Influences of shadow education on the ecology of education – A review of the literature

Shadow education, also widely known as private tutoring or supplementary education, has attracted increasing research attention in the past two decades. The global expansion of shadow education, as well as its penetration to different educational stages and social classes, are believed to have far-reaching implications for the overall educational landscape. However, despite a steadily growing body of literature, no study to date has systematically reviewed the influences of shadow education from an ecological perspective. Therefore, borrowing Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how shadow education influences different levels of educational ecosystems (i.e. individuals, micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-system). Based on 74 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2020, the review reveals complex influences exerted by shadow education on multiple systems (e.g., students, mainstream schooling, families, and larger socioeconomic structures), contributing to a more sophisticated understanding of this phenomenon. The paper then discusses how the rise of shadow education creates significant changes to the ecology of education in which it operates, and concludes with implications for future practice and research.     

Individualisation and social exclusion: the case of young people not in education,employment or training

The characteristics, experiences and long-term prospects of young people outside the labour market and education have attracted widespread international attention in recent decades, and the specific category of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has been a policy concern for the UK Government since 1997. This paper examines the analytical and empirical basis of our knowledge of NEET young people, in the light of more general conceptualisations of social exclusion and the individualisation of social risk. It relates the NEET category to a conception of social exclusion in which the central policy focus is on moving young people across a boundary between participation and non-participation, and inequalities within education and employment receive less attention. This focus, allied with discourses of individualisation, obscures the structural basis of inequality in education and training. However, the paper argues that the research evidence shows that individualised approaches based on personal and cultural characteristics of NEET young people are inadequate to understand this group and frame policy. The paper proposes that stronger versions of social exclusion need to be used in constructing solutions which acknowledge the basis of NEET issues in wider social inequalities.     

The impact of shadow education on student academic achievement: Why the research is inconclusive and what can be done about it

Recent decades have brought global expansion of private supplementary tutoring, widely known as shadow education. Such tutoring consumes considerable resources and is usually viewed by participating households as an investment that will increase the recipients’ academic achievements. However, research on the effectiveness of tutoring has delivered inconclusive and even contradictory findings. Part of the reason lies in definitions and foci of research, since private supplementary tutoring may have many different formats, delivery mechanisms and intensities. As with other types of education, it is important also to investigate the qualities of the instructors and the motivations of the students. This creates a complex research arena, in which practical challenges arise from shortcomings in the instruments for securing data and limitations in methods for analyzing the data. This paper assesses the current state of the literature and makes recommendations for the future research agenda.     

我国课程理解研究:历程、议题与展望

我国关于课程理解的正式研究已历经20年发展,具体可划分为引进与探索期(2001-2010年)和反思与发展期(2011年至今)两个阶段。课程理解研究在概念解读、理解主体、理解内容以及理解取向等方面取得了一定进展。总体而言,研究主题持续拓展,但评价体系有待建立;研究方法趋向多元,但实践路径仍需探究;课程理解话语权逐步下放,但学生课程理解研究较弱。未来研究应关注新时代教育的价值取向,加强课程理解理论的建构;注重研究方法的多元与创新,探寻课程理解落地的扎根点;纾解学生与课程之间的阻隔,推进学生课程理解研究深入发展。     

"影子教育":国外关于课外补习的研究与启示

课外补习在一些国家已存在很长时间,俨然成为主流学校教育的"影子".近20年来国外已经对课外补习做了大量的实证研究.课外补习的分布、规模、科目、强度、影响因素与政府政策等方面都具有鲜明的特点,它对教育、经济和社会都产生了广泛的影响.这对我国的教育政策制定和教育研究具有一定的借鉴意义.     

The education of academically gifted students in South Korea: Innovative approaches in shadow education

Shadow education contributes to the learning and academic careers of Korean students. It benefits, in particular, gifted students who are strongly motivated and who outperform their peers academically. In this study, we explored the innovative characteristics of shadow education curricula for gifted students in terms of curricular programmes, methods, and teaching-learning materials. Also, we explored how shadow education practices meet the academic abilities and needs of students. Informed by a literature review and qualitative research methods, the results reveal how common shadow education is; effects of shadow education; and innovative elements used in shadow education for gifted students in Korea. Overall, we found that shadow education plays a crucial role in gifted education; it is a necessary component for understanding academic excellence among students in Korea. The findings are helpful for teachers, curriculum developers, and policymakers as they explore how public schooling can help to support strongly motivated and academically advanced students.     

试论高校体育教学研究性学习

高校体育教学实施研究性学习是改革教师教学方式和转变学生学习方法的需要,具有实践性、开放性、过程性、问题性、应用性和差异性特点,有一定的实施方法.研究性学习要求体育教师本身具有较强的研究性学习能力,需要教师及时吸纳新知识,更新自身知识结构,更新教育观念,加强研究性学习理念的学习.     

