Cross-National Differences in Shadow Education: Search for Explanatory Factors

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 18. Variation in the Transmission of Status

Abstract

The worldwide expansion of shadow education and its transformation into a multi-billion dollar global service-industry offering many different and costly tutoring services is now a substantial topic in the sociology of education. Yet our knowledge about the mechanism driving the global spread of shadow education is limited. In this study, we examine factors that account for cross-national differences in shadow education defined as a fee-paying out-of-school class by using data from the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), combined with the country specific information on socioeconomic, educational, and geographic features. Our multilevel analyses suggest that students in countries which are poorer and spend less on education more intensively rely on this form of shadow education than their counterparts elsewhere, after controlling for the student background characteristics. Our results also show that students in Southern and Eastern Asian countries spend longer time on pursuing shadow education than their counterparts in most of other regions. Together, our findings highlights the importance of socioeconomic, educational, and cultural and geographical conditions in understanding cross-national differences in the intensity of the use of shadow education.

Authors

• Soo-yong Byun, Pennsylvania State University

• Hee Jin Chung, Pennsylvania State University