The demand for shadow education in China: mainstream teachers and power relations

Abstract

As in other parts of the world, private tutoring has expanded significantly in Mainland China during the past decade. This has been driven by factors including dramatic economic growth, high-stakes examinations, and the traditions of a Confucian culture at the macro-level, and school leadership and family incomes, at the micro-level. This paper examines the demand for private supplementary tutoring in Chongqing, China. It is based on a mixed-methods study of tutoring received by Grade 9 students. Based on an overview of the demand for shadow education by the sampled students and the driving factors at multiple levels, this paper investigates the role of teachers' power in shaping the demand. It draws on the data obtained from interviews and case studies, applying the theory of power bases to map the power relations among various stakeholders in both mainstream and shadow education systems. The study reveals that nearly half of Grade 9 students receive private tutoring, with mainstream teachers as the most popular category of tutors. While some dimensions of this extra work for teachers may be laudable, other aspects could be described as forms of corruption. This highlights the need to examine the power of teachers. The paper contributes to research in a wider context by refining understanding of the nature of shadow education from a Chinese perspective. It addresses the gap in empirical research on Chinese teachers' involvement in shadow education through the lens of power relations.

Family Background, Private Tutoring, and Children’s Educational Performance in Contemporary China

“…Previous research has already demonstrated the importance of understanding the social determinants and consequences of private tutoring (e.g., Zhang 2013; Zhang 2014; Xue, Wang, and Wu 2014). However, since these studies have all been based on regional data, we do not know whether their highly inconsistent results are generalizable (e.g., Lee, Kim, and Yoon 2004; Park and Lee 2005; Zhang 2013).…”

Shadow education in Beijing: Determinants and disparities from the perspectives of the students

“…On one hand, it can improve the overall educational quality and the students' chances to succeed in their academic career (Stevenson & Baker, 1992;Bray, 1999;Baker et al, 2001;Suleman, Aslam, Hussain, & Ali, 2013) and improves students' self-efficacy (Montebon, 2016); but on the other, it may create many problems including corruption and malpractices (sometimes even coercion and blackmailing) by the teachers (Zhang, 2014), lack of interest in the mainstream school classes by both the students and the teachers who are involved in these activates (Mischo & Haag, 2002), financial pressure on the parents (Aslam, 2011), tax evasion (Silova, Budiene, & Bray, 2006), lack of time for the students for extracurricular activities (Bray, 2011), and various types of disparities it might cause amongst the students (Bray, 1999;Bray & Lykins, 2012). The issue of disparities caused by shadow education is often based on the argument that a certain group of students in the class has an advantage whereas the others do not.…”

Private Schools in the People’s Republic of China: Development, Modalities and Contradictions

“…As mentioned above, tutoring classes are a burgeoning business, and families with ambitions can hardly avoid them (W. Zhang, 2014). For the PISA survey (Programme for International Student Assessment) in 2012, seventy percent of Chinese students said they were taking additional math classes (OECD, 2013, p. 356), and the students participating in PISA 2015 spent twenty-seven hours a week with studying outside school, probably to a large extent at cram schools (OECD, 2016, p. 213).…”