EFL Shadow Education and China’s ‘Double-Reduction’ Policy: A Narrative Inquiry

Abstract Vulnerable and rural groups are overlooked in shadow education research in China. Through a narrative inquiry with 25 participants, this study examines participants’ experiences of shadow education, their perceptions of its effectiveness, and the factors entangled with it that shape their experiences under China’s ‘Double-Reduction’ policy. Responses were interpreted and analyzed according to a rational choice theory and reciprocal determinism framework. Participants demonstrate contradictory behaviors and attitudes toward EFL shadow education. Furthermore, household capital, including family economic and cultural capital, plays a significant role, and the neighborhood effect reinforces the pursuit of shadow education among rural students and low-socioeconomic-status families. This study demonstrates that EFL shadow education positively affects participants from rural areas facing the pressure of college admission. Additionally, in its examination of pedagogical approaches to teaching learners from ethnic minority groups in multilingual and multidialectal geographic areas of China, this study found that the immersion method of foreign language teaching may be inferior to novel methodologies such as translanguaging for facilitating English language learning in a sociocultural environment that supports diverse linguistic and cultural identities. These findings offer new insights to educators, researchers in the field of education, and educational policymakers.