'The most popular star-tutor of English': discursive ...

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

ISSN: 0159-6306 (Print) 1469-3739 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cdis20

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‘The most popular star-tutor of English’: discursive construction of tutor identities in shadow education Kevin Wai Ho Yung & Rui Yuan

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To cite this article: Kevin Wai Ho Yung & Rui Yuan (2018): ‘The most popular star-tutor of English’: discursive construction of tutor identities in shadow education, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2018.1488241 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1488241

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Published online: 18 Jun 2018.

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DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1488241

‘The most popular star-tutor of English’: discursive construction of tutor identities in shadow education Kevin Wai Ho Yung

and Rui Yuanb

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of English Language Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

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ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Private tutoring; multimodal discourse analysis; identity; shadow education; biography; language education; marketisation; Hong Kong

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Private tutoring has become a widespread phenomenon worldwide, partly due to the global trend of marketisation and commodification of education. Informed by a discursive view of identity and through multimodal discourse analysis, this study aims to unveil part of the shadow education discourse by investigating the identities of 41 English language tutors portrayed in their biographies on the websites of six leading tutorial schools in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that the tutors project identities as (1) an authoritative exam expert, (2) a popular star, and (3) a well-qualified English language teacher. These multiple identities overlap and collectively create an ‘exam expert-star-teacher’ hybrid identity. The study sheds light on how implicit values and beliefs about shadow education are created and manifested in educational and social discourses, particularly when biography in tutorial advertisements is a prevailing commercial genre with promotional purposes.

Introduction

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Private tutoring, defined as fee-paying teaching of academic subjects outside school hours, is widely known as ‘shadow education’ because it mimics and changes according to mainstream schooling (Bray, 2009; Yung & Bray, 2017). The past years have witnessed a surge of research interest in private tutoring with a growing body of studies focusing on its exacerbation of social inequality (e.g. Buchmann, Condron, & Roscigno, 2010; Dawson, 2010) as well as its effectiveness on students’ academic learning (e.g. Kwo & Bray, 2014; Yung, 2015). However, there is a paucity of research on shadow education discourses and how such discourses may emerge and function in society. Discourse generally refers to ‘a particular way of talking about and understanding the world (or an aspect of the world)’ (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p. 1). This view of ‘discourse’ sees texts (both spoken and written) as communicative units embedded in social and cultural practices (Gee, 1999; Johnstone, 2002), which together contribute to the social construction of reality. Advertisements which promote tutors have become a prominent component of the shadow education discourse worldwide (see, e.g. Koh, 2016; Kozar, 2015; Šťastný, 2017). According to Wu (2009), advertising produces and conveys ‘new forms of knowledge concerning people and their surroundings’ and ‘defines the CONTACT Kevin Wai Ho Yung

[email protected]

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

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K. W. H. YUNG AND R. YUAN

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“appropriate” behaviors of the consumer population’ (p. 149). Leiss, Kline, Jhally, and Botterill (2005) also pointed out that advertising is a ‘useful interpretative key for tracing aspects of our consumer culture’ (p. 5). In this sense, analysing the multimodal forms of promotional pictures and texts on tutorial websites can shed light on the beliefs and values of education from the consumer (i.e. students and parents) perspective and add to our understanding of shadow education in relation to the larger educational and social discourses. Given the popularity and potential influence of tutorial advertisements as a prevailing discourse act with promotional purposes, this study seeks to investigate how such a discourse act is enacted and presented in relation to implicit values and beliefs about shadow education in larger social discourses. In particular, this study adopts ‘identity’ as an analytic lens (Gee, 2000) to investigate the personal biographies of private tutors (as a type of advertisement) on the websites of six leading tutorial schools in Hong Kong. Identity, generally defined as being recognised as a certain ‘kind of person’ in a given context (Gee, 2000), is deeply intertwined with specific language use in social discourses (Fairclough, 2003). Informed by a discursive view of identity and adopting a multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) approach (Kress, 2011; Machin, 2007), this study can shed light on how tutors discursively enact their identities and how their identities interact with the whole education context. This is an important aspect of investigation in that it unveils how tutors are becoming the ‘invasive species’ in the ecosystems of education where tutors and schoolteachers compete for space and livelihood (Bray & Kobakhidze, 2015, p. 478). The study seeks to answer two research questions:

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1. What identities do tutors display in their biographies? 2. How are tutors’ identities discursively constructed in their biographies?

