in the vocational school can not be evenly distributed to each student, for example, the vocational school attaches great importance to the annual "national vocational skills competition", originally set up this competition is "to promote teaching", want to drive everyone's respect and enthusiasm for skills, but in fact, the school may only select a few in the class to get awards, separately for them to train, spend a lot of money and equipment on very few students, other students are not driven and motivated at all, the skill competition has become a simple selection.
Su Yihui: It is true that many schools now first judge students as "problem students" and then manage them through militarization, but to some extent we can also understand that this is a way to make students into qualified labor in advance, because enterprises need workers in factories to obey discipline, and many manufacturing factories today are also implementing militarized management. There is a "fu ying" theory in the sociology of critical education, which is that schools tend to build adaptive personalities for the labor market in advance. The strict militarization of some vocational schools today is also creating a docile workforce.
Paradoxically, however, this militarized management is often at odds with its objectives and results in the opposite way. In my field research, I found that this also tends to arouse students' rebellious psychology, and even affect students' belonging to the school. On the one hand, strict management will exacerbate students' confusion, on the other hand, it will also intensify the tension between the school and students; it may internalize the docile personality of some students, but it will also provoke more intense rebellion among some students. In fact, we need to reflect on this kind of management and return to the original intention of vocational education advocated by Mr. Huang Yanpei. In Mr. Huang's view, vocational education does not cultivate a tamed labor force, but a self-respecting and creative worker.
02 Reflecting on the current situation of vocational education from the new law: the lack of worker protection, school-enterprise cooperation is chaotic
Interface culture: Before the mid-1990s, young people's secondary vocational education was often regarded as a good way out, and with social changes, the function and positioning of vocational education also changed. What is this change like? What factors play a role?
Liang Zicun: The reform of state-owned enterprises in the 1980s included changes in the employment system, enterprises used to recruit workers first and then train, and after the reform, they became first trained and then recruited workers, and state-owned enterprises would directly recruit employees from vocational schools at that time, which was very attractive to people. After the 1990s, workers were laid off, and universities began to expand enrollment, on the one hand, the treatment of workers declined, and on the other hand, the opportunities for going to college became more, which also greatly affected the status of vocational education.
Su Yihui: Vocational education served industrialization during the planned economy period, when state-owned enterprises and vocational schools were a mutually beneficial relationship. This reciprocal relationship is based on the state-centered distribution system of the entire planned economy, and the most obvious embodiment is that vocational school students are distributed after graduation, and the work is both stable and secure. In addition, the college entrance examination system was only restored in 1977, when the number of college students was small, and it was very decent to become a worker in a state-owned enterprise.
However, after vocational education reached its peak in the 1990s, it was followed by the restructuring of state-owned enterprises and the reform of the labor market. The reciprocal relationship between state-owned enterprises and vocational schools was broken, and vocational education began to be subject to the labor market. The status of workers in state-owned enterprises has also gradually declined, and the status of vocational education has been affected as a result. The biggest force behind these changes is institutional change, especially the commodification of labor.
Interface culture: In January 2022, the Ministry of Education and other eight departments issued the "Regulations on the Administration of Internships for Students in Vocational Schools", proposing to prevent the infringement of students' rights and interests in corporate internships. There have also been several incidents of vocational school students committing suicide due to internship exploitation in news reports, and the situation of low internship wages, poor working environment, and lack of corresponding guarantees has become the current general situation of vocational school internships. Why is there an endless exploitation of the labour force of vocational school students?
Liang Zicun: Schools send students to enterprises as cheap labor, and even the situation of extracting from them often occurs. Vocational school internships are credited with credits before they can get a diploma after completion, so if many students refuse the internship they are assigned, the school is likely to threaten them with a diploma.
In my observation, many factories in Guangdong Province may cooperate with vocational schools in neighboring provinces such as Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, and Guangxi to recruit a large number of students for internships. At present, students in Guangdong also have the opportunity to choose internships independently, but it depends on whether the school itself approves or not, and many times students have the right to find internships on their own.
