Understanding Chinese national vocational education reform: a critical policy analysis

Drawing on Carol Bacchi’s post-structural analytical approach, this study examines the nature of recent policy reforms in China in relation to vocational education (VE). The article reveals key problem representations that characterise the Implementation Plan of National Vocational Education Reform (IPNVER) issued by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2019, and how these have arisen in light of previous reforms. These previous reforms relate to China’s policies, laws and regulations with respect to the higher vocational education system since the ‘opening up’ in 1978. The study reveals that the VE policy in China is strongly governed by ‘economic logics’ in the context of neoliberal globalisation, even as it exhibits various ‘Chinese characteristics’, and that developing VE is seen as a solution to promoting Chinese economic and social development. However, at the same time, important issues are also ‘silenced’ as a result of the dominance of more economic logics in national VE policy. The article suggests policymakers need to pay more attention to developments in regional education, the social welfare issues of poorer working urban and rural peoples, and the mental health of citizens, while developing the national economy.