Shadow Education in Hong Kong: An Insight From Local Private Tutors

Abstract

Shadow education has remained a supportive role in many countries, and studies have shown that it has had both positive and negative impacts on students’ academic performance. However, the views so far for private tutors have often been neglected by researchers. Private tutors are one of the important stakeholders in shadow education since they are the knowledge providers and facilitators in the classroom. Their opinions can help to show a more realistic picture of shadow education in Hong Kong. In this study, the focus is on investigating Hong Kong shadow education from private tutors’ perspectives. There were 20 private tutors from local private tutorial centres participating in this study, and they were invited to individual interviews to express their ideas about shadow education in Hong Kong. Thematic analysis was used to organize and analyze the data in this study. The results showed that private tutors felt shadow education in Hong Kong is too ‘materialistic,’ and sometimes they felt lost when teaching because of the result-oriented atmosphere in the Hong Kong education system. Furthermore, social inequalities and washback were reported as well. This has further highlighted some of the negative impacts brought by shadow education.