When Whole-Person Development Encounters Social Stratification: Teachers’ Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Private Supplementary Tutoring in Hong Kong

Abstract

In many settings a perplexing scenario is unfolding in which school systems claim to move towards wholeperson development while students and parents run in the opposite direction of narrowly-defined academic achievement enhanced by private supplementary tutoring. Such tutoring is widely called shadow education because much of its content mimics that of regular schooling. It has long been clearly visible in Asia, and is now increasingly visible elsewhere. This study focuses on school teachers' perceptions of shadow education in the context of a flourishing sector that parallels and to some extent contradicts progressive education reforms. Drawing on 47 in-depth interviews with teachers from 12 secondary schools in Hong Kong, the research found ambivalent views towards private tutoring. This ambivalence reflected intrinsic contradictions between the educational ideals of whole-person development and the function of schooling in social stratification. Such tensions are likely to become increasingly evident elsewhere as commercialised forms of private supplementary tutoring expand.

Exploring student/teacher interactions in Taiwanese buxiban classrooms from the poststructuralist concept of subjectivity

“…The high percentage does not merely indicate the indisputable popularity of buxiban but also implies its impact on the education system. Due to its dramatic growth in the last two decades, shadow education in Taiwan does not mimic the regular school system only; rather, to certain degrees, it has great impact on the school systems, such as teaching and learning, and evokes some tension between school and buxiban teachers (Wang & Bray, 2016) and also results in issues on social justice, inequity, classes, unbalanced power relations and so on . For Taiwanese people, buxiban has "become a social phenomenon" (Hsu & Yang, 2018, p.1258 and it even gets its name called "buxiban culture" (Johanson, 1997) due to its popularity.…”

“…Schools are generally viewed as formal settings for students to learn. However, due to the overloading homework and too many after-school classes (Bray, 2013;Kassotakis & Verdis, 2013), students work longer (7:30 am to 5:10 pm at school and maybe 6 pm to 9/10 pm in shadow education) (Chou & Yuan, 2011) than full-time employees (normally 8 hours per day), they are always exhausted and sometimes fall asleep in school lessons (Bray, 2013;Chou & Yuan, 2011;Wang & Bray, 2016). School teachers complain that private tutoring has become a major locus of activity rather than a supplement and they feel that school has become a place for students to play and sleep (Wang & Bray, 2016, p. 878), but not for study and learning.…”

“…Aforementioned, the popularity of shadow education elicits the change of school teachers' attitudes towards teaching, which leads to the poor quality of their teaching practices. Studies (Bray, 2013;Chan & Bray, 2014;Wang & Bray, 2016) indicate that students voice that they benefit more from their shadow education teachers' classes rather than their school teachers and students are reported to show more respect to their shadow education teachers (Wang & Bray, 2016). Moreover, some students show fewer interests in their school teachers' classes, and find school boring and they switch off since their shadow education teachers always cover the topics that are taught at school in advance (Chan & Bray, 2014).…”

“…Moreover, some students show fewer interests in their school teachers' classes, and find school boring and they switch off since their shadow education teachers always cover the topics that are taught at school in advance (Chan & Bray, 2014). It turns out that students are mind-absent in their school classes or even challenge their school teachers' authority, such as not to complete school homework (Wang & Bray, 2016). Some teachers have positive attitudes towards shadow education teachers and even encourage students to take private tutoring since they think shadow education teachers do help the slow learners show some improvement (Wang & Bray, 2016).…”

“…It turns out that students are mind-absent in their school classes or even challenge their school teachers' authority, such as not to complete school homework (Wang & Bray, 2016). Some teachers have positive attitudes towards shadow education teachers and even encourage students to take private tutoring since they think shadow education teachers do help the slow learners show some improvement (Wang & Bray, 2016). However, some school teachers feel stressed, have negative opinions towards shadow education teachers and think it is necessary to abandon shadow education (Bray, 2013).…”