Private English Tutors’ Agency amid China’s Double Reduction Policy: A Bourdieusian Perspective

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

Proposal

Since the Chinese government released the “Double Reduction” policy (DRP) – a hardline policy on private supplementary tutoring or shadow education – in July 2021, the sector has undergone substantial disruptions. However, research into its effects and societal repercussions remains scant, especially regarding the implications for diverse stakeholder groups. The current study aims to enrich the scholarly discussion on shadow education policy implications by examining how stakeholders exert agency within this arena. Utilizing interview data with 20 private English tutors, collected as part of an ethnographic study between July 2023 to January 2024, it offers an in-depth analysis of their agentic responses through the lens of Bourdieu’s theory of practice.

The findings reveal three dominant forms of agency that private English tutors employ to navigate their professional courses: 1) pragmatic agency, 2) entrepreneurial agency, and 3) developmental agency. Pragmatic private English tutors either switched to non-subject tutoring (e.g., IELTS/TOEFL) or remained with a tutoring company that had adapted to comply with the policy; tutors with entrepreneurial spirit continued subject tutoring in a more hidden way by being an independent tutor active in the underground market or moving to the virtual space to produce English learning contents and/or live stream English classes; tutors exercising developmental agency mainly seek higher degrees as an investment in their personal and professional growth.

These practices emerge from a sophisticated interplay between the field’s doxa, the tutors’ habitus, and their symbolic capital. Drawing on the insights from the findings, the discussion proposes four arguments framed within Bourdieu’s theory of practice. First, within the field of shadow education, the underlying rules or doxa which help maintain and (re)produce the social order in the sector have not fundamentally changed, even with a radical change of the political forces: the strong enforcement of DRP. The second argument is that the shadow education field-specific doxa implies the possibilities for individual private tutors and this “space of possibles” is conditioned by their habitus, which is produced by personal life trajectories and the current social situations. The third argument is that having more symbolic capital and a better understanding of the doxa will facilitate private tutors’ fight for positions within the field of shadow education. And the final argument is that the field and its structure not only exert influence on private tutors who are active in it, but are also (re)shaped by individual and collective practices that make up the field.

The study contributes to the literature of both shadow education and agency research beyond the mainstream education system. Theoretically, applying Bourdieu’s theory to a new context with empirical data attests to its robustness and extends its applicability. It also has implications for policymakers and researchers worldwide in the field of shadow education.

Author

• Min Lyu, Hong Kong Baptist University