Exploring the Role of Digitization in Parental Decision-Making for Private Tutoring in Hong Kong

• In Event: Shadow Education in a Digital Age: Parental Choices and Policy Impacts

Proposal

Parents are enthusiastically invested and encouragingly involved in the growth of their children. Research has indicated that children whose parents are engaged in their educational journey, experience positive academic perspectives and outcomes academically. One such investment made by parents to further their child’s success is in shadow education, which owing to Hong Kong’s intensively competitive educational landscape, is wildly popular and aggressively used by parents and children. The important factor to note here is that the educational decisions that are made, are human and not digital. Parents are humans who actively and intentionally make decisions for their children especially when they are younger but also when they’re older and in need of guidance.

However, with the advancement of technology and digitalization, the role and influence of technology are essential to explore and understand. Learning is no longer limited to the four walls of the classroom, taking place in person. Rather, it has gone beyond that, credit to the easy access and inexhaustible availability of the internet, which connects people, places and even actors in the educational ecosystem.

Due to the dynamic nature of educational choices, decisions taken are iterative in nature, which are constantly evolving. Employing the sociological viewpoint on decision-making, along with our epistemological disposition that decision-making for private tutoring is informed by collaboration, this paper traverses the various nuances of parental decision-making for private tutoring in Hong Kong, in particular our need for human connections, even as the world is heavily digitized. This paper also applies the sociocultural theory (1978) by Lev Vygotsky which explores the influence of online medium on students’ learning and concludes that the online medium might be ineffective due to the lack of social interaction and collaboration.

This research study uses data collected in 2021 from qualitative research, conducted with 80 parent participants (70 mothers and 10 fathers), whose children were studying in secondary school (local and international) in Hong Kong. The findings revealed that parents valued and relied on their social community to find private tutors, rather than technology and social media. It also highlighted parents’ concerns for online learning, that arose due to the pandemic. Possibly implying their reluctance towards the popularization of the digital and online advancement with respect to their children’s learning journey.

By snapshotting the nuances of parental decision-making on and for private tutoring in this digitized vista, this paper adds to the burgeoning discussion on shadow education, particularly highlighting the enhanced role played by parents’ during the pandemic, transporting students from learning face-to-face in classrooms to learning within the four walls of their homes on digital screens.

Authors

• Shrutti Satish Rajgarhia

• Nutsa Magda Kobakhidze, The University of Hong Kong