The Changing Landscape of Supplementary Education in China: Historical Trajectories and Institutional Typologies

Abstract

Since the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, supplementary education has been shaped by three very different paradigms. At the outset were Communist traditions in which China learned from the Soviet Union. Subsequently, these were mixed with, or perhaps subverted by, the market economy; and then the State reasserted itself. Each era had its archetypes, albeit with overlaps. First were forms of public outside-school education institutions, including Palaces for Children and Youth on the Soviet model; second were commercial enterprises offering private supplementary tutoring facilitated by the neoliberal changes; and third were school-based after-school programmes established by the government to combat privately-driven tutoring. Drawing on documentary research and on findings from the author's empirical research since 2010, this article analyses the complex patterns of supplementary education and its governance in China. It begins with a typology of supplementary education before turning to the historical eras. The comparisons over time and across systems expose dynamics that shaped the features of supplementary education in different eras. The article provides perspectives on the changing socio-politics of education, with particular attention not only to tides but also to competing currents.