Exploring the Relationship between Career Calling and Work Engagement among Higher Vocational Educators in China: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

This study examined the impact of career calling on work engagement among higher vocational education teachers in China. A preliminary study involving 50 teachers from Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang provinces was conducted. Regression analysis was used to assess the relationships between the variables. The findings showed that career calling had a significant positive correlation with work engagement, with prosocial orientation having the greatest influence, followed by transcendent summons, and purposeful work, which had a relatively smaller effect. This highlights the importance of fostering a strong sense of career calling to enhance teachers' work engagement. The study also suggests that future research should explore additional factors affecting work engagement, such as school leadership style, organisational support, and institutional culture, as well as the mechanisms by which career calling influences work engagement. These findings offer valuable insights for the development of educational policies and HR management practices that support career calling, which can ultimately drive the high-quality development of higher vocational education in China.