In increasingly more contexts, including Greece, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, diverse third parties (e.g., education businesses, freelancers, philanthropists) have become integral in providing public education. They may contribute to it as an external exam board to help implement the state’s mandate to standardise English education, as contracted teachers to develop students’ English speaking ability at the request of a regional government, or as service providing companies to grant any wishes that schools put forward. Their involvement, while prevalent, is not necessarily monitored and regulated by the government, leading to compromising the quality of education. More concerningly, their involvement is embraced without fully understanding its implications for the equity of public schooling.

In this presentation that launches the book by Choi (2024) titled “Outsourcing of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL): Towards an Equitable Society,” the practice of educational outsourcing in TESOL in Hong Kong and elsewhere is scrutinised, drawing on findings from a research project funded by the Research Grants Council Hong Kong.

The informing mixed-method study was framed by policy enactment theory to analyse the implemented educational outsourcing policy in the case contexts, which draws attention to the features of the policy, actors’ beliefs and identity and the contextual features as the main shapers of the enacted policy (e.g., Ball, Maguire & Braun, 2012; Choi, 2018). Nancy Fraser’s framework that identifies three dimensions of social justice (economic, cultural, and political) (e.g., Fraser, 2008, 1995), and those who operationalised the interventions to address related social injustice were used in analysing the implications for educational equity of the enacted outsourcing policy (e.g., Keddie, 2012).

The findings show that in the case of Hong Kong, schools to a degree levelled the ground for diverse marginal students mobilising the extra government funding that allows for hiring service providers. However, due to the narrow conceptualisation of educational equity that was enacted, and the differential use of the funding and monitoring of student learning across outsourced learning and teaching programmes and schools, social injustice in and around outsourced TESOL was addressed only in a limited way or in some cases, even aggravated.

Drawing on the findings, the measures to ensure equitable public schooling when it is delivered in collaboration with third parties will be suggested. More importantly, an education policy framework, incorporating the ever-increasing role of third parties in public education, is presented.

Document study, elite interviews and case study To examine education policy implementation, the author conducted a document review of outsourcing grant guidelines, related policies, and reports from 131 publicly funded schools in Hong Kong (30% of the total). Two rounds of case studies were conducted. The first (2014–2018) involved five schools and ten service providers to assess outsourced education practices and short-term impact. The second (2019/20) revisited two schools to identify changes over five years and included a study of a school at risk of closure to examine outsourcing's role in its turnaround. Interviews were conducted with four principals, three vice/assistant principals, 15 teachers, one school administrator, three outsourcing managers, one administrative staff member, ten service-provider teachers, as well as three policymakers. These explored the educational outsourcing policy, its implementation by government and schools, learning outcomes from the outsourced education, their equity implications, and government monitoring of the process and its impact. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis, following a systematic process to uncover patterns and themes related to educational outsourcing (e.g., Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2024). While the data was coded inductively, the initial coding was also driven by key themes from previous research, e.g., government roles and equity implications. Themes from the data were memoed on, turn by turn or sentence by sentence, and the identified codes through the process were grouped into broader themes such as the impact of outsourcing on marginalised students, teachers' professionalism and the use of funding. Themes were refined iteratively to ensure consistency and triangulation across interviews, document reviews and case studies, enhancing the findings' validity. Survey study Two surveys were used. The first collected data from 125 school staff across 62 secondary schools in 17 districts (16% of schools in the category) through convenience sampling via mandatory teacher training, but the sample composition mirrored the broader population. A follow-up survey conducted four years later examined changes in outsourcing practices, quality and equity of outsourced education, and the unintended impact of the pandemic. Stratified systematic sampling was used, with publicly funded schools approached via email and follow-up calls to 50% of the population, randomly chosen, yielding responses from 144 participants in 70 schools. Descriptive statistics and multilevel regression analysis (e.g., Hox, Moerbeek, & van de Schoot, 2017) were applied to explore the relationships between outsourcing, perceived quality and equity of the outsourced education, and school and student profiles.

Findings The findings reveal that educational outsourcing is governed by general procurement regulations and individual funding guidelines, in an uncoordinated way (e.g., EDB, 2013; 2021). There is no central unit to regulate or oversee outsourcing practices, leading to loose governance focused primarily on financial transparency. Schools must report on their use of extra funding and evaluate the quality of outsourced services, but evaluation criteria or reporting are not closely monitored. Funding allocation varies, with some distributed per capita and others through competitive bidding. While about 30% of the school-run programmes were provided in partnership with outsiders, not all schools pursue optional funding due to the complexity of the application process and for fear of drawing unwanted attention to their problems; staff may hesitate to raise awareness of funding opportunities to avoid being assigned additional responsibilities, as their efforts may go unacknowledged or even penalised if issues arise. Educational equity in outsourcing is often narrowly focused on providing access to learning opportunities, neglecting student engagement and learning outcomes. Poor communication, lack of coordination, and privacy concerns frequently prevent service providers from understanding the needs of marginalised or diverse learners, thereby perpetuating or worsening educational inequities. Implications The study emphasizes the need for robust policy frameworks to regulate outsourcing practices and their equity and quality, which will ensure that outsourced services contribute meaningfully to the educational experiences of all students. Such a framework drawing on the findings will be suggested. Theoretically, the study extends the application of policy enactment theory (Ball et al., 2012) by illustrating the need to pay attention to the governing power collectively exerted by disparate, uncoordinated executive documents functioning as policy on education (Choi & Wong, 2023).

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