Conceptual framework

A discursive view of identities

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This study is theoretically anchored by a discursive view of identity, which is conceived as a complex and manifold concept, arising from ‘an ongoing process of construction’ in both practice and discourse in relation to various social contexts and relationships (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005; Fairclough, 2003). Language plays a critical role in social practice and identity (re)construction, since it is one of the key media through which identity is negotiated and interpreted by other people (Benwell & Stokoe, 2006). Following this line of thinking, private tutors’ personal biographies on their companies’ websites can serve as a discourse space where their identities are constructed and displayed to the public. Biography is an ‘an unsung and disregarded genre which has largely escaped the notice of discourse analysts’ (Hyland & Tse, 2012, p. 155). This gap is also observed in shadow education research. For example, Koh (2016) focused on two Hong Kong tutorial advertisements through a ‘media spectacle’ and Kozar (2015) analysed the themes and structures of tutorial websites in Russia, but these studies did not pay attention to the details presented in tutors’ biographies or delineate how tutors’ identities were discursively enacted and displayed to the public through this under-researched genre. Due to the commercial nature of shadow education and open access to tutors’ biographies on

DISCOURSE: STUDIES IN THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EDUCATION

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the internet, how tutors are visually and linguistically depicted in their biographies to present their identity not only can reflect the specific social expectations associated with shadow education, but can also demonstrate how such social beliefs and values are mobilised, promoted, and/or contested in the larger educational discourse. In order to shed new light on shadow education and its interactions with the situated educational and socio-cultural contexts, such an investigation into tutors’ identity warrants attention.

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Multimodal discourse analysis

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Informed by a discursive view on identity, this study adopts a MDA approach with a focus on both visual and textual dimensions of tutors’ identity construction. Multimodality refers to different modes of discourses (e.g. images and texts) through which meaning is made and transformed (Machin, 2007). MDA can reveal certain aspects of meanings and social reality, which are constitutive of, embedded, and emergent in diverse semiotic entities and forms (Kress, 2011). It is ‘an emerging paradigm in discourse studies’ (O’Halloran, 2011, p. 120). It goes beyond the study of language within the discourse and incorporates other resources of social semiosis. To understand the whole picture of social practices, it is no longer sufficient to solely look at language, as the world is now represented in different modes such as the Internet, through which people express meaning, make commitments, claim memberships, and construct their identities (Kress, 2011). Therefore, MDA is particularly useful for researchers to understand identities and their connection with the social context such as education (Bezemer & Jewitt, 2010). MDA is often applied to specific genre types, which are essential in realising the complexity of social environments (Kress, 2011). Genres, as typified forms of discourse arising in response to social needs, recognition and regularisation, reflect their users’ values and identities and the widely perceived forms of social practices (Tardy, 2011). The present study focuses on biographies of private tutors as a special genre type which serve as a critical means of promotion and communication (between tutors and parents/students) in the discourse of shadow education. Drawing on existing research on discourse analysis (e.g. Fairclough, 2003; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006), an integrated framework of MDA is proposed to guide the present inquiry. As shown in Figure 1 below, the biography of a tutor is treated as the unit of analysis, where MDA is employed to examine both visual representation (e.g. images and layout) and textual enactment (e.g. moves and lexical use) of his/her identities in relation to the discourse of shadow education as well as the larger educational context in Hong Kong. First, artists and illustrators often use specific visual resources to establish communication and relationships with their viewers. In particular, the use of colours, degree of brightness, diverse forms of layout and angles, as well as techniques of focalisation, can collectively create certain interactive meanings and power relations (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006), which give rise to different forms of identities. Apart from an analysis of visual communication, textual analysis with a focus on detailed language use is also critical in identity research (Fairclough, Mulderrig, & Wodak, 2011). At the structural level, move analysis (Swales, 1990) is employed to identify text components which serve distinct rhetorical functions for certain communicative purposes. In a biography, each move illustrates the writer’s decisions about what to include/exclude and emphasise/downplay so that a particular aspect of the person’s identity can be projected and communicated to others.


