“Hindsight” and “Flow the Crowd”: A Cultural Analysis of the Employability Management by Rural Students in Elite Universities

doi:10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2024.07.002

Abstract

Abstract:

Based on a longitudinal data on a group of rural students at four “985” universities, this study explores the causes of their relative disadvantages in employment upon graduation. The analysis of qualitative data shows that the disadvantages in employment faced by rural students can be attributed to the fact that they are not familiar with the employment culture of the middle class nature which is featured by highlighting individual responsibilities, added value to credentials, and rational-systematic action theory. This paper conceptualizes this process as hindsight by using the participants’ own language. This largely influences their strategy of managing their employability, which in general shows the characteristics of following the prescribed order, valuing hard currency and opportunism. This paper uses the participants’ own language to conceptualize it as “follow the crowd”. The theoretical significance of this study lies in the analysis of the employability management of rural college students and the cultural factors behind it, and points out that the concept of employability is a social construction. Students from different social groups have different content and strategies of employability management, which is deeply influenced by their understanding of it. And this is often the product of early socialization, which opens the way for the structural analysis of employability management.

Key words: rural university students, employability, cultural and sociological analysis

Ailei Xie, Yunyun Qin, Qunqun Liu. “Hindsight” and “Flow the Crowd”: A Cultural Analysis of the Employability Management by Rural Students in Elite Universities[J]. Journal of East China Normal University(Educational Sciences), 2024, 42(7): 15-27.

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References 0

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工作地点	农村籍	城市籍
村、镇、县城	17%	7%
地级市	27%	28%
省会城市	47%	39%
直辖市	9%	25%

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