Narrating academic disengagement in Chinese higher education: institutional withdrawal and faculty identity work

This article examines academic disengagement and institutional withdrawal among university teachers in China. Rather than treating quiet quitting as a fixed academic concept, it understands the term as a contemporary workplace vernacular that points to reduced discretionary institutional commitment. Drawing on narrative interviews with 35 full-time academics across regions, disciplines, career stages, and institutional settings, the study investigates how teachers narrate a movement from professional investment toward more bounded participation. The analysis identifies four recurring narrative patterns through which participants redefined responsibility, professional identity, institutional value, and educational purpose. Participants seldom framed withdrawal as laziness or rejection of academic work. Instead, they described it as a gradual response to intensified evaluation, expanding administrative demands, limited recognition of teaching and care, and declining trust in institutional priorities. The article argues that institutional withdrawal can function as a constrained form of identity protection within performance-driven universities.