Figure 1. Multimodal discourse analysis.

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At the lexico-grammatical level, identity can be enacted and transformed through modality and evaluation (Fairclough, 2003; Martin & White, 2005). Modality refers to the text producer’s judgement of the probabilities or the level of obligations or commitments of the content. Modality can help establish a specific relationship between the represented self, both personal and social, of the writer and the viewer (Fairclough, 2003). While modal verbs (e.g. ‘should’ and ‘must’) are often used, modality may also be enacted by modal adverbs (e.g. ‘probably’ and ‘possibly’) or mental process clauses (e.g. ‘I think … ’). Evaluation can be understood as a process of expressing desirability or undesirability for certain identities, which can be expressed through evaluative judgements such as adjectives, noun phrases, and verbs (Fairclough, 2003). Furthermore, the texturing of identity takes place through ‘legitimation’, which refers to the ways individuals explain and justify their various commitments to truth and/or identities (Fairclough, 2003). The linguistic strategies for legitimation may include authorisation (e.g. drawing on principles and theories) and rationalisation (e.g. providing detailed reasoning) (Trent, 2016). To sum up, informed by a social, discursive view on identity and adopting the MDA approach (Kress, 2011), this study aims to uncover the visual and linguistic representation of private tutors’ identities on their online biographies and explore how their identities interact with the shadow education discourse and the larger socio-cultural context.

Methodology

The data were collected from the biographies of all English language tutors (25 males and 16 females) on the websites of six tutorial companies in Hong Kong in June-September 2016. These tutorial companies were chosen because they were the largest six with multiple branches all over Hong Kong (Synovate, 2011). They offer mass-lecturing courses of various subjects featured in the public exams in the local curriculum. Some tutors also


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teach to international standardised language tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). All the websites were written in Chinese with occasional code-mixing with English. Using UAM CorpusTool 3.0 (O’Donnell, 2008), a 24,702-word database comprising the textual data in the biographies was built with the help of a research assistant who was experienced in the use of corpus as a research tool. The analysis was conducted based on the original Chinese texts. Selected examples were translated by the first author and checked by the second author, who are both Chinese-English bilinguals. While ethical clearance has been sought, the authors did not consider it necessary to seek consent from the tutors or tutorial companies because the tutorial advertisements are ‘essentially everyday texts seen everywhere in Hong Kong’ (Koh, 2016, p. 197) and tutors’ profiles are publicly available online. However, to ensure anonymity and avoid promoting particular tutors or tutorial companies, their names were removed in the database. The 41 English language tutors’ biographies were subject to MDA (Kress, 2011) in order to reveal the types of identities portrayed on the websites and how such identities were discursively enacted. First, the first author reviewed the biographies to identify their discourse structures, which generally entail the tutor’s photo in plain background (usually black, white or light blue) at the top, followed by textual details of the tutor’s profile. While the tutors’ photos were analysed to reveal their points of views as well as face directions and expressions, the following texts of each profile were interpreted with a dual focus on meaning and language use (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). On the one hand, the first author read the texts repeatedly to identify the major themes in relation to the tutors’ identities. Multiple identity themes were thus revealed, such as ‘exam experts’, ‘language teachers’, and ‘popular stars’. On the other hand, he closely examined specific linguistic features (e.g. the use of labelling, modality, and adjectives) associated with each identity in order to shed light on the discursive process of the tutors’ identity construction at lexico-grammatical and structural levels (Fairclough, 2003). For instance, both positive adjectives (e.g. unique) and strong modality are often employed to emphasise the tutors’ identities as experts in public exams, which were further enhanced by the use of narratives and statistics as a form of legitimation (Fairclough, 2003). By moving iteratively between content and language, the first author and his research assistant settled on a coding scheme with broader moves and embedded moves and language features. The research assistant coded the data accordingly, and then discussed the coded data with the first author as an inter-coder check to ensure the validity of data analysis.

Findings

Based on MDA of the tutors’ personal biographies, the findings reveal three types of identities, i.e. authoritative exam expert, popular star, and well-qualified English language teacher.

