Study On Farming Household’s Decision-making Behavior Of Offspring’s Secondary Vacational Education

Since the reform and opening-up, the development of the secondary vocational education has become a public concern and, at different times, it shows different policy priorities and development characteristics. However, from 1985, the time when the secondary vocational education has become the focus of the government for promotion, up to the present, its course of development is not smooth, particularly the development in the rural areas has ups and downs, although the government vigorously advocates the development of secondary vocational education and the industrial sector also needs a large number of technical talents provided by the secondary vocational education. Since the late 90’s century, the enrolment of the secondary vocational education and the number of students at school has been on the decline. The debate on the value of the secondary vocational education and that of the general high school education has never stopped. On the one hand, there is a“shortage of workers”in the industrial sector that needs a large number of technicians and the relevant departments of the government unveil fresh policies and measures to encourage the development of the secondary vocational education. On the other hand, the response to the secondary vocational education from the potential education group—the offspring of the farmers has not been as strong as it was expected. What are the major causes for the striking contrast? Based on the issues of the rural secondary vocational education that has been closely related to practice, relevant literature has been on the increase in recent years. But from the research paradigm, the research on the rural secondary vocational education is no more than just a summary of experience and descriptive causes; very little research is, from the minuette of the farmers, concerned with the decision making on the part of the decision makers. Therefore, what is the attitude of the offspring of the farmers towards the decision making of the secondary vocational education? What are the major factors that influence the decision making of the secondary vocational education? What are the reasons for the farmers to select or not to select the secondary vocational education? What is the mechanism for the decision making of the farmer’s secondary vocational education? Such key issues as affect the development of the rural secondary vocational education are very seldom involved in the research; even less is the empirical research that is based on large amount of data collected from the investigation of the farmers.Therefore, the overall objectives for this study are as follows: starting from the micro perspective of the farmers, having a clear command of the development process and status quo; by means of the examination of theory and practice, constructing a theoretical model that is based on planned behavior theory for the farmer’s offspring’s secondary vocational education decision making behavior; based on the large amount of data collected from the survey of the farmers, the use of factor analysis, logistic regression models and structural equation models, empirically studying the major factors that influence the farmer’s decision making on the secondary vocational education and its functional mechanism; trying to find out the causes for the contrast between the status quo of the development of the rural secondary vocational education and the social expectations, thus providing an empirical basis for the future policy making for the rural secondary vocational education and the better realization of the policies.To achieve the objectives, this research integrated the use of the research methods of economics, psychology and pedagogy, combining regular study with empirical study, qualitative and quantitative methods, which involve the following four aspects. (1) Using literature research method to analyze the development process, the status quo and the policy changing process, depicting from the macro perspective the outline of the development of the secondary vocational education with a view to laying a foundation for analyzing theoretically major influencing factors and causes for the secondary vocational education of the farmer’s offspring (Chapters 2 and 3). (2) Based on the planned behavior theory, constructing the theoretical model frame for the farmer’s decision making behavior on the secondary vocational education; based on the literature review and practical examination, analyzing theoretically the major factors that influence the farmers’offspring’s the secondary vocational education and putting forwards the research hypotheses (Chapter 4). (3) Using questionnaire and Likert’s five-point scale method to design the questionnaire, using a combination of random sampling with non-probability sampling to collect information on the decision-making behavior of the farmers’ offspring’s secondary vocational education and its influencing factors, using factor analysis, logistic regression models and the structural equation model to study quantitatively the main factors and decision-making behavior of the farmers’offspring’s secondary vocational education (Chapter 5). (4) Focusing on the research conclusions, discussing policies and making suggestions on policies (Chapter 6).Based on the theoretical and empirical research, the following conclusions are drawn. (1) The function of the present rural secondary vocational education is mainly for survival. Although the structure for Fujian’s general high school and secondary vocational schools tends to be reasonable, full-time teachers are inadequate, the development of the secondary vocational education in different districts is imbalanced, and the gap between the city and the countryside is still large. (2) For farmers with different features, there is an obvious individual difference in the decision-making behavior on their children’s secondary vocational education. If a family with male, aged 40 to 45, living in the villages and towns, who are agricultural laborers or farm workers, with low average net income, the expenditure for education covers more than 40% of the family’s total expenditure on consumption, has positive attitude towards selecting the secondary vocational education, the possibility for making decisions for their children to receive the secondary vocational education is higher. (3) The ability for implementing the secondary vocational education and the perception of their material basis are the main factors that influence the farmer’s decision making; the farmer’s cognition of their decision-making ability is the main factor that decides whether they will make active decisions and the cognition of such a decision-making ability is based on the judgment of whether their children will accomplish their schooling smoothly and achieve their expected return, reflecting comprehensively the farmer’s cognition of their own ability of decision making and the function of the social environment on realizing their decisions and achieving their expected return. (4) The farmers’secondary vocational education decision behavior is not the only economic rational behavior, but also includes such multiple rational behavior as social pressure and traditional ideas. From the result of the empirical studies, the economic rationality is reflected in the farmer’s secondary vocational education decision making, but it is not the only rational behavior. Comparatively speaking, social organizations or individuals exerts greater pressure and influence over their decision making. (5) The children’s academic performance and their family endowment reversely regulate the farmers’decision making and thus exert reverse influence.Based on the findings above, this paper argues that importance should be attached to the improvement of the content of the secondary vocational education in the rural areas and the attractiveness of the secondary vocational schools will be enhanced in such respects as the building of the teaching force, the improving of the school conditions and the perfecting of the continuing education mechanism. (2) The policy for the secondary vocational education in the rural areas should further show its fairness and be favorable to the vulnerable social groups. (3) Enhance the perception of the farmer’s secondary vocational education decision making and strengthen the mechanism for utilizing the resources of the secondary vocational education. (4) Guide the society to face squarely the secondary vocational education, thus achieving the unity of the individual rationality and the social rationality in the farmer’s secondary vocational education decision making. (5) Strengthen the identity of the secondary vocational education by the drive of the“development needs.”This research first applied the planned behavior theory to construct the theory model of the farmer’s secondary vocational education decision making behavior in the field of secondary vocational education. As for the data resources, survey of the farmer households on a large scale has been done to obtain the first-hand information and based on the influencing factors and functional mechanism of the farmer’s offspring’s secondary vocational education decision making behavior, the empirical results have been acquired. But due to the limitations of funding, time and self capability, the data collected come mainly from Fujian province, unable to consider that behavior attitude in their decision making behavior mechanism had effect on the transmission mechanism of the inside and outside variables and unable to measure the target utility value quantitatively during the process of the farmer’s decision making. Therefore, this project awaits further follow-up research and study.