The Floating Staircase: Identity Construction And Identity Of Double Non-masters

As one of the stratification standards of contemporary society,academic qualifications are a major weapon to seize high-quality social capital in a fiercely competitive environment.And in order to continue to advance or continue to improve professional prestige,people will definitely compete with each other,which will inevitably lead to a surge in demand for diplomas.Then,the reality today is that due to the rapid depreciation of academic qualifications,its function of helping the bottom group to achieve class leapfrogging is gradually weakening.The idea of a master’s degree business in exchange for an ideal social status by raising the level of education was frustrated.Among this group of "bankrupts",double non-masters,who account for half of the master’s students,are the first to bear the brunt.When the dual non-master’s degree is hindered in the process of social mobility,making it difficult to achieve its desired goal of climbing the upper class,they begin to doubt their master’s status.At present,the double non-master’s group is facing certain difficulties in both psychological and practical further studies and job search,which urgently needs the attention of society and academia.However,there is little discussion about this group in the society,and only some self-media and online groups have begun to pay attention to the identity of double non-masters,but the academic community has not yet carried out research on this group.Therefore,this paper explores the process,type,causes of identity problems,and the construction mechanism of identity in this group.First of all,through interviews,we found that their identification with their dual non-identity is a dynamic and tortuous process,and is inherently rich because of the different life stories of their respective lives.Secondly,in order to explore the rich connotation of the identity of the double non-master’s degree,we have divided it into categories: in the same field,there are both top students who are busy "performing" in front and backstage,"student slaves" who have to learn,and "escapees" who find another way but repeatedly run into obstacles.After further typification,the identity types of dual non-master’s degrees are divided into: positive identity,ambivalent identity and negative identity,each of which has inconsistent characteristics.Thirdly,this paper analyzes the reasons for the dilemma of dual non-master’s identity from the aspects of structure and subject,and attempts to use the "Matthew effect" of higher education to interpret the structural factors.At the subject level,the main reasons for its identity crisis are mainly one-sided and paranoid cognition;Short-term success of academic achievements,strong inertia,and ineffective efforts and lack of ability to resolve one’s own emotions.Finally,the identity construction mechanism of dual non-master’s degrees is discussed from the aspects of procedural fairness and multi-reference group comparison.