Toward a Contextualized Model of AI Acceptance in Vocational Design Education

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in design practice, understanding how vocational design students interpret and adopt these technologies has become an urgent research priority.Yet existing technology-adoption models, while analytically robust, fall short of explaining the institutional, cultural value, and experiential conditions that shape AI acceptance in China's vocational education system.This paper proposes a contextualized conceptual framework integrating policy salience, cultural value, and usage experience to account for AI acceptance among design students in Yunnan's higher vocational colleges.Drawing on agenda-setting theory, cultural value, and experiential learning, the framework highlights three mechanisms.First, policy salience structures institutional expectations and frames AI as both a normative requirement and a strategic capability.Second, cultural value orientations shape students' interpretive schemas, influencing how they assess AI's compatibility with their identities as emerging designers.Third, Usage experience primarily shapes students' perceptions of AI's usefulness and reduces uncertainty in its application, reinforcing performance beliefs that influence intention.By articulating how these layers interact, the framework extends prevailing technology-acceptance theories and offers a situated account of AI adoption that reflects the distinctive dynamics of vocational design education in China.The model provides a theoretical basis for future empirical research and offers practical implications for policy design, curriculum development, and instructional strategies aimed at supporting meaningful and responsible AI integration in design programmes.