An authoritative exam expert The authority of the tutors as exam experts can be visualised through the way they are dressed. Tutors are usually in their formal wear (e.g. suit). This portrays an authoritative and professional image of tutors, who are trustworthy and reliable in helping students

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1. God-like expert in giving exam tips. 2. Tutor with practical experience fighting for 5**.1 3. Expert in English language exam strategies.

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to tackle public exams. Moreover, the tutors are situated in a background of plain colour. This cold colour scheme connotes an atmosphere of solemnity, formality and professionalism (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). Under the tutor naming category in the textual part, half of the tutors are identified as exam experts. Many of these labels reveal positive evaluations using nouns (e.g. ‘expert’) and adjectives (e.g. ‘God-like’) related to exam results or exam skills. Some examples are shown below.

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Tutors’ identity as exam experts is reinforced by their claims of success in predicting the questions in public exams. Some tutors include statements about giving exam tips which are the same as those in the actual exam, usually in a firm tone with high modality (e.g. ‘exactly the same’ and ‘many times’) and extreme adjectives (e.g. ‘astonishing’). Such linguistic strategies serve as a form of legitimisation of their identity claims (Fairclough, 2003). For example:

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4. Astonishing similarity. Correctly predicted three papers in a row (Reading). 5. Accurately predicting writing questions in public exams many times.

It is also common that tutors list the exam skills that sound unique, magical and effective in helping their tutees do well in public exams.

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6. Unique skills in ‘syntax’, largely enhancing students’ reading ability and accuracy. 7. First invented ‘Logic Line Analysis’, and fully integrating it into every exam paper, making complicated concepts simple, mastering skills in scoring.

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These tutors tend to use evaluative adjectives such as ‘unique’ and ‘first invented’ to highlight the uniqueness of the skills, attracting students to choose their courses. The tutors also claim that many of their students can attain outstanding results in public exams after taking their courses. Linguistically, the use of statistical evidence serves to legitimise their identity as an exam expert (Fairclough, 2003).

8. Over 1609 students attained Level 5, 5*, 5** in DSE 2015. 9. Having taught a student who attained full marks in the whole DSE Paper 2 Writing paper, far exceeding the basic Level 5** requirement of the exam authority. The tutors’ expertise in tackling exams is not only depicted from the teaching perspective, but also from the learning perspective, as shown in the description of their own public exam results. 10. Tried sitting for the HKDSE, skilfully attained Level 5** for all papers. 11. Nine ‘A’s high flyer, deeply understand ways of taking exams. 12. Attained full marks (9/9) in IELTS.


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This is to prove that the tutors have actual experience in achieving top results in exams, either when they were secondary school students or after entering the tutorial industry. This may give students confidence that the tutors can teach them how to attain outstanding exam results based on the tutors’ own learning experience. The biographies also state that many tutors are engaged in professional activities related to public exams, such as work experience as markers or examiners in public exams, and publishing articles in newspapers or books and giving public lectures teaching students exam skills. Some examples include:

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13. Chief Guest Lecturer in English language subject in ‘Exam Skills Lecture’ organised by the Polytechnic University for four consecutive years. 14. Having worked at the exam authority, one of the extremely few being invited to be official professional personnel. 15. Author of ‘All-round strategies for English language exams’.

A popular star

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What is also worth noting is that the passive voice is usually used to emphasise that the tutors ‘were invited’ to participate in these events, showing their expertise being recognised by external bodies such as non-governmental organisations and universities. Such a reference to external authorities also contributes to their expert identities as a form of legitimation (Fairclough, 2003).

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The tutors on the websites generally project a celebrity image through their fashionable and cool appearance, resembling popular stars in magazines and newspapers (see also Bray & Kwok, 2003; Koh, 2016). Their hair styles are trendy and glamorous. As Van Leeuwen and Kress (2011) argue, the way individuals look, talk and dress signifies the meanings, values and identities they are playing. Compared with schoolteachers, who do not usually look like a celebrity, tutors more easily become role models to be admired by students. Tutors appear in an abstract and empty background in their photos, evoking a ‘de-territorialized simplicity and modernist aesthetic’ (Machin & Thornborrow, 2003, p. 459). This represents a low modality, moving the tutors away from a naturalistic setting to an abstract, idealised and schematic environment (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). The low modality of background also amplifies the opportunities for viewers to explore the idealised world freely without being limited by pre-set cultural representations or social practices (Machin & Thornborrow, 2003). Despite the shift to the dominance of colour in many domains of visual communication in recent years, tutorial schools tend to choose plain colours for the background. In the colour spectrum Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) show, black and white appear at the far end, which are the least naturalistic and of the lowest modality in the naturalistic modality scales. Colour is reduced to an extreme extent away from saturation. The background contrasts strongly with the tutors in naturalistic colour, brightness and illumination. The tutors become ‘decontextualised’ and hence, more generic and ‘typical’. Supported by the background, the tutors project an idealised identity in an idealised world, projecting a God-like and celebrity status.

