Research On Government Behaviors In Developing Western Vocational Higher Education From The Perspective Of Policy Tools

The higher vocational education of China has been vigorously and actively developed since the beginning of reform and opening-up.Provincial governments play an important role in developing higher vocational education due to the provincial management system of higher education in our country.How the local governments in the western region change government functions and adopt better means on reforming and developing local higher vocational education would decide whether the western higher vocational education can leap at the chance in the new era.The scientificity,standardization and effectiveness of government behavior is an important guarantee for the organic development of regional higher vocational education.In view of the provincial government behavior in developing higher vocational education in Western China,guided by the new public service theory and the policy tool classification theory of Mc Donnell and Elmore,this paper clarifies the content and scope of the government’s behavior in the development of higher vocational education by analyzing the main responsibility of the provincial local government in the development of higher vocational education.From the angle of policy tools,clarifies the behavior of the government in growing higher vocational education.Then establishes a two-dimensional analysis framework based on the classification of policy tools and higher vocational development elements,on which to code and process the higher vocational education policy samples dated from 2000 to 2020,which are all published by these provincial governments.Analyzing the statistical results from the dimension of policy tools,the dimension of higher vocational development elements,and the cross dimension of policy tools and higher vocational development elements,this paper puts forwards the following characteristics of the provincial local governments in the western region in developing higher vocational education: first,governments tend to prefer control means and lack of long-term means.Second,although there is a preference for means,with the progress of the times,the government’s administrative means have turned to integration.Third,the government has selectivity in the development of higher vocational education.Fourth,with the acceleration of government functions changing,the government is gradually transferring its absolute power on managing higher vocational education,and government’s role has been turned to service-oriented.Then further discusses the possible problems and potential impact of government behavior,that is,the dominant orientation of government behavior may lead to the over-reliance on the driving torque in developing higher vocational education;The governments pay too much attention on the investment behavior,which may lead to the resource dependence of the development of higher vocational education;The government behavior is some kind of selective,emphasizing short-term benefits and ignoring policy innovation,which may lead to the lack of development ability and vitality of higher vocational education;The governments pay more attention to institutional factors than non-institutional factors,which is not conducive to the sustainability of higher vocational education.At the end,to suggest related countermeasures for provincial local governments in the western region to optimize their behaviors in developing regional higher vocational education...