Frontiers of Education in China

, Volume 6, Issue 4, pp 495–520 | Cite as

Understanding higher vocational education in China: Vocationalism vs confucianism

Research Article
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Abstract

The development of higher vocational education in China embodies a global trend of vocationalism that values skills and skilled workers, which is opposite, in some ways, to the Confucian tradition in Chinese education that values theoretical knowledge related to good governance. As the cultural trend supporting the development of higher vocational education, vocationalism is implicated in certain challenges including high tuition fees, limited upward mobility, and neglect of the humanities in education. Humanities for moral education, and mechanisms for upward mobility on equal terms for all, which are fundamental elements of Confucianism, may help resolve these challenges. This paper embodies the dialectic of a global trend and local culture in educational reform within the context of globalization.

Keywords

higher vocational education vocationalism Confucianism globalization 
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© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Educational Policy StudiesUniversity of AlbertaEdmontonCanada

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