Micro-neoliberalism in China: public-private interactions at the confluence of mainstream and shadow education

Abstract

With its shift to a market economy gathering speed from the 1990s, the Chinese government embarked on an agenda that brought neoliberal forces into almost all sectors including education. The policies underpinned China's spectacular economic growth, but in education have had consequences that arguably are problematic. Drawing on a mixed-methods study in Shanghai, this paper examines 'micro-neoliberalism' in China's education system, i.e. privatization and marketization at the individual, family and institutional levels, with focus on blurring boundaries between public schooling and private supplementary tutoring. Some dimensions of these processes resulted from deliberate macro-level policies to decentralize control of schooling, raise performance, and empower private education. Other dimensions arose from the market behavior of individuals, families and institutions that countered government efforts to steer parental choice of schools and to reduce disparities between schools. Education policies are enacted not only in schools but also in the shadow sector which is commonly overlooked. This paper focuses on Shanghai but has implications for other parts of China; and since shadow education is expanding as a global phenomenon, it also has relevance to many other countries.

Private tutoring in a high socio‐economic secondary school in Israel and pupils’ attitudes towards school learning: A double‐edged sword phenomenon

“…Schools may thus need to adapt to changes occurring outside their boundaries (Andrew, ). For example, in Shanghai's education system, shadow education that represents academic, supplementary or private tutoring, which mimics (‘shadows’, though imperfectly) regular school curricula (Bray, ), turned out to be a component incorporated into educational practices of schools, families and pupils (Zhang & Bray, ). Referring to Australia, Sriprakash et al .…”

“…Schools may thus need to adapt to changes occurring outside their boundaries (Andrew, 2015). For example, in Shanghai's education system, shadow education that represents academic, supplementary or private tutoring, which mimics ('shadows', though imperfectly) regular school curricula (Bray, 2017), turned out to be a component incorporated into educational practices of schools, families and pupils (Zhang & Bray, 2017). Referring to Australia, 942 A. Addi-Raccah Sriprakash et al (2016) summarised that 'practices of school education are being reconstituted through multiple forms of pedagogic work in sites beyond the classroom, not least the family and the private tutoring industry' (p. 439).…”

Review of Regulatory Policies on Private Supplementary Tutoring in China

“…This backwash may occur in several ways, such as reducing students' interests and energy in school classes, making the teaching in school class of students with and without private tutoring more challenging, distracting teachers who provide private tutoring from their regular duties, and encouraging misconduct among teachers like deliberately withholding content in school class to push students to private tutoring (Bray & Kwo, 2014;Kobakhidze, 2018;Zhang & Bray, 2017). Tutoring-school partnership in admissions, which may distort the officially-advocated procedures, have been another issue of concern (Liu, 2017;Zhang & Bray, 2017;Zhao, 2014). Other negative influences of private tutoring include (but not limited to) the anxieties among parents and students, the social inequality due to unequal probabilities of taking tutoring, and the heavy financial burden on some families.…”

Allies and competitors: private schools and the state in China

“…Additionally, the tutoring market gained momentum, producing a growing number of cram schools (cf. Zhang and Bray, 2016). Both genuine private schools and institutions offering extracurricular classes or other types of training were frequently accompanied by reports and rumors regarding embezzlement of funds and fees, poor teacher qualifications, fraud concerning school diploma, dilapidated buildings, and so on.…”