The Formation Logic and Resolution Paths of the Stigmatization of Vocational Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/m8ns3m11Keywords:
Vocational Education, Stigma, Erving GoffmanAbstract
Aiming at transforming from a large manufacturing country into an advanced manufacturing and educational nation, China has endowed vocational education a new mission. However, for a long time, vocational education has been considered as “inferior students,” “second education,” and leading to “undignified employment,” by the public, resulting in low reputation and social status. Employing Goffman’s stigma theory as the theoretical foundation, integrated with labeling theory and structural stigma, this paper systematically elucidates the generative logic of the stigmatization of vocational education. This stigma originates from the cultural gap between the virtual identity presupposed by the public and the real identity of vocational education itself, is solidified by the academic-vocational tracking system that uses academic performance as a sole criterion, is reproduced in daily social interactions through “mixed contacts,” and ultimately forms structural exclusion through a vicious cycle of internalized self-identity and resource attrition. The research shows that the “destigmatization” of vocational education lies within both the institutional reconstruction and reshaping social recognition. For the one thing, the integration of general and vocational education should be further improved and an upward pathway from secondary vocational schools to higher vocational colleges to vocational undergraduate programs and to professional master and doctor degrees should be broadened to change the identity norms institutionally. For the other thing, cultivate “the wise,” thorough intergroup contact and build a positive online image with the help of career enlightenment and inter-school interactions to break the stereotypes to make vocational education from a “passive fallback” to an “active choice” from a cognitive aspect. These measures provide both theoretical support and a practical pathway for building a strong educational nation and constructing a skills-based society.
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