Private tutoring for students in academic school subjects, known as shadow education (SE), is on the rise globally and in Europe (Bray, 2021). Recent evidence shows its growth even in countries where it was previously rare, such as Scandinavian countries (Cristensen & Zhang, 2021), and it is most prevalent in southern and eastern Europe. In post-socialist European countries, studies indicate significant parts of lower-secondary student cohorts have direct experience with private tutoring, exceeding 50% in Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, or Ukraine (Silova, 2010). In the Czech Republic, the focus of this study, 47% of lower-secondary students indicated taking private lessons or courses during their studies (Šťastný, 2023). These figures indicate that shadow education is a major phenomenon in many European countries. Research on this phenomenon unveiled its potential negative implications for educational inequalities, as it poses a financial burden to families, and pointed to corruption risks and unethical practices when provided by teachers to their own students (Bray, 2021).

Drivers of the demand for shadow education include factors related to pupils, parents, schools, education policy, and/or society. Parents, who typically pay for the service, play a crucial role in the decision to arrange private tutoring (Kazimzade & Jokić, 2013). An important parent-related factor is their (dis)satisfaction with schooling and the perceived quality of school instruction. For example, Bregvadze’s (2012) study of Georgian parents found that lower perceived quality of mainstream education was related to a higher probability of procuring private tutoring for their children. However, in China, Liu and Bray (2017, p. 214) found no correlation between satisfaction about schoolteacher and the use of private tutoring. Liu and Bray concluded that “without deeper understanding of teacher’s behaviour and students’ and/or parents’ decision-making processes about seeking tutoring, the relationship between students’ satisfaction with school teacher and the demand for tutoring is difficult to identify” and suggested that it “remains a question for further study, especially through qualitative research.” A study from the Czech Republic found that the worse students perceive the school quality of instruction in Mathematics or national language, the more likely they are to take private tutoring, but there is no such association in English (Šťastný & Chvál, 2023).

The quantitative data could not satisfactorily explain the identified relationship, therefore, the present study addresses this research gap and aims to scrutinize the relationship between shadow education and parental (dis)satisfaction with schooling leading to their decision to buy shadow education. The overall aim of the study is to identify different roles shadow education plays in parental responses to dissatisfaction with schooling. Two research questions guide the study:

RQ1: What are the reasons for parental dissatisfaction leading them to employ private tutoring for their child?

RQ2: What roles does private tutoring play for parents who voice concerns, wish to exit, or remain loyal despite their dissatisfaction with their child's schooling?

The study adopts Hirschmann’s (1970) theory of Exit, Voice, and Loyalty that explains individual and collective responses to dissatisfaction within an organization or system. Exit refers to individuals leaving the organization or system in response to dissatisfaction, seeking alternatives elsewhere (school choice and transferring the child to another school). Voice involves expressing concerns, grievances, or suggestions to bring about positive change from within the organization (the child's school). Loyalty is the inclination of individuals to remain committed to the organization (the school) despite dissatisfaction, often in the hope that issues will be addressed over time. The study contributes to shadow education literature by offering a nuanced view of how parents who are dissatisfied with the school education employ shadow education in situations when they choose to exit, voice or remain loyal.

The study is a part of a larger research project whose main aim was to analyze the views, attitudes, and opinions of parents in relation to arranging private tutoring for their children, to scrutinize the processes of their decision-making and their dynamics, and to identify key factors affecting these decisions (e.g., types, modes, subjects or providers of private tutoring etc.). Sampling and data collection The present study draws on qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews from 65 parents from February 2022 to December 2023 in the Czech Republic. A maximum variation sampling strategy was employed to gain insights from different types of parents of lower secondary pupils who intended to procure or already procured shadow education for their child. These parents found themselves in various life contexts, including those living in urban and rural areas, living solo or in full family, with lower as well as higher incomes and education levels, to achieve theoretical saturation of the sample. Interviews were conducted both in person and using online tools. After each interview, a quick survey was administered to collect more systematic data about the families’ socio-economic, educational, and cultural background. With 25 parents, follow up interviews were conducted several months after the original interview to capture how the situation evolved. Interview structure corresponded with overall project’s research questions and thematic foci and included sections about parents’ motivation to procure private tutoring, choices about private tutoring attributes, and evaluation of private tutoring impacts. Data analysis Every audio recording was transcribed and then analyzed using NVivo 12 software. The coding and subsequent analysis proceeded in several steps. First, open coding, inspired by grounded theory approach (Corbin & Strauss, 2015) was conducted inductively on the interview transcripts. At the same time, deductive codes (Braun & Clarke, 2006) were applied to segments that corresponded with a predefined coding frame derived from the thematic sections of the interview protocol. Further, theoretically driven coding was applied after the identification of a suitable theoretical framework to account for themes in data segments related to the Exit, Voice and Loyalty behavior of parents. The coded materials were then analyzed, with a usage of analytical memos and matrices as a support, and general patterns in the dataset were identified to produce the research report (Gerson & Damaske, 2020).

Shadow education plays different roles in parents’ responses to their dissatisfaction with the current schooling experience of their child. First, shadow education is a supportive measure that facilitates the parental attempts for exit from the current school, when the transfer to new desired school is conditioned by entrance examinations. For example, in the dataset, a group of parents was unsatisfied with the student composition of the classroom in the regular track, and sought their children to switch to a parallel academic track school that required success in entrance examinations. Second, dissatisfied parents also voiced their concerns when they felt the school could or should be able to address them and when they felt that their voice would not have negative consequences for their child. In such case, shadow education assumes a role of a supportive argument when voicing parental dissatisfaction. In communication with schools, parents were mentioning the private tutoring costs incurred “involuntarily” to them due to the inability of school to provide high quality education and satisfy their child’s educational needs. One parent even complained at the school inspectorate and used materials from private tutoring of her child to support her cause. Third, parents remained loyal despite their dissatisfaction with the school, hoped for the improvement of the situation, but at the same time did not voice their concerns for various reasons. Shadow education played a supplementary role compensating for the shortcomings at school, and was a price to pay for the loyalty of dissatisfied parents.

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