Record Detail

In many settings a perplexing scenario isunfolding in which school systems claim to move towardswhole-person development while students and parents runin the opposite direction of narrowly defined academicachievement enhanced by private supplementary tutoring.Such tutoring is widely called shadow education becausemuch of its content mimics that of regular schooling. It haslong been clearly visible in Asia, and is now increasinglyvisible elsewhere. This study focuses on school teachers’perceptions of shadow education in the context of aflourishing sector that parallels and to some extent con-tradicts progressive education reforms. Drawing on 47 in-depth interviews with teachers from 12 secondary schoolsin Hong Kong, the research found ambivalent viewstowards private tutoring. This ambivalence reflectedintrinsic contradictions between the educational ideals ofwhole-person development and the function of schooling insocial stratification. Such tensions are likely to becomeincreasingly evident elsewhere as commercialised forms ofprivate supplementary tutoring expand