Ecologically constrained teacher agency in Chinese vocational education: navigating stratified school systems while supporting student motivation

Vocational education is often positioned as a lower-status pathway, with students perceived as less academically capable. In China, this stratification is reinforced by an exam-oriented system that privileges academic tracks and shapes expectations, identities, and institutional practices. While prior research has focused on policy and labour market outcomes, less is known about how teachers navigate these systems and support student motivation. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and teacher agency, this qualitative case study examined the experiences of seven vocational high school teachers in China. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed tensions across ecological systems, including care and control, flexibility and compliance, institutional expectations and relational support, and vocational stigma and student potential. These tensions span societal hierarchies, institutional constraints, family contexts, and classroom dynamics. Teacher agency emerged as ecologically constrained, relational, and adaptive, enacted through maintaining expectations within low-expectation systems, regulating emotional climates, adapting instruction, and sustaining participation despite disengagement. These findings illustrate how teachers navigate and mediate interconnected ecological constraints while supporting students within stratified vocational education contexts.