On The Relationship Between Chinese Vocational Guidance And Vocational Education

There have been a lot of disputes over the relationship between vocational guidance and vocational education. A majority of experts hold that it is a part-whole relationship. However, after probing into the relation of the two from historical, theoretical and practical perspectives respectively, the thesis comes to a conclusion that it is not a part-whole relationship, and they are only two kinds of tools in the service of people's career development. Furthermore, the two elements are both independent of and immediately related to each other, complete with a relationship of restricting and enhancing one another.The thesis consists of five parts. The first part, on the one hand, introduces the definitions of vocational education and guidance, and presents the background under which the present study undertakes and the significance along with the study, and, on the other hand, scrutinizes and comments on some arguments about Chinese vocational education and guidance.The second part examines the development of the relation between vocational education and guidance, which includes three phases, i.e., first, promoting vocational education through guidance of hunting-job;second, advancing vocational education through strengthening the guidance of applying-for-school and hunting-job;third, initiating career guidance or counseling so as to develop vocational education. In short, the relationship between them has changed from kind a mechanical and partial marriage to a dynamic and comprehensive one.The third part illustrates that both vocational education and guidance are theoretically based on such disciplines as pedagogy, psychology and sociology. However, the two are different from each other in terms of theoretical foundation. Hence, the theoretical development of one can be conducive to the theoretical development of the other.The fourth part exposes that the slow development of Chinese vocational education has brought many problems into the field of Chinese vocational guidance. And the existence of such problems can hinder the development of Chinese vocational education. The analysis based on the status quo illustrates that the development of one can influence and restrict the other.The last part expounds that it is possible to harmoniously develop bothvocational education and guidance for three reasons: students' increasing demand for more vocational education, developing theory and practice of Chinese vocational guidance, and the bright tendency of Chinese vocational science. With this premise, the author presents some primary strategies and tactics of developing and harmonizing the two. They include nurturing an atmosphere friendly to the development of Chinese vocational education, initiating and propagating vocational guidance, strengthening the theoretical study of Chinese vocational guidance, perfecting the system of practicing vocational guidance, and reinforcing the practice of supervising and appraising vocational guidance.