Undermining Classroom Teaching? Teachers' Perspectives on the Impact of Private Tutoring on School Education in Sydney, Australia

ABSTRACT The growth of private academic tutoring is having some profound effects on school education. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with primary school teachers in Sydney, Australia, this paper examines teacher perspectives on how classroom teaching is impacted when large proportions of students receive private tutoring. While students' advanced knowledge gained through tutoring can have benefits in classroom environments, most teachers in this research emphasised negative impacts, especially in relation to student disengagement in class and the fostering of overly instrumental and narrow approaches to learning. As such, the teachers saw private tutoring as undermining classroom teaching in many ways. Yet while the teachers were generally critical of private tutoring, they did not always understand or acknowledge the reasons for students' participation in tutoring. For many students these reasons were rooted in an anxiety to secure a competitive advantage in an increasingly marketized education system. Teachers had different priorities, especially in relation to fostering critical and holistic thinking, but were in many ways stymied by the narrow, test‐driven education system in which they worked. Their antipathy towards tutoring highlights the tensions between the stated values and goals of mainstream education, and the practical reality of competition and the test orientation that often preoccupies families and students.