In fact, the relevant regulations on vocational school student internships have been introduced for more than ten years, but chaos still occurs every year, and many students do not know this regulation and do not know what rights they have. I believe that there should be a need for education on the relevant laws in vocational schools, and third-party supervision is also needed. Education authorities are important and should be responsible for balancing the status of enterprises and schools, and students can also be supervised by the student union or student representatives in school-enterprise cooperation. In addition, it may also be necessary to involve other social forces in supervision to prevent internships from becoming vocational schools and low-end labor transfers to enterprises.
Su Yihui: As mentioned earlier, the restructuring of state-owned enterprises and the establishment of the labor market in the 1990s were turning points. The reciprocal relationship between state-owned enterprises and vocational schools in the original "combination of engineering and learning" has become an unbalanced market exchange relationship in school-enterprise cooperation with the commercialization of labor. When the market dominates the relationship with enterprises, the inertia of enterprises seeking profits will penetrate into school-enterprise cooperation, and students can easily become flexible and cheap labor.
Paradoxically, it is difficult to determine the labor relationship between student internships today, so students sign an "internship agreement" instead of an "employment contract". In other words, the identity of the intern student is very vague, and even the new vocational education law does not clearly confirm this identity. The ambiguity of the identity of intern students gives profit seekers some room to use, resulting in many students becoming low-end cheap labor. The promulgation of the "Regulations on the Management of Internships of Students in Vocational Schools" can regulate the employment of internships to some extent, but if the ambiguity of the identity of intern students still exists, there may be people who continue to exploit loopholes and use this ambiguity to achieve their goals.
In the future, if we want to better protect the rights and interests of intern students, we may not only regulate the employment process, but also confirm the identity of students' laborers, and ensure all aspects of their salary, working environment and personal safety as workers. These safeguards also need to be concretized and operable, and a certain number of supervision mechanisms need to be matched to avoid this situation.
Interface Culture: The revised Vocational Education Law also emphasizes the emphasis on "school-enterprise cooperation" in vocational education in the General Provisions, what kind of impact will this have on vocational education?
Su Yihui: The 2022 Vocational Education Law places great emphasis on market forces. The 1996 Vocational Education Act is very different, with more emphasis on state guidance. At that time, there were also school-enterprise cooperation, but the reciprocity of vocational schools and state-owned enterprises still had a strong planned economic characteristics. After the restructuring of state-owned enterprises and the gradual establishment of the labor market in the 1990s, enterprises and schools in school-enterprise cooperation have become exchange relations, and this exchange relationship is not equal, and enterprises occupy a dominant and strong position. With the popularization of school-enterprise cooperation, enterprises are likely to lead the nose of vocational education, which will have a strong leading role in the professional settings of vocational schools, student internship arrangements and even internship forms.
Starting from their own goals and orientation, the bargaining power of the school will be weaker. What kind of companies would be willing to cooperate? What is the original intention of being willing to cooperate? Who are the beneficiaries? What about sustainability and stability? Schools are more passive. From a larger background, the implementation of a project by an enterprise is related to the transformation and development of the industry, such as a large number of labor transfers to an industry, which vocational schools get project cooperation, school enrollment and professional settings.
Liang Zicun: School-enterprise cooperation has always been a relatively weak link in the process of running vocational education, but in my own experience as a teacher, I feel that enterprises do not necessarily occupy an absolute dominant position, because enterprises also rely on schools to send them skilled students.
Interface culture: Some scholars have compared the German industry with the British and American industries and pointed out that Germany has a strong high-end manufacturing industry and has a stronger demand for vocational school talents; in contrast, the development of British and American vocational schools that have transferred a large number of manufacturing industries overseas is not good, because there is less demand for high-end technical talents. What is the current situation in China? Is the industrial structure itself such a big demand for "high-end technical talents"?
Liang Zicun: This point I myself am also more confused, in the past few decades we have been the world's processing plant, the industrial structure itself is very low in technology content, and now it is proposed to become a manufacturing power, but from the low end to the high end needs a process, especially now the epidemic will make the future industrial chain will change a lot, what type of future and how many high-skilled talents there is uncertainty. The lack of development of our vocational education is indeed related to the low demand for skills in the past positions, and high-end technical talents need to be accumulated in enterprises for a long time, not once out of school, they can be competent, and there are very few students who can do so.
