Research on the Value Implication, Realistic Dilemma and Practical Path of Cultivating the Labor Concept of Youth Students in the New Era ()
1. Introduction
In the new era background, the emergence of the “five-dimension education” simultaneously educational concept further highlights the importance of labor education. “The combination of education and labor is an effective way to realize the all-round development of human beings, and integrating labor education into the whole process of talent training in colleges is conducive to the all-round development of students. Labor education is an important part of the national human capital strategy in the new era, and it is an inevitable requirement for cultivating students with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, beauty, and labor. Labor education is an important part of the comprehensive education system, which is conducive to laying the foundation for the four educations of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, and beauty.” (Yu, 2022: p. 1). Xi Jinping emphasized: “We must firmly establish the concepts that labor is the most glorious, the noblest, the greatest, and the most beautiful, so that all the people can further arouse their enthusiasm for labor, release their creative potential, and create a better life through labor.” (Liang, 2024: p. 40). Therefore, as the main force in modernization construction, special attention should be paid to the cultivation of the labor concept of youth students. While analyzing the situation of cultivating the labor concept of youth students, we also need to face up to the realistic difficulties they face in the process of cultivation and propose effective ways to break through the difficulties, constantly empowering youth students to form a correct labor concept, thus helping them shine in the journey of realizing the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
2. The Value Implication of Cultivating the Labor Concept of
Youth Students in the New Era
2.1. The Scientific Connotation of the Labor Concept
Labor is the foundation for the survival and development of human society and an important source of social wealth. “If labor is classified as an objective existence category, the labor concept belongs to the subjective consciousness category. The ‘Education Dictionary’ points out: ‘The labor concept is an individual’s basic view on labor and is an important aspect that constitutes a person’s world outlook, ideological consciousness, and moral character’.” (Nie, 2024: p. 13). Broadly speaking, the socialist labor values in the new era are formed and developed on the basis of the traditional Chinese labor views, Marx’s labor views and Xi Jinping’s labor views. They are the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Chinese people. Their focus is to guide workers to address issues such as “what labor is, why we should labor and how to labor”, as well as to “respect the diversity of labor, understand that labor is the source of creating value, and recognize the necessity of labor for personal growth and social progress”. Narrowly speaking, the labor concept refers to an individual’s view on labor and is the comprehensive manifestation of the labor purpose, attitude, and spirit formed by an individual in labor. Among them, the labor purpose reveals the reason for labor. It is not only a means of making a living but also a process of realizing self-worth and development; the labor attitude refers to the psychological tendency and behavioral performance of laborers towards labor and is related to the development process of society in the new era; the labor spirit is the noble character and style formed by laborers in the labor process and is the internal driving force for laborers to labor. Therefore, the correct labor concepts in the new era can be summarized into four aspects, namely the concepts that “labor is the most glorious, labor is the most noble, labor is the greatest and labor is the most beautiful”. In short, the labor concept in the new era is rich in connotation and distinct in characteristics and is an important conceptual basis and practical guidance for promoting the all-round development of youth students. As the pillars of the country and the main force in social construction, the cultivation of the labor concept of youth students is an important factor related to the construction of a modern powerful country.
2.2. The Intrinsic Value of Cultivating the Labor Concept of Youth
Students
The cultivation of the labor concept of youth students in the new era has many potential values, and in-depth analysis of them can clarify the teaching orientation for labor education. Therefore, further exploring the potential value of cultivating the labor concept of youth students has important practical significance.
