From the Peripheral to the Transboundary: Documenting the Lived Experiences of Students and Parents with Online Math Tutoring Services

Abstract

Despite the growing prevalence of tutoring services in Canada, and a corpus of studies focusing on its overall implementation, research on the tutoring experience of Canadian students is lacking. This article reports findings from a study that responds to this gap through interviews with three high school students receiving online tutoring services in math, and two parents of children receiving online tutoring services. Specifically, the study responds to three questions: (1) What are the lived experiences of high school students receiving math tutoring from a private tutoring service in Ontario, Canada?; (2) What are parents’ motives for seeking private tutoring services?; and (3) How do participants perceive the learning taking place in different environments (e.g., tutoring vs. school)? In response to these questions, this article outlines the extent to which student participation in online tutoring demonstrates “transboundary learning”, responding to earlier claims arguing that tutoring services are considered to be more like “peripheral” learning environments as opposed to an important context for student learning. Findings show a distinct shift in the relationship between tutoring and schooling, where learning is more transboundary in nature and boundaries between schooling and tutoring are blurred. Discussion of findings elaborates on evidence of this transformation as aligning with central characteristics of transboundary learning. The increasing role of tutoring in families' learning and schooling experiences could signal the potential for more inequalities in education, which are discussed in detail.