Pair-skating Parentocracy: Hong Kong parents’ wish and wealth in shaping students’ private tutoring experience

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

Proposal

Parentocracy, characterized by parents’ resources and aspirations in determining student’s educational outcomes, is manifested overtly in the case of private supplementary tutoring. Parents exercise their agency and resources to ensure more enriched learning opportunities for their children and maximise the chance of their future success. As private tutoring has become more available and affordable with a greater parents’ agency, this study explores local Hong Kong parents’ perspectives on their aspirations and their involvements in students’ tutoring engagement post-Covid.

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 41 parents of students studying at a government-aided girls secondary school in Hong Kong, this qualitative study explores how Parentocracy is practised differently among parents with different family resources in the context of private supplementary tutoring. Reasons for participation in private tutoring, selection of tutors, parents’ expectations and their reviews of tutors were closely examined.

Findings of this qualitative study suggest a new, dynamic role of tutors ranging from an academic safety net, family mediators to learning companions. Aside from contributing to the existing body of qualitative research on shadow education, this study specifically highlights the changing role of students from passive followers to active influencers taking control of the process of tutors selection and the amount of tutoring received. Furthermore, findings also suggest a shift in parental demand and preferences towards selecting tutors who align with their children's personalities and learning styles, particularly during the junior secondary level, rather than opting for star tutors from tutorial centers, as noted in previous literature.

Author

• Yuk Tin Yvette Leung, The Education University of Hong Kong