Resource Dependence and Resource Regeneration: Exploring the Path from County Depression to County Revitalization

Abstract

County-level senior high schools, hereinafter referred to as county high schools, serve as a crucial link between urban and rural education systems in China. They bear the significant mission of enabling county youth to achieve upward social mobility through education and constitute the core foundation for implementing the national strategy of building a strong educational nation. However, against the backdrop of accelerated urbanization and ongoing restructuring in educational resource allocation, county high schools across China generally face severe constraints in multiple critical resources, including student enrollment, teaching staff quality, and financial capacity. These institutions have fallen into a vicious cycle characterized by resource depletion leading to quality decline, which in turn triggers further resource erosion. Consequently, the issue of county high school collapse has become increasingly prominent, posing a substantial challenge to educational equity and rural development. Drawing on resource dependence theory, this study proposes that revitalizing county high schools fundamentally requires a paradigm shift toward resource regeneration. This regeneration should be achieved through three complementary approaches: reconstructing external resource networks to diversify institutional support, activating internal transformation potential to enhance organizational efficiency, and cultivating distinctive endogenous resources to build competitive advantages. By integrating these strategies, county high schools can transition from passive reliance on external resource allocation to a model of autonomous and sustainable development, ultimately contributing to the broader goal of county revitalization and the reduction of urban-rural educational disparities.