Exploration of pathways for integrating Chinas excellent traditional culture into mental health education in vocational undergraduate universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70088/a0thfc48Keywords:
traditional chinese culture, vocational education, mental health education, psychological resilience, cultural enrichment, educational pathwaysAbstract
Vocational undergraduate education represents a high-level manifestation of China's modern vocational education system. It centers on cultivating high-end technical and skilled professionals who possess both moral integrity and professional competence, with a focus on the synergistic development of students' skill levels, professional literacy, and psychological resilience. Currently, vocational undergraduate programs encompass two types of student cohorts—those admitted through centralized national examinations and those transitioning from associate degree programs to bachelor's degrees—resulting in a diverse structure and significant disparities among these groups. Students often face common psychological challenges, such as confusion regarding their identity status, high pressure from academic and practical training, and uncertainty regarding interpersonal adaptation and career development; these issues exhibit characteristics of being professionalized yet concealed. At present, the mental health education systems in most vocational undergraduate institutions remain incomplete; they often uncritically adopt the educational models of regular universities and Western psychological theories, leading to problems such as homogenized content, a scarcity of local resources, and insufficient alignment with vocational needs, thereby hindering the effective cultivation of positive professional psychological qualities among students. The wisdom embedded in China's excellent traditional culture—particularly its teachings on self-cultivation, mental well-being, and navigating life and establishing one's career—aligns closely with the goals of psychological education and personality development within vocational undergraduate programs, serving as high-quality localized resources tailored to students' psychological growth. This paper, drawing upon the distinctive features of vocational undergraduate education and the psychological challenges faced by students, analyzes the synergistic value and practical obstacles associated with integrating traditional culture into psychological education, and proposes a systematic integrated educational pathway across five dimensions: curriculum, practice, culture, faculty, and institutional mechanisms. This study aims to address the current shortcomings in psychological education within vocational undergraduate programs—specifically, the tendency to emphasize remediation over cultivation, and to prioritize theory over practice. Addressing the challenge of practical implementation, this initiative promotes the localization and distinctive enhancement of psychological education, thereby providing a reference for cultivating high-level professional talents.References
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Copyright (c) 2026 Dongyu Jiang (Author)
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