Miss Gwen Zeng from the Education University of Hong Kong presented at the Shadow Education SIG on November 19. Gwen is a PhD student researching shadow education in China under the supervision of Dr. Kevin Yung. Her thesis is entitled as “Tutoring or not tutoring: Understanding parents’ agency in children’s early English learning in China”. More than 25 members of the shadow education SIG attended the presentation from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Germany and the United Kingdom.
On July 12, Shadow Education SIG members gathered on Zoom to listen to a presentation by Miss Shalini Bhorkar on Private Tutoring and Mainstream Education Linkages in India: A Political Economy Approach.
Currently, Shalini is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Education, UCL. She is also an HKU graduate from the Comparative and Global Studies in Education and Development (CGSED) MEd program.
Attendees included the SIG members from Hong Kong, Mainland China, the UK, Uzbekistan and Japan.
Date: July 15, Thursday, 2021
Time: 10 am to 11:30 am HKT
Zoom Registration link: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItcOyrqDooHt2ffGWUwg-kxJGnlfcohtSK
Chair:
Dr Alfredo Bautista, Associate Professor and Associate Head, Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong
Speakers:
Dr Nutsa Kobakhidze, Principal Investigator, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong
Ms Janice Chui, Research Team Member, Former Primary School teacher, MSc. Candidate in the Department of Education, Oxford University, UK
Janisa Hui, Ed.M. Research Team Member, Former Playgroup Teacher. Pursuing PhD Degree in the College of Education, University of Maryland – College Park, USA
Hong Kong is a fast-paced city where busy parents with high aspirations could be under immense pressure. To improve their children’s chance of success in the highly selective process of kindergarten admission, some parents outsource admission preparation to tutorial companies. Over the past decade, interview classes i.e. classes which prepare children for kindergarten interviews have grown in popularity among parents.
This session presents the findings from a qualitative study conducted in mid-2020, which examined the processes and mechanisms involved in kindergarten admission, with a particular focus on understanding the interview class market. The study covered a diversity of views from 78 participants including parents (local and non-local), kindergarten teachers, interview service providers, policy-makers and early childhood educators.
The Knowledge Exchange seminar invites non-academic communities such as parents, teachers, tutors, school leadership and policy-makers. The speakers will discuss implications of the study findings for child development, well-being and education. Special attention will be paid to how the COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of kindergarten admission preparation services in Hong Kong.
On May 28, during the Shadow Education SIG seminar, Weilin Wang (HKU PhD student) and Robert Liu (HKU MEd student) spoke about shadow education research in Mainland China. Weilin shared his thoughts on how start tutors in China use examination-oriented pedagogy to help students with Gaokao preparation, while Robert shared emerging findings from his pilot study on A-level students’ use of private tutoring in an international school.
Organizer: Comparative Education Research Centre, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong
Speaker: Professor Marek KWIEK
Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (IAS)
UNESCO Chair in Institutional Research and Higher Education Policy
University of Poznan, Poland
Date: May 18, 2021
Time: 18:00-19:15 (Hong Kong Time)
Format: Zoom
Please register: Click here
Abstract:
Publications are a major determinant of successful academic careers. Individual scientists make collaboration and authorship decisions: choosing team or solo publications, same-sex or mixed-sex collaborations, local, national or international collaborations? Past authorship decisions, including the choice of academic journals, bear on the availability of future external research grants as well as on opportunities for employment, promotion and tenure. Different types of collaborations have impact on inequalities as well as on innovation in science. In this presentation, Professor Kwiek will elaborate on dilemmas of collaborations in (1) local-national-international, (2) solo-team, and (3) male-female formats. He will also speak on how these collaborations have been driving innovation in the Polish national system of higher education and academic profession, and contributing to the Polish Excellence Initiative.
Brief bio:
Professor Marek Kwiek is the UNESCO Chair in Institutional Research and Higher Education Policy and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (IAS), University of Poznan, Poland. His research interests are science of science, quantitative science studies, higher education research, and sociology of the academic profession. His current studies focus on research collaboration and social stratification in science. He has published about 200 papers and book chapters and 8 monographs. In 2020, he published in Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, Scientometrics, and Journal of Economic Surveys. In 2019, he published a book: Changing European Academics: A Comparative Study of Social Stratification, Work Patterns and Research Productivity (Routledge). He has also served as a Principal Investigator in 25 international higher education research projects, and has been an editorial board member for Higher Education Quarterly, European Educational Research Journal, British Educational Research Journal, European Journal of Higher Education and for a Springer book series Higher Education Dynamics. He can be followed on Twitter @Marek_Kwiek
On 15 April 2021, CONFEMEN (Conférence des ministres de l’Éducation des États et gouvernements de la Francophonie), which is headquartered in Senegal, hosted high-level webinar focused on the CERC book written by Mark Bray L’éducation de l’ombre en Afrique (i.e. the French translation of the book Shadow Education in Africa: Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Policy Implications).
The event was co-hosted by France Éducation International, which is an arm of the French government responsible for international relations in the education sector.
Following introductions by CONFEMEN Secretary-General Abdel-Rahamane Baba-Moussa and FEI Director-General Pierre-François Mourier, Mark Bray presented the book. Then six Ministers of Education and/or their representatives spoke, namely:
Other speakers included:
All speakers recognized the need to focus more clearly on private supplementary tutoring, especially in the context of social inequalities. More data are needed and wider discussion in order to ‘take the topic out of the shadows’.
As a co-sponsor of the 2021 annual conference of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong, CERC welcomes comparative education researchers from around the world. The greeting message from Dr. Anatoly V. Oleksiyenko, CERC Director can be watched below.
This year’s theme is “Geopolitics of Knowledge and Education Policy”. The schedule and registration details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/ceshk-conference-2021/home (Zoom links embedded). You can still sign up!
The Shadow Education SIG members met virtually on November 18, 2020 to listen to a presentation by Mr Li Jun, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, HKU.
Li Jun’s presentation was entitled: “Lessons from the Fieldwork: Researching Private Tutoring Entrepreneurs in the Context of Chongqing, China”
The SIG was well attended by current and new members.
Dr Achala Gupta, a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey in the UK, made a virtual presentation for the Shadow Education SIG on October 27. The presentation title was: “Teacher-entrepreneurialism: a case of teacher identity formation in neoliberalizing education space in contemporary India.” The presentation was based on an article, published in Critical Studies in Education –DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2019.1708765
The SIG’s was chaired by Dr Nutsa Kobakhidze and well-attended by SIG’s previous, current and new members.