“影子教育”之全球扩张：教育公平、质量、发展中的利弊谈

"影子教育"这一术语已被广泛用于描述利用校外时间对学校科目进行的私人补充教育。在世界上的一些地区,"影子教育"已作为一种显著的教育现象历经了几十年,而在另一些地区,则是在近几年才变得突出。"影子教育"在全球逐渐扩张,中国也不例外。它给政策制定者、教师、家庭和学生带来了一系列挑战。"影子教育"在有些方面是有益的,但在有些方面却带来了问题。     

论教育苦难:教育学的公共关怀与道德担当

苦难一直是社会挥之不去的阴影,教育也存在苦难。而苦难在教育研究中却一直处于边缘化的地位。将"苦难"研究引入教育学领域,以期完整体现教育学的公共关怀和社会责任承担的精神,以引起学界对底层人民教育境遇和痛苦感受的关注和共识,使教育苦难最终得到权力光束的照耀和消除。     

Building research capacity collaboratively: Can we take ownership of our future?

This presidential address argues that there is a pressing need in the UK to build educational research capacity at system level and to do so collaboratively. It advances three main arguments for doing so. These are (i) the increasing concentration of research resources; (ii) the dangers of increasing separation of research and initial teacher education; and (iii) the complexity of the links between research, policy and practice. Drawing on evidence about research quality and on demographic trends of academic staff in education departments, it illustrates one approach to collaborative capacity building in Scotland, the Applied Educational Research Scheme. It concludes by drawing attention to the nascent Strategic Forum for Research in Education as an important forum for monitoring the health of educational research.     

3G技术在电大开放教育中的应用研究

随着3G技术的发展和3G手机功能的多样化,基于3G技术的移动学习越来越受到人们的重视,尤其是基于3G手机的学习和应用越来越多。开放教育成人学习的特点对基于3G手机的移动学习有较大的需求,但由于目前对它的研究和应用还处于初步阶段,其在开放教育中的应用还存在着很多问题,对这些问题进行研究和探索,将会促进3G技术在开放教育中的应用。     

The hidden curriculum in a hidden marketplace: relationships and values in Cambodia’s shadow education system

The concept of hidden curriculum has become well established. It addresses the contexts of learning, the actions of students’ peers and teachers, and other domains which shape learning but are not part of official syllabuses. The concept of a hidden marketplace for private tutoring, widely known as shadow education, is less established but also becoming part of general understanding of the complementarities of regular and supplementary instruction. This paper brings the two literatures together to examine the values transmitted, mostly unintentionally, by shadow education in Cambodia. Most of this shadow education is delivered by regular teachers, commonly to their existing students and in their existing schools. The paper considers the impact of shadow education not only on the students who do receive it but also on those who do not. Patterns in Cambodia differ from those in more prosperous countries, but have parallels with other low-income countries. The authors suggest that much more attention is needed to the dynamics and impact of shadow education, including relationships between actors and the values that shadow education transmits as part of the hidden curriculum.     

Conceptualizing shadow curriculum: definition,features and the changing landscapes of learning cultures

This article presents a new conceptualization of ‘shadow curriculum’, one component of the worldwide phenomenon of shadow education, i.e. learning outside of school. Traditional conceptions of curriculum are not applicable to shadow education, and so this article begins by exploring how shadow education practices qualify as a new focus of curriculum studies. Based on existing scholarship and our own field experience in South Korea, we propose that shadow curriculum can be defined as supplementary curriculum out of schooling provided by educational business industries that are aimed for individual students’ academic success in formal education. The following discussion explores the characteristics of shadow curriculum and shows that incorporating shadow curriculum as a new area of focus in the field of curriculum studies can broaden existing understandings of student learning and the concept of curriculum. Our hope is that this discussion will open a new intellectual space for analysis of the complex phenomenon of shadow education within the field of curriculum studies.     

School systems as breeding grounds for shadow education: Factors contributing to private supplementary tutoring in West Bengal,India

In the academic literature, private supplementary tutoring is widely known as shadow education, in part because it is commonly indistinct and because much of its content mimics that in mainstream schooling. Around the world, shadow education has become an important part of students' lives and in some places it diminishes the body that it mimics. This paper builds on studies that have focused on relationships between schooling and shadow education. The paper uses the conceptual lens of privatisation-by-default, and employs qualitative methods to understand the roles of both government and private schools in promoting tutoring in West Bengal, India. It finds that substantial proportions of shadow education emanate from and are fostered by school systems. On the one hand private tutoring as a form of privatisation-by-default gives freedom of choice, but on the other hand it limits choice. Further, school-bred tutoring can have a negative backwash on school systems. As such, private supplementary tutoring is not just a neutral shadow but affects the body that it imitates. The study recommends researchers to look back at schools to gain a deeper understanding of private supplementary tutoring.     