Firstly, the cultivation of the labor concept is an important measure to promote the all-round development of youth students. The simultaneous development of the “five-dimension education” is a major breakthrough in China’s education modernization. Labor education is an important content of China’s socialist system and continuously cultivates a new generation of youth who “advocate labor, love labor, work hard, and work honestly” for the Party and the country. Labor is an important way to realize the free and all-round development of people. Through labor practice, youth students master practical skills, combine theoretical knowledge with practical activities, continuously improve their cognitive abilities, further deepen their understanding and application of knowledge, and thus stimulate their innovative thinking abilities. In this process, in addition to improving their practical and cognitive abilities, youth students also invisibly enhance their psychological qualities because in labor practice, youth students are also under external pressure and will encounter many difficulties, and these factors play a key role in improving the psychological quality of youth students. Secondly, the cultivation of the labor concept is the internal need to cultivate a new generation of people who are responsible for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. On the new journey of realizing a strong socialist modern country, focusing on cultivating a new generation of people who are responsible for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation must rely on the broad masses of the people, especially the youth student group. Therefore, the times have given youth students more missions, and it is necessary to further guide youth students to establish a correct labor concept through labor education and strive to be new-era strivers with excellent qualities such as “diligence and thrift, down-to-earth work, and daring to be the first”. As the main force in social construction and active adopters of new things, it is very important for youth students to shape a correct labor concept. Through labor practice, they can apply their innovative thinking abilities to personal and social development, realize changes in concepts and methods, and realize their personal values while also continuously realizing their social values, thereby cultivating more high-quality and high-caliber era builders for the construction of a strong socialist modern country.
3. The Realistic Dilemma of Cultivating the Labor Concept of
Youth Students in the New Era
3.1. Individual Cognitive Bias Exists, Resulting in a Utilitarian
Labor Concept
Establishing a correct labor concept is very important for the youth student group and is related to the spiritual outlook of the socialist successors. With the advent of the information and intelligent era, mental labor has gradually gained the upper hand in the market. Coupled with the influence of traditional concepts and individual cognitive differences, youth students have a certain deviation in their attitude towards labor and cannot fully understand the respective values and significance of physical labor and mental labor in the labor process, thus forming an unhealthy labor concept. Firstly, youth students are in the golden period of the formation of the labor concept and should help their children button the first button in their lifetime. Due to the influence of the traditional concept of “emphasizing intelligence over labor”, on the basis of comparing physical labor and mental labor, the value of mental labor is exaggerated one-sidedly, and the efforts behind it are underestimated, resulting in an incomplete understanding of physical labor by youth students, gradually tending to mental labor, and being unable to fully understand the meaning behind the creation of value through labor, let alone deeply understand the true meaning of creating happiness through labor. Secondly, the labor concept of the youth student group shows a utilitarian trend. With the increasingly fierce social competition, the utilitarian concept has gradually penetrated into people’s hearts, and the youth student group is also deeply affected, gradually forming the idea that there should be remuneration for labor, that is, regarding material remuneration as the purpose and result of labor, paying more attention to the material benefits that labor can bring rather than experiencing the sense of happiness and honor at the spiritual level brought by labor. This utilitarian behavior limits their own development, is not conducive to creating a positive labor atmosphere, and thus also affects the subjective initiative of the youth student group in the process of practical labor.
3.2. The Lack of Family Labor Education Leads to a Lack of Positive
Practical Spirit
Family education is the first educational place that youth students come into contact with. Therefore, parents, as the first teachers of youth students, have a huge impact on shaping their correct labor concept. “Good family education has an inestimable role in a person’s personality formation, character cultivation, and value shaping. However, in the current stage in China, it can be said that in most family educations, labor education is still absent.” (Huang, 2020: p. 48). Driven by the exam-oriented education, some young parents still hold the idea of “only scores matter”, pay too much attention to the academic performance of youth students, do not pay attention to their active experience of the labor process, but require them to devote a lot of time to study and believe that labor will delay study time. Under the influence of this “only scores matter”, scores have become the only criterion for measuring whether a youth student is excellent. This kind of cultivation that only focuses on “intellectual education” completely ignores the cultivation of “moral education, physical education, aesthetic education, and labor education”, which is not conducive to the all-round development of youth students. In addition, in order to improve the scores of youth students, parents constantly provide them with rich material resources, which, to a certain extent, fosters bad habits of youth students. This undoubtedly brings great challenges to the process of shaping a healthy labor concept for the youth student group. Because parents are obedient to youth students in order to make them study more attentively, they gradually develop dependent behaviors, which leads to a lack of independent thinking and practical abilities. When encountering difficulties, they are used to relying on their parents and are unwilling to actively seek solutions. Over time, it affects their practical labor ability and results in a lack of positive practical spirit.