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Many tutors are explicitly labelled as a ‘star’ in the texts. Some also use nouns like ‘queen’, ‘king’, ‘God’, ‘legend’, ‘idol’ and ‘celebrity’ to identify themselves. Some examples include: 16. King of kings in the tutorial industry. 17. No. 1 first choice celebrity tutor of Hong Kong secondary school students. 18. English exam queen at the God level.

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The tutors’ star identity is supported by their claimed popularity among students. This includes the high enrolment rate in their courses and mock exams:

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19. Mock exams enrolled by the largest number of students in Hong Kong. Tickets of a quota of 2000 on 13th and 14th February were all sold out within only three days. 20. Enrolled by the largest number of 5**/5*/5 students, breaking all the records in student numbers.

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The tutors’ courses and mock exams are always claimed to be fully enrolled. This resembles concerts of popular stars, whose tickets are sold out shortly. This message is discursively strengthened by high modality (e.g. ‘largest’ and ‘all’). Some tutors also mention that they have ‘unlimited number of students getting an A’. This does not simply show the tutors’ popularity, but that they are popular among excellent students, or that their students can become the outstanding ones. Regardless of whether there is evidence to support the claims, a popular and heroic image of tutors is portrayed. This makes the tutors appear more widely recognised and trustworthy. The star identity is also reinforced when the tutors mention interviews by the mass media. For instance: 21. Having been a guest host for an English learning radio programme, talking about popular culture and English slang. 22. The first tutor being chased for interviews by the mass media all over Hong Kong, and also the first tutor being invited by an English newspaper South China Morning Post for a personal interview.

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The media include popular magazines, newspapers and radio and television programmes in Hong Kong. To legitimise their claims, some tutors give concrete examples showing which organisations interviewed them. While the majority of the descriptions convey positive evaluation, a few examples of negative evaluation are found to portray a star identity of tutors: 23. Idol type tutor. 24. Accurately predicting exam questions in all three papers (Writing, Reading, Listening) in the 2010 exam, attracting rumours of leaking exam questions.

The term ‘idol type’ used in example 23 is often perceived negatively in the entertainment industry as idol singers or actors tend to be stereotyped as good looking but lacking skills in singing or acting. When the term is used for tutors, it establishes an identity of a


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A well-qualified English language teacher

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celebrity who is just good looking and popular among youngsters. However, this negative identity connotation can be mitigated by the establishment of ‘exam expert’ identity as shown above. In other words, the tutors are depicted as ‘young and successful idols’ with strong expertise in their profession. This can further attract youngsters by projecting an image of ‘role model’ for them to follow. In a similar vein, in example 24, the phrase ‘attracting rumours of leaking exam questions’ sounds like a scandal of celebrities. Normally, a scandal is perceived as a negative incident in the entertainment industry, but it is used here as a narrative account to imply the powerful influence of the tutor as a ‘star’. Apart from showing the tutor’s popularity, the so-called ‘scandal’ was caused by his strong ability in predicting exam items, thus also legitimising his identity as an ‘exam expert’. In this sense, the identities of ‘exam experts’ and ‘popular stars’ mutually complement and enhance each other.

