A Study Of China’s Educational Diversion Institution From The Perspective Of Mary Douglas’ S Institutional Theory

Vocational Education Law of the People’s Republic of China(2022 Revision)stipulates that "vocational education is a type of education with the same importance as general education",which makes the diversion of general education and vocational education become the focus of social attention again.Since the reform and opening up,the inverse ratio between vocational education and general education has not been fundamentally reversed,and the educational diversion institution has been a hot issue of concern to the society and academia.This study adopts literature research method to collect research results about the development,function,status quo and problems of educational diversion and the related research results of educational diversion institution.And on the basis of the introduction of the main meaning of Douglas’ s institutional theory and the analysis of its applicability to the problems of educational streaming system,this paper takes Douglas institutional theory as the perspective to explore the source of legitimacy of China’s educational diversion institution and its influence mechanism.The study finds that,first,the explanatory logic of the sources of legitimacy and the influence mechanism of institutions advocated by Douglas’ institutional theory provides a theoretical perspective for the study of China’s educational diversion institution that can be analyzed in depth.Second,The legitimacy of China’s educational diversion institution comes from:(1)the perception of public justice,including the perception of the traditional view of governmental education with the natural order as a metaphor and the perception of the division of labor with the body structure as a metaphor;(2)the development of the modern educational diversion institution in the past century,which has given people the recognition of general education and the notion that the educational diversion institution can effectively promote class leap.The influence mechanism of the educational diversion institution is to constrain members’ memory and forgetting through three ways: institutionalized disclosure of information,institutionalized regulation of learning behavior,and institutionalized recognition of learning results,as well as the classification of schools,classes,and learning contents by the educational diversion institution,which influences the perceptions and behaviors of people in the educational field and further strengthens the legitimacy of the educational streaming system.Third,based on the legitimacy of China’s educational streaming system,the system is self-reinforcing and resistant to change through the circular argument of "public perception(perception)-establishing the legitimacy of the institution-institution exerting influence by the mechanism of memory and forgetting as well as classification-strengthening perception(public perception)".To change the constraint of the power of perceptions on the change of the educational diversion institution,it is necessary to break the circular argument of the system itself.That means we should: break away from the justice of backward cognition,establish a natural metaphor for reasonable educational diversion concepts,improve the advantages and attractiveness of vocational education,guide the rational dissemination of media information,and improve various evaluation systems.