3.3. Insufficient Resources for Labor Education Courses and
Separation of the Concepts of Labor and Employment
Colleges and universities are responsible for implementing the fundamental task of “cultivating morality and educating people”, which is an important venue for carrying out labor education and a key carrier for improving the labor literacy of the young student population. “Labor education in colleges and universities is not only limited to labor education courses, but also includes ideological and political education, dual-creation courses, social practice activities, volunteer activities and family education” (Wang & Zhou, 2024: p. 1). At present, the construction of the school’s curriculum system for labor education is still not perfect, mainly in the form of teaching, the content of teaching materials and other aspects. In the form of teaching, some schools have not paid enough attention to labor education courses, failed to explore the potential value of labor education courses, classroom teaching is just a superficial form, which makes the function of labor education can not be effectively played. In terms of teaching materials, some of the school labor course materials are not comprehensive enough, some of the content of the teaching materials failed to keep pace with the times, and some schools only focus on the traditional theoretical lectures, completely detached from the theory and practice, and gradually showed a trend of “theory over practice”, which makes the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of labor education unable to form an intrinsic logical correlation. This makes the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of labor education unable to form an intrinsic logical correlation. On the other hand, on the road of the new era, colleges and universities need to make efforts to lead young students to integrate their views on labor and employment, and continuously create an integrated cultivation pattern of views on labor and employment. Healthy outlook on labor is the basis for further cultivating the correct outlook on employment. As some young students do not have a healthy outlook on labor, they have behaviors that belittle manual labor occupations when they are employed. Nowadays, young student groups pay more attention to the stability of the work, over-emphasis on employment compensation and their own contribution is disproportionate to the situation, and develop the concept of fear of hard work, resulting in their employment process repeatedly hit a brick wall, the reason is that colleges and universities have failed to integrate labor education and employment education. Only on the basis of cultivating a healthy view of labor can young students be guided to establish a correct view of employment and then realize their own value.
4. Practical Path of Cultivating the Labor Concept of Youth
Students in the New Era
4.1. Inheriting Chinese Virtues and Vigorously Promoting Xi
Jinping’s Concept of Labor
Chinese culture is profound and profound, and contains a wealth of excellent labor ideas. Since ancient times, there have been traditional labor ideas such as “diligence and courage, hard work, dedication and respect for labor”, which are the wisdom of Chinese culture for thousands of years. For this reason, the state should pay attention to the use of traditional Chinese labor virtues, constantly enrich the content of labor education resources for young students in the new era, and through publicity means, incorporate the excellent factors of “diligence, courage, self-improvement” and other traditional labor concepts into the “individual, family and society”, and further stimulate young students’ interest in the “individual, family and society”. Through the means of propaganda, the excellent factors of traditional labor concepts such as “hard work, courage and self-reliance” are integrated into the “individual, family and society”, which further stimulates young students’ intrinsic recognition of traditional Chinese labor virtues. To this end, young students are guided to practice the traditional Chinese concept of labor on the basis of learning and inheriting the traditional Chinese labor virtues, and then cultivate the correct labor value orientation. Secondly, Xi Jinping’s concept of labor is formed on the basis of the traditional Chinese concept of labor, which is not only the inheritance of the traditional Chinese concept of labor, but also the improvement and development of its content. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s concept of labor emphasizes that “workers should be diligent, scientific, honest and innovative in practice. Diligence means educating workers to be willing to suffer, work diligently, and work practically; science educates workers to learn, progress, and pay attention to science in labor; and honesty educates workers to be honest and trustworthy, not to deceive, and not to be deceitful” (Jin, 2024: p. 42). In this regard, the government needs to guide young students to deeply implement and study Xi Jinping’s thought on labor, to understand the profound meaning that labor is not only the main body of creating material and spiritual wealth, but also the source of creating happiness, to continuously realize their self-worth in the practice of labor, to treat labor with a scientific attitude, and to continuously improve their self-innovative thinking, so as to infuse new vitality into the construction of a modernized and powerful country.
