Taming the Wild Horse of Shadow Education

Zhang analyses the phenomenon of private supplementary tutoring from a global perspective, juxtaposing countries with strong regulations with counterparts having weak or no regulations.

Wei Zhang is a Professor in the Institute of Curriculum and Instruction (ICI) of East China Normal University (ECNU), Shanghai, and the Executive Director of the Centre for International Research in Supplementary Tutoring (CIRIST). She is a member of China's Ministry of Education expert committee on private tutoring, and director of the expert committee on materials for tutoring and lifelong education in Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. She is also an Honorary Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark. In 2020 she was a Fellow in UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report team. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Hong Kong, where she subsequently managed its Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC). She has published extensively in the domain of shadow education from an international comparative perspective, and has conducted fieldwork on the theme in Cambodia, Denmark, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Myanmar.

Introduction Part I: A Global Framework 1. Conceptual Framework 2. What Needs to Be Regulated, Why and How? Part II: Five Country Studies 3. Japan: Changing Dynamics of Regulation and Self-Regulation 4. China: Strong State Confronting Strong Market 5. India: Diversity in a Decentralised System 6. Egypt: Teachers as Tutors 7. Denmark: Students as Tutors Part III: Conclusions 8. Learning from Comparing