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- Author or Editor: Mark Bray x
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Abstract
Private supplementary tutoring, widely known as shadow education, has become a global phenomenon. It has a range of providers, including commercial companies, university students desiring extra pocket money, and regular school teachers who provide tutoring as a sideline activity. This paper focuses on the last category.
Governments are commonly ambivalent about the existence of shadow education, and may especially disapprove of regular teachers providing private supplementary tutoring in part because they fear that the teachers will neglect their main duties. With such matters in mind, some governments have attempted to prohibit teachers from providing private tutoring. However, such prohibitions are difficult to implement. This paper analyses situations in Korea, Mauritius, Kenya and England in order to derive comparative lessons from experience. It demonstrates the importance of wider contextual factors including alignment of macro-level aspirations with the micro-level perspectives of families finding themselves in increasingly competitive environments.
Abstract
Research on private supplementary tutoring, widely known as shadow education, has a long history but only gathered intensity during the present century. This research has shown much diversity in the scale and nature of shadow education, but further mapping and analysis is needed to reduce gaps in understanding and to keep up with changes. The collection of articles in this special issue of the journal presents insights from parts of Africa, Asia and Europe; and this introductory essay juxtaposes these insights with Hungarian research. The domain of shadow education has many tensions, with both positive and negative implications for individuals, families, the field of education, and societies as a whole. International research helps with understanding these tensions, and in due course with appropriate action to address them. In the process, much can be learned from counterparts in different systems, countries and cultures, not only about the nature and impact of shadow education but also about methodological approaches to research.
