Vocational college teachers are facing policy volatility, intensified performance management, and complex cross-boundary expectations. These pressures threaten long-term career sustainability. However, existing research focuses primarily on compulsory and higher education, leaving vocational teachers largely overlooked. To address this gap, this study employs career ecosystem theory (CET) to investigate how Chinese vocational college teachers sustain their careers within a policy-driven environment involving multiple stakeholders.
The study adopts an exploratory qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 vocational college teachers across seven Chinese provinces. Data were analysed inductively and interpretively through the lens of CET to map ecosystem-level constraints and teachers’ adaptive responses.
The analysis identifies three layers of top-down pressure: (1) frequent shifts in national policy priorities, (2) KPI-driven institutional mediation and limited support from industry and (3) unequal access of professional communities. Teachers respond through adaptive strategies that include selective compliance, task-linking and resource bricolage. Their career trajectories are not linear; instead, they exhibit partial sustainability across domains, temporal fluctuations and individual differentiation shaped by positions and networks. Overall, career sustainability was maintained through a negotiated equilibrium between structural constraints and individual agency.
This study advances the literature by extending research on career sustainability to vocational college teachers. It offers an alternative to mobility-centred assumptions common in CET literature. It develops “equilibrium” as a distinct sustainability pattern in policy-driven, multi-stakeholder ecosystems.