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The tutors also took up the identity as friendly and helpful teachers of English as suggested by the point of view of the image. Almost all tutors in their photos are directly looking at the viewers, who are expected to be oriented to the ‘speaker’ (Bezemer & Jewitt, 2010). Viewers are fully engaged in reciprocity with the tutor through the screen, creating a symbolic relationship, shortening the distance between the viewers and the tutor. The same eye-level between the tutor and the viewers creates a relationship of symbolic equality in power. This is different from the commonly portrayed power relationships in classrooms, particularly in the Chinese context, where teachers are the authority and always have the power over the students. The frontality of the image also shows full or almost full engagement in the communication process. Although, as Jewitt and Rumiko (2001) propose, the symbolic relationships may not be real, the viewers, particularly students who are young, are easily ‘deceived’ and visualise an engaging identity of tutors, who have the same power as they do. Furthermore, the horizontal eye-level camera angle from which the picture is taken presents the tutor as looking out at the viewer of the webpage directly in the eye, conveying friendliness, trustworthiness and honesty. In their textual descriptions, the tutors are projected as credible English language teachers. They are named experts and top ‘trainers’ of students. Many are affiliated to prestigious local or overseas universities, which can be regarded as a strategy to establish their credentials and trustworthiness as language educators. For example: 25. Talented girl in translation from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 26. King of English Grammar. 27. Top English language training expert.

The use of ‘King’ in example 26 and ‘Top’ in example 27, along with modifiers like ‘Chief’ and ‘Best’ in other examples, shows a high modality of attitudinal message of appraisal (Martin & White, 2005), which may distinguish the tutors from other competitors in the industry as well as schoolteachers. Almost all the tutors state their education background, projecting a well-qualified and scholarly image. The detailed information can be selective. For instance, they usually highlight from which universities or secondary schools they have graduated but only if they are

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prestigious and famous. They usually state their majors if they are related to languages or education, or other subjects which require outstanding exam results for admission. Some also highlight academic achievements such as ‘first honour’, ‘Dean’s list’, and awards. Some examples are shown below.

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28. Graduated with a double degree from the University of Pennsylvania (one of the eight Ivy league universities in the US). 29. Admitted to the second to none major – BBA(Law) at the University of Hong Kong with top results. 30. First class honours in Bachelor of Arts in Professional English, included in the Dean’s list for three consecutive years.

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Expressions such as ‘one of the eight Ivy league universities’ and ‘second to none’ serve as a form of legitimation of their identity as a qualified language teacher. The use of ‘three consecutive years’ in example 30 also strengthens the tutors’ continuous achievements. Apart from qualifications, tutors may include their prior education-related experience, as shown in the following examples:

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31. In the first year after graduation, he was the youngest tutor teaching the adult group in the Education Department. 32. Having served as a professional interpreter and translator for many events and organisations, including the Government of Hong Kong.

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Superlatives are common (e.g. youngest) to emphasise the tutors’ uniqueness and highlight their outstanding achievements, and the frequency (i.e. quantifiers) of participation in the listed activities (e.g. many). The tutors also show their identity as effective language teachers by highlighting their strengths in particular language aspects, such as phonology, grammar and writing:

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33. Familiar with English language Phonetics and Phonology. 34. Deep understanding in the differences of cultures and languages between Chinese and English. 35. Improving the problem of direct translation between Chinese and English among general local students; easily getting rid of ‘Chinglish’. The above statements not only portray the tutors’ expertise in English language, but also show their contextualised knowledge of Hong Kong students’ learning problems. Such statements hence reveal their identities as well-qualified teachers in promoting students’ language learning, which was linguistically consolidated using adjectives (e.g. familiar and deep) and adverbs (e.g. easily). Tutors also state the resources they provide and the teaching strategies they employ, showing that they are resourceful, helpful and motivating, as in the following examples. 36. Asking questions via Whatsapp round the clock, personally answering students’ questions.


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37. Good at using creative teaching methods to enhance students’ interest in learning. 38. A humorous approach to teaching students profound and complex concepts of English.

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The identity construed in the statements above may appeal to students because the tutors can offer services their schoolteachers may not be able to provide, such as helping them solve problems in homework after school hours. The tutors’ materials and ways of teaching are depicted with positive evaluation (Fairclough, 2003) such as ‘creative’ and ‘humorous’, making a sharp contrast to some schoolteachers whose teaching tends to be mechanical and conventional in Hong Kong (Kwo & Bray, 2014).

