Linking the School to Society: A Case Study on School-Community-Business Partnership in Labor Education

Abstract

Amid the call for strengthening social practice in labor education as a national educational policy, schools in China are facing a three-fold challenge, namely a lack of a legal basis, inadequate resource support, and unpredictable educational outcomes, in developing off-campus labor practice education programs. This study is a case study of the “Clothing Reuse Charity” program at Yuyao No.4 Senior High School, China, to explore the implementation mechanism of school-community-business partnership in labor education. Theory-driven case illustration is adopted as the research method. The results show that the school successfully integrated labor education into real social production processes in collaboration with the community and business. The study reveals a dynamic pattern of the evolution of the relationship between the three parties, from a school-led one to a genuine partnership. It also outlines two transferable principles for off-campus labor practice education programs – actively seeking community support to secure their legal status and attracting the business to engage for their public-benefit nature, thereby providing a workable pathway for extending labor education from the campus to authentic social production settings.