Perceived Educational-Identity Stigma among Higher Vocational Students in Mainland China: A Grounded Theory Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62051/jedss.v1n4.01Keywords:
Higher vocational students, Mainland China, Educational identity, Perceived stigma, Grounded theory, Psychological adaptationAbstract
Background: Higher vocational students in Mainland China are tertiary-level learners whose educational identity is formed through a distinctive vocational-education system, multiple admission routes, and a credential order that often compares vocational or junior-college pathways with academic bachelor-degree pathways. This position may expose students to education-based prejudice that affects psychological adaptation, learning engagement, and career development. Purpose: This study examined how higher vocational students in Mainland China perceive educational-identity stigma, where it comes from, how it is transmitted in everyday and institutional settings, what consequences it has, and how students respond. Methods: Guided by grounded theory, the study conducted one-to-one online semi-structured interviews with 15 current higher vocational students or graduates within two years of graduation from January 2025 to February 2026. Interviews lasted about 50 minutes on average and yielded approximately 190,100 Chinese characters of transcripts. NVivo 14 Plus was used to manage the data and to support open, axial, and selective coding. Findings: Open coding produced 55 initial concepts, 1,011 coding nodes, and 15 initial categories. Axial and selective coding organized these materials into five connected categories: stigma content, stigma sources, stigma origins, stigma impacts, and stigma coping. Students perceived stigma as identity devaluation, bias about ability and conduct, and restricted access to resources or opportunities. Stigma was transmitted by social groups, including employers and highly educated groups, and by relational groups, including relatives, peers, instructors, and the self. Its origins were located at individual, school, and societal levels. Its impacts showed two directions: psychological-behavioral harm and, when support was available, positive psychological-behavioral transformation. Conclusion: Perceived educational-identity stigma among higher vocational students in Mainland China is a process in which structural stigma, relational transmission, personal internalization, and differentiated coping interact. Interventions should reduce internalized credential stigma and strengthen competence evidence, peer support, teacher affirmation, and career-development resources.
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