Discussion

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The findings from the biographies of 41 tutors of English in the six leading tutorial schools in Hong Kong generally unveil the identities of tutors as authoritative exam experts, popular stars, and well-qualified English language teachers. Through strategic visual representation (e.g. images, layout and colour) and textual enactment (at structural and lexico-grammatical levels), these identities overlap and collectively create an ‘exam expert-star-teacher’ hybrid identity of tutors (Figure 2). This hybrid identity is derived from different discourses in society, including the examination-oriented culture, the entertainment industry and mainstream education. This shows that the discourse of shadow education is not operating in isolation; instead, it functions in collaboration with other social discourses in shaping and reshaping important stakeholders’ practices and identities.

Figure 2. Tutors’ ‘exam expert-star-teacher’ hybrid identity.

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The emergence of an ‘exam expert-star-teacher’ hybrid identity reflects a social expectation of tutors who, as they claim, can fulfil the needs of students and probably also their parents in multiple aspects which teachers in mainstream schools may not fully cater for. One aspect is the explicit teaching of exam skills, or ‘visible pedagogy’ for exams which parents seek in shadow education (Sriprakash, Proctor, & Hu, 2016). In view of the increasing demand of performance in high-stakes exams in Hong Kong and elsewhere (Koh & Benson, 2011; Lingard, 2010), what is expected from the students and their parents is getting high grades in public exams, in order to maximise students’ chances to pursue higher education (Bray & Kwok, 2003; Yung & Bray, 2017). Tutors therefore aim to cater for the students’ needs of high exam scores by projecting an image that they are trustworthy and can help them achieve outstanding results. In fact, the projection of an ‘exam expert’ identity emphasises the importance of doing well in exams. Learning is perceived as getting good grades and acquiring exam skills is regarded as a strategy leading to academic success (see Yung, 2015). This creates a social context of valuing exam success instead of life-long learning. Such ideologies promoted in tutors’ biographies clash with the ‘Learning to Learn’ curriculum reform initiative in Hong Kong (Curriculum Development Council, 2017). These discourses of the tutorial centres thus openly constitute a counter-discourse that contradicts those promoted in the intended curriculum. In reality, even if schoolteachers also teach to the test and drill their students with past examination papers (Koh & Benson, 2011), the competition between tutors and schoolteachers may also be reinforced due to the same nature of classroom practices (Bray & Kobakhidze, 2015). The projected hybrid identity of tutors has introduced elements that are not commonly associated with a traditional teacher identity. The glamorous and trendy look of ‘star’ tutors is in stark contrast to the supposedly simple appearance of schoolteachers. The ‘star’ identity is portrayed not only according to personal choices, but is also constructed under social expectations. This may reflect the social view of ‘success’. In other words, tutors need to be positioned as ‘successful’ and ‘elite’ and as potential models for students to follow. Their ‘star’ identity seems to put forward strong appeals to the young students’ fantasies about their ‘ideal’ teachers (e.g. funny and humorous, never boring, wellqualified, good-looking, friendly, helpful, never disciplining them, etc.) whom they cannot find at school but are delighted to embrace in tutorial centres. The projected identities of tutors may also challenge the expected identity of schoolteachers. Teachers are supposed to be academic role models to students in schools. They are expected to implement school policies and curricula, and demonstrate their professionalism in front of students, parents, principals, and society. However, they often find themselves ‘on the “wrong” side of one discursive opposition or another, in policy and media discourses’, and ‘opposed to the interests of other social groups’ (MacLure, 2003, p. 11). In popular culture, teachers have been cast both positively and negatively. Those who follow school policy closely are led to ‘restrictive instrumentalism’, making students feel that they are not professional individuals but ‘cogs in a system’ (Fisher, Harris, & Jarvis, 2008, p. 170). On the other hand, ‘heroic’ teachers tend to experience a dramatic tension between their own character and the formal education system. Instead of their knowledge and professionalism, what makes them stand out is their charisma and personal passion (Fisher et al., 2008). Shadow education therefore offers a platform for tutors to project their unique characters as ‘Gods’ and ‘legends’ without the constraints