Su Yihui: Skill cultivation has always been an important aspect of the country's industrial development. China has actually realized that the labor-intensive manufacturing development model has reached a certain bottleneck over the years and requires industrial upgrading. The upgrading of the industry requires effective skill development as the foundation, and vocational education is one of the links of skill development. If we look at the new Vocational Education Law, there are many norms for the skill development system. The development of vocational education is only part of the development of skills. There are many other provisions in the new Vocational Education Act relating to vocational training and skills development. But can today's vocational education truly achieve effective skill development? I think that's another question. It depends on what kind of workers vocational education has trained, and whether this worker has the "skills" needed for the current industrial development, and we also need to further think about the "skills" needed to produce upgrades.
Interface culture: The newly revised law mentions the development of vocational undergraduates, even future vocational masters, etc., and since 2019, a number of new vocational undergraduates have been built to develop vocational education at the undergraduate level. Some people think that this may further exacerbate the solipsism, what do you think of this problem?
Liang Zicun: I also have this concern, and the key is whether we can form a system with vocational skills as the core of the assessment and ability as the basis. If the vocational school entrance examination is still like the written way of examination or college entrance examination, even if the establishment of vocational school undergraduate and vocational school graduate students, there is still no qualitative difference between general education.
Su Yihui: If we do not change the evaluation system of education, which still revolves around written grades and further education assessments, then it may indeed exacerbate the theory of academic qualifications. Establishing a more diversified evaluation system, so that practical and technical capabilities are truly valued, may avoid further sliding towards the theory of academic qualifications.
Interface culture: The development level of vocational schools in different regions has originally been different, and the newly revised vocational education law emphasizes the development of vocational schools according to local conditions, coupled with the close binding of school development and enterprise resources, and now there are also schools that aim to build "Tsinghua Peking University" and "head school" in higher vocational colleges. In your observation, does this exacerbate the polarization of vocational school development?
Su Yihui: Vocational schools in different regions have always been differentiated, for example, there are many public vocational schools in large cities along the southeast coast, which have received long-term financial support, and have established cooperation with many well-known enterprises, with strong teachers, but private schools in some small cities in the central and western regions are very short of resources and teachers. There has always been a strong differentiation within the vocational education system. The new law emphasizes school-enterprise cooperation and emphasizes that vocational schools should obtain resources from multiple sources, including the market. Dependence on the market could exacerbate the polarization between vocational schools, which emphasizes competitive principles such as survival of the fittest.
Liang Zicun: Vocational schools in different regions have differences in student status, financial investment, teachers and other aspects. For example, students in vocational schools in Guangdong have more internship opportunities than in the mainland, and teachers from schools in Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Guizhou told me that their students have no internship opportunities and can only encourage them to take the college entrance examination. I speculate that the new law will reinforce these differences, because local resources and corporate resources are more important for the development of vocational school education. However, the good side is that some local vocational schools may be more in line with the needs of local development, and they can better serve the real estate industry in terms of professional settings and skill training.
Interface culture: For a long time, in the eyes of many people, the status of vocational education has been lower than that of general education. The new law emphasizes that vocational education and general education are not divided into levels, but by type. In addition to the emphasis on the legal level, what supporting conditions do you think are needed for the social aspect?
Liang Zicun: First of all, we must truly recognize that all labor is precious on a cultural level and respect the dignity of each worker. In addition, the treatment of skilled workers has become higher, and it is also important that the protection of rights can be truly in place.
Su Yihui: I agree with the cultural aspect mentioned by the self-existence, that is, the "most glorious labor" that our socialist tradition has always emphasized, and the labor here should be universal, whether it is mental or physical strength, no matter what industry, workers should be respected. Another level is institutional guarantee, which includes the treatment and rights protection of skilled workers. When it comes to vocational education, many people will mention Germany, but the development of vocational education in Germany is supported and guaranteed by their trade unions and industrial systems. We should pay attention to these guarantees behind vocational education.