Shadow Education and Educational Inequality in South Korea

• In Event: 405 - Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Schools as Organizations

Abstract

In this study we examine the nature and effects of shadow education in South Korea with a particular focus on the heterogeneous effects of shadow education. Shadow education is comprised of education that takes place outside the classroom, including practices such as cram schools and private tutoring. While most existing studies have treated the effect of shadow education on educational outcomes to be homogeneous across students of different characteristics, this study examines variation in the effects of shadow education according to an individual’s likelihood of using shadow education. If shadow education affects students differently, examining and interpreting simple average effects of shadow education limits a full understanding of the implications of shadow education on educational inequality. Heterogeneous treatment effects methods enable an examination of how shadow education affects different students differently. Results reveal clear evidence of negative selection in shadow education, which indicates that those individuals who are less likely to use intense math shadow education benefit more from shadow education. In other words, disadvantaged students benefit more from shadow education than do their economically and educationally advantaged peers. This finding of negative selection has important implications for the role of shadow education in Korean society. In contrast to the common understanding that shadow education plays a key role in widening the educational gap between social classes in Korea, these findings indicate that shadow education could be used as a mechanism to diminish or at least maintain the educational gap between social classes.

Authors

• Yool Choi, University of California-Los Angeles

• Hyunjoon Park, University of Pennsylvania