Social legitimacy of private tutoring: an investigation of institutional and affective educational practices in India
Social legitimacy of private tutoring: an investigation of institutional and affective educational practices in India
While a growing body of research shows the prevalence of private tutoring in India, the ways in which these informal educational setups gain social legitimacy remains largely unclear. To redress this gap in the scholarship, this article investigates institutional and affective tutoring practices, in relation to formal schooling. It draws on the perspectives of tutors, school teachers, teacher-tutors, students and their parents, produced through an educational ethnography conducted in Dehradun (India) in 2014–2015. In so doing, this article shows that strategic adoption (adhering to formal education practices) and tactical deviation (diverging from typical schooling norms) are central to tutoring centres’ attempt to project themselves as academically relevant and desirable spaces for teaching and learning. By offering a nuanced understanding of the interactions between formal (schools) and informal (tutoring provisions) educational institutions, it argues that private tutoring serves as a critique of formal schooling in the empirical context.
India, private tutoring, schooling practices, Shadow education, social legitimacy
Gupta, Achala
a30fa79d-e9dc-4237-93d4-bdaf8816780a
Gupta, Achala
a30fa79d-e9dc-4237-93d4-bdaf8816780a
Gupta, Achala
(2021)
Social legitimacy of private tutoring: an investigation of institutional and affective educational practices in India.
Discourse.
(doi:10.1080/01596306.2020.1868978).
Abstract
While a growing body of research shows the prevalence of private tutoring in India, the ways in which these informal educational setups gain social legitimacy remains largely unclear. To redress this gap in the scholarship, this article investigates institutional and affective tutoring practices, in relation to formal schooling. It draws on the perspectives of tutors, school teachers, teacher-tutors, students and their parents, produced through an educational ethnography conducted in Dehradun (India) in 2014–2015. In so doing, this article shows that strategic adoption (adhering to formal education practices) and tactical deviation (diverging from typical schooling norms) are central to tutoring centres’ attempt to project themselves as academically relevant and desirable spaces for teaching and learning. By offering a nuanced understanding of the interactions between formal (schools) and informal (tutoring provisions) educational institutions, it argues that private tutoring serves as a critique of formal schooling in the empirical context.
Text
AG - Discourse - Accepted manuscript
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 13 December 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 4 January 2021
Keywords:
India, private tutoring, schooling practices, Shadow education, social legitimacy
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Local EPrints ID: 451099
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451099
ISSN: 0159-6306
PURE UUID: ec67dbc8-da75-4050-a300-74cbfcd75ffe
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Date deposited: 07 Sep 2021 16:34
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 06:41
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