Responsibilised parents and shadow education: managing the precarious environment in China

Abstract

Growing literatures highlight global shifts in education brought by spreading neoliberal values and marketisation. Parallel literatures address parenting styles. Parents, these literatures observe, are increasingly made responsible and/or voluntarily take responsibility for educational inputs alongside mainstream schooling. Much parental investment is in the so-called shadow education sector of private supplementary tutoring. Examining Chinese patterns, this paper notes longstanding high enrolment rates in both academic and non-academic supplementary education prior to government restrictions that brought a sharp marketplace jolt. The paper then employs parental interview data to show the rationales for such investment despite efforts by the Chinese authorities to retain schooling as a fully-sufficient form of education. The strengthened government policy altered the picture, but it seems likely that in the competitive society many parents will still secure supplementary support to manage what they feel to be a precarious environment.