Growing a garden without water: Graduate teaching assistants in introductory science laboratories at a doctoral/research university

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in the sciences are a common feature of U.S. universities that have a prominent mission of research. During the past 2 decades, increased attention has been paid to the professional development of GTAs as instructors. As a result, universities have created training programs to assist GTAs in selecting instructional methods, curricular formats, and assessments when they serve as laboratory, lecture, or discussion group instructors. Unfortunately, few studies explore the educational and instructional environment of GTAs in these reformed settings. This study was conducted to address this specific need. As a constructivist inquiry, qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze the data to elucidate the educational and instructional environment of science GTAs at a doctoral/research university in which various training programs existed. We found that GTAs worked autonomously, that traditional practices and curricula existed in laboratories, and that instructors frequently held limited views of undergraduates' abilities and motivation. Findings in this initial study about GTAs suggest that developers of GTA training programs draw on the literature regarding science teacher education, and that reward systems be instituted that recognize faculty and staff for their participation in GTA training programs. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 211–233, 2004     

Education,social class and social exclusion

This paper begins by noting the centrality of the issue of working-class school failure within the sociology of education in Britain. It argues that recent government policies have taken insufficient account of sociological work on the impact of social class on educational success and failure. It also suggests that sociologists should pay more attention to middle-class education. The importance of this is illustrated through reference to research on the trajectories of pupils receiving different forms of secondary education. The paper then argues that social inclusion policies need to address a variety of forms of middle-class self-exclusion from mainstream public provision as well as working-class social exclusion. It concludes that education policy needs to be located within a broader social policy framework.     

Aboriginal student stories,the missing voice to guide us towards change

Despite decades of policy and practice oriented at improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal students in Australia, achievements on most measures indicate that there is a long way to go in this endeavour. One avenue for improving Aboriginal education that has received little attention is accessing the views of Aboriginal students themselves about best practice in engaging Aboriginal students. While there is a body of research in education that attempts to privilege ‘student voices,’ little work has explicitly focussed on accessing the voices of Aboriginal students. This paper reports on my study that involved asking Aboriginal students their views on schools, teachers and the curriculum in culturally safe discussion spaces. The Aboriginal students highlighted the need for their culture to be represented at schools and the recognition of their Aboriginality in safe environments at school. These findings reinforce the importance of engaging with Aboriginal people in the development of best practice so as to build Aboriginal understandings within a Western educational system.     

Differentiated demand for private supplementary tutoring: Patterns and implications in Hong Kong secondary education

A growing number of students around the world receive private tutoring in academic subjects. Such tutoring is widely called shadow education because it mimics regular schooling as the school sector grows, so does the shadow; and as the curriculum in the school changes, so does the curriculum in the shadow. Private tutoring has long been a significant phenomenon in East Asia, but has not received adequate research attention.This paper focuses on private tutoring in Hong Kong. It draws on data collected through questionnaires from students in Grades 9 and 12, and analyzes the factors which shape the demand for private tutoring. The paper highlights the influence of school, family and individual factors on students’ demand, and reports on students’ declared reasons for taking private tutoring. It commences with a broad comparative picture, and concludes by showing what the Hong Kong data add to wider conceptual understanding.     

隔岸对唱：近二十年关于中国大陆德育讨论本土与国际焦点之对比

近二十年来,德育问题一直是国内教育研究讨论的焦点。与此同时,在英语为主的国际文献中,中国大陆的道德教育也得到了越来越多的关注。通过两种视角的分析和比较,可以聚焦出本土和国际视野中关于大陆道德教育问题争论的焦点：即：（1）德育内容上与政治意识形态的“松绑”;（2）教育方式上由单纯的“说教”、“灌输”到人本主义多元化模式的出现;（3）新主题,公民教育的兴起;（4）研究范式上的跨学科发展趋势和方法多元化。多元分析有助于折射出德育作为一门学科在近二十年内的发展轨迹。     

Comparative education as a field in Asia: retrospect and prospect

Comparative education in Asia is witnessing changing discourses, structural opportunities, and invigorated leadership. This article will review the institutionalization of comparative education in Asia from a sociological perspective, drawing on Bourdieu’s theory on the logic of social practice. After giving an overview of the historical roots of Asian comparative education, I will describe broadly its landscape noting developments in the last two decades since 1995, the foundational year of the Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA). Four main themes are explored: comparative education teaching, professional societies, research centres, and specialist publications. With a baseline understanding of the infrastructures of the field in Asia and the power dynamics that shape them, I will propose an agenda for Asian comparative education to offer meaningful contributions to multipolar knowledge production in the field. Priority themes and directions will be highlighted to articulate a stronger Asian voice and leadership in an increasingly diverse and uncertain world.