4.2. Taking Family Labor Education as the Starting Point, Focusing on Cultivating a Strong Labor Atmosphere
Family education plays a significant role in the growth of young students, especially labor education in family education, which is an important starting point for the cultivation of young students’ view of labor. Parents, as the enlightened teachers of young students, shoulder the responsibility of leading and guiding young students to set up a correct view of labor from childhood, should be encouraged to contact the social practice of labor, create beauty and experience beauty in the process of labor. First of all, parents as educators in family education, their own words and deeds are learned and imitated by young students, which will have a great influence on the shaping of young students’ concepts in all aspects. Therefore, “Parents should set a good example for their children; if they do not lead, they will not follow; if they do not lead, they will not believe. Parents should emphasize words, teach by example, correct their own ideological understanding, do a good job of educating and guiding children at any time, with their own practical actions to tell their children to love labor, love of life, and strive to create a good family style” (Wang, 2024: p. 76), can provide some specific ways to guide the labor of young students, such as the development of a family labor plan, the establishment of labor incentives to continue to improve Their labor enthusiasm, and further guide young students to establish the concept of “respect for labor, labor is the most glorious”. Secondly, the construction of good family culture can help young students establish a correct view of labor. Under the influence of traditional exam-oriented education, parents seem to pay more attention to the academic performance of young students, ignoring the importance of their labor education. For this reason, through a good family culture to young students, starting from childhood to pay attention to the cultivation of their labor concepts, to guide them to fully understand the importance of participating in the labor and learning to work, and continue to cultivate a strong family atmosphere of labor, to avoid the development of the idea of good and bad, and to provide them with sufficient material conditions, but also to avoid excessive pampering.
4.3. Preventing Barriers between Youth’s Views on Labor and
Employment by Integrating Diversified Curricula as a General Guideline
Mr. Tao Xingzhi once put forward the educational concept of “society is school, life is education”. “Labor education helps to cultivate positive values and moral qualities of workers, helps to improve their knowledge, technical skills and innovation ability, and promotes the overall development of college students” (Qiu, Ni, & Yang, 2023: p. 14). Its success or failure directly affects the outlook of the labor spirit of the contemporary Chinese people and the process of building a modern socialist power. First of all, colleges and universities need to focus on the integration of diversified courses as a hand, the integration of “labor education and ideological education” courses, through the value of the leading role of the ideological education, to further let the young students understand the value of labor in the personal growth, social development, and a deep understanding of the spirit of hard work taught in the classroom of the ideological classroom, so as to make their In the process of civic education, it is important to establish the concept of “reverence for labor, respect for labor, and the healthy labor concept of hard work, so as to promote an all-round pattern of human education. Secondly, “to establish a correct view of labor, respect for labor and respect for practical work is the basis of the new era of labor view to lead the employment of college students” (Liang, 2024: p. 41), and constantly realize the shaping of the view of labor of young students while also promoting the cultivation of their concept of employment. “An individual’s career path, which typically develops across the life span, consists of a series of processes that identify individual values, interests, and aptitudes for suitable occupations. In this regard, the key factors in career planning are career decisions, of which the level of confidence is divided into career decisions and indecision” (Hong, 2024: p. 1116). Therefore, on the basis of guiding young students to establish a correct view of labor, colleges and universities need to follow the trend of the times, focus on innovative employment awareness, and constantly stimulate the initiative of young students in employment and entrepreneurship, so as to guide young students to actively engage in employment and thus establish a correct view of career. Through the combination of labor practice and teaching theory, we can further guide young students to establish a positive view of employment and correct their prejudiced and backward employment ideas, so as to make young students clarify the connection between individuals, families and the country, and realize that labor and employment are not only a major event for strengthening the country and enriching the people, but also a driving force to promote the cause of socialism to greatness.
5. Conclusion
All in all, labor education in the new era has played an important role in helping young students establish a correct view of labor. However, there are also some difficulties in the actual process of cultivation. These difficulties are not insurmountable. To some extent, we can effectively address these difficulties and promote young students to form a correct view of labor by starting from multiple aspects such as “carrying forward traditional virtues, strengthening family education and integrating diversified courses”, thus laying a solid foundation for the new era’s young people to shoulder the great task of national rejuvenation.