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of the traditional school discourse. This may result in contrasting identities between schoolteachers and tutors, and competing discourses between mainstream education and shadow education. Interestingly, contrary to the preference to native speakers of English as ideal teachers shown in literature (Kozar, 2015; Ma, 2012), all the tutors of English in the current study speak fluent Cantonese and tend to project a rather local identity (e.g. experts in local exams, familiarity with the local curriculum, and popularity among local mass media). The ‘localness’ is reinforced by the use of Chinese on the websites. A possible reason is that tutors want to shorten the social distance with their students, including those with lower English proficiency, but at the same time, establish their credentials in mastering and teaching English. Given that in shadow education, students’ ultimate goals are to excel in public exams instead of learning English as a language for genuine communication (Yung, 2015), the projection of a local teacher identity may show that tutors are familiar with the local exam system and curriculum, and can use Cantonese as the medium of instruction (MOI) to teach students exam skills more explicitly. This, however, challenges the MOI policy in Hong Kong schools where the use of mother tongue in English classrooms is not preferred (see Evans & Morrison, 2017). Cantonese is depicted as the legitimate MOI in tutorial classrooms, thus creating a contesting discourse against mainstream schooling. Overall, the use of MDA to explore tutors’ identities unveils the great impact of social expectations and norms on discourse (re)production. It reveals the hybrid nature of shadow education which spans multiple discourses (e.g. education and entertainment business), as a result of the powerful influence of marketisation and the exam-oriented system in Hong Kong. The study also shows the distinctiveness of shadow education in contrast with the mainstream school education and how such differences are utilised to create preferred identities to attract students and parents and pursue market value.

Conclusions and implications

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Using identity as an analytic lens, this study has investigated the biographies of English language tutors publicised on the websites of six leading tutorial schools in Hong Kong. It is the first attempt to systematically analyse this under-researched but important genre in the shadow education discourse in Hong Kong. The study has contributed to existing knowledge of shadow education in different aspects. First, the study has shed light on tutors’ ‘exam expert-star-teacher’ hybrid identity influenced by different prevalent discourses in society. This shows the interconnectedness of discourses in shaping our social reality and identities. In addition, the study adds to our understanding of the role of shadow education as the ‘invasive species’ in the ecosystems of education (Bray & Kobakhidze, 2015). As shown in the findings, private tutoring is gradually growing out of the shadows with tutors’ identities explicitly promoted through online advertisements and other possible means (e.g. social media) to penetrate the education discourse in line with the market demands. By strategically drawing on other discourses (e.g. the discourse of entertainment business) to promote its market value and identities, the discourse of shadow education may create dissonance with mainstream education (e.g. the glamourous image of tutors vs the rather traditional image of schoolteachers, being exam-oriented vs the ‘Learning to Learn’ curriculum reform initiative, and the use

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of Cantonese vs English as the MOI). Such dissonance not only can reflect the complex relationship between shadow and mainstream education, but may also exert profound impacts on the development of education policies and classroom teaching, which hence warrants further research attention. Overall, this study contributes to the expanding literature in the shadow education discourse by focusing on the creation and display of tutors’ identities in relation to the larger socio-cultural context through tutors’ biographies. A limitation is that it did not explore how such identities are perceived by important stakeholders such as students and parents. Further research may build on the current study to investigate how tutors’ projected identities may consciously or subconsciously influence the perceptions and behaviours of these stakeholders. Although the data were drawn from tutorial websites in Hong Kong, the fact that private tutoring exists worldwide means that the findings are pertinent elsewhere, particularly in places which promote tutors through advertisements (see, e.g. Kozar, 2015; Šťastný, 2017). While some features may be unique to tutors in Hong Kong (e.g. celebrity image, see Koh, 2016; Yung & Bray, 2017), the spread of advertisements through the internet means that those features may rapidly become globally common, especically when the world is developing towards a homogenous goal of performativity and accountability in education (Lingard, 2010), which creates a space for the expansion of private tutoring. Research on how tutors’ identities are projected through their biographies should therefore be expanded to other countries, in order to uncover and explain their commonalities and differences in different sociocultural contexts.

Note

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1. Level 5** is the highest grade in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), the school leaving public exam which Form 6 (Grade 12) students sit for. The next levels are 5* and 5.

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge research assistance from Winnie Shum.

Disclosure statement

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kevin Wai Ho Yung

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5252-9422

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