How societal involution affected the career conception of students in an internationalized school in Guangdong from the standpoint of meaning in life

Abstract

Internationalized private schools have flourished in China for more than a decade, and they keep attracting high socioeconomic status families. Meanwhile, these types of schools are frequently criticized to cultivate self-serving elites who are confused over the meaning in life. To better prepare students for the future, career education programs are usually set up in these schools in various forms. With the term “involution” getting popular on Chinese internet after April 2020, it gives career education a new context, along with the environment of COVID-19, social stratification and the slowdown of economic growth in China. This research used a case study approach within the context of a PreK-12 private school in the province of Guangdong, China to find out the relationships between career education, societal involution and meaning in life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected informants (students, parents, faculty and school leadership) along with documentary analysis. The purpose was to obtain data to inform a framework for refining the practice of career education in the school. Interview data were analyzed via a hybrid approach with both inductive codes generated from the data and deductive codes generated from the literature. Two research questions were addressed: (1) How do characteristics of societal involution affect the pattern of career education in an internationalized school in China? (2) What role does meaning in life play in career education in the sampled school? As little literature focuses on the relationships between career education, societal involution and meaning in life, this research postulates that involution serves as the macroenvironment, meaning in life as micro-environment existed within each individual, and career education as the main thread that weaves through. Key themes are generated to link all three parts together including: unhealthy competition that leads to meaninglessness, social stratification, student’s interest exploration, family influence, job market and social equity. Moreover, the boundary of the involution as a concept is expanded with the interview data and the connotation of the concept is enriched. At the end, an “inward-outward” perspective about seeking meaning externally or internally is proposed to align with the macro-environment of involution and micro-environment of meaning in life. Specifically, under the current societal involution, in order to cope with existing challenges, one needs to spend more time looking “inward” for meanings rather than being stuck with “outward” competitions and anxiety. Major findings are presented to cover the following aspects: lack of sense of community, impact of elitism, mental wellbeing and anxiety, creation of relevance between career education and real world, and dichotomy between generalist and specialist approaches in high school (grade 9-12) curriculum. It is suggested that theories and frameworks regarding societal involution and its parameters can be established with future research and other types of high schools in China can be examined to expand the findings of this research. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are also discussed.