We are living in an era of ‘posts’—postmodern , post-colonial , post-human, and post-paradigm. These ‘posts’ require a critical analytic view of modernism and our understanding about what is real about education. According to post-modernism, modern structures are rejected as antiquated (Doll & Trueit, 2012). From this perspective, postmodern schooling is a form of rejection of modern schooling and may lead to the death of traditional schooling. The status of school curriculum may be illustrated by Willy, the old salesman in Death of a Salesman, who is unstable, insecure, and self-deluded person. He is uncapable of making living during the Great Depression. With his insecure identity, he is captivated by his past which is not real anymore. Without recognizing reality, Willy’s behavior seems to be a way to illustrate the jeopardized status of school curriculum which seems to fail to recognize the reality it faces. Metaphorically speaking, the death of Willy symbolizes the death of school curriculum. Decades ago, Joseph Schwab (1969) diagnosed the field of curriculum studies as moribund. Today, we can diagnose the school curriculum as moribund, with students sleeping in classrooms and desperately seeking education outside of schooling. This chapter explores the changes in student learning and the authority of schooling with the weakening status of school curriculum and the strengthening status of shadow education.

The expansion of shadow education is changing student learning today such that learning is increasingly becoming ‘transboundary’ (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, & Perraton, 1999), blurring the boundaries between public school and shadow education (Jung, 2018; Kim, Gough, & Jung, 2018). From a transformationalist perspective, the global phenomenon of shadow education is transforming state powers and the context in which states operate with respect to education. Held et al. argued that ‘politics is no longer, and can no longer simply be, based on nation-states’ (1999, p. 15). Student learning is also no longer simply based on schooling. As discussed in the previous chapters, shadow education is increasing worldwide: We are living in a post-schooling learning culture. The status of schooling is eroding: It is competing with shadow education, and in some places, shadow education is winning. This chapter explores how shadow education can be considered post-schooling .

Definition and Traits of Post-schooling

With regard to the weakening status of school curriculum, Benn Williams, the author of School Knowledge in Digital Age, argued that post-schooling ‘reanimates the countercultural “deschooling” agenda … reaffirming its attack on institutionalized schooling, its assault on assembly-line learning, and its commitment to self-determined learning through informal networks and community bonds’ (Williams, 2013, p. 42). With the blurred boundary between formal and informal, and public and private education , learning becomes ‘increasingly flexible, and even porous’ (Williams, 2013, p. 43). Williams was referring to post-schooling in the context of the digital age. Here, we use the term more broadly to include various online and offline forms of educational opportunities out of schooling. This new learning culture decenters the authority of education: The status of schooling as the center of education weakens and the boundary between schooling and shadow education is increasingly becoming blurry.

In this respect, the mimicry identity of shadow education needs to be reconsidered. Shadow education began by mimicking public education , but it has now become another reality, achieving its own identity. It is no longer subordinate to public education anymore: It has become another original (Baudrillard, 1994). The following discussion explores how the concept and the roles of schooling are changing with the expansion of shadow education. First, we can identify eight main characteristics of post-schooling .

First, the role and authority of public schools with regard to student learning is weakening. Many students worldwide no longer simply rely on schooling and school teachers , so school is no longer the center for their learning. In some ways, many schools and teacher have lost control of student learning.

Second, many students believe they can achieve their educational goals better through shadow education. They are dissatisfied with schooling, especially high-achieving students who cannot get the education they need at public schools.

Third, the concept of learning places is expanding: learning no longer takes place only in schools. It can occur many other places such as the Internet, private tutoring institutes , and homes with subscribed learning program and home-visit tutors . Even cafes, buses, and other places have become learning places.

Fourth, students and teachers now conceive of academic success as something that can be achieved outside of schools. They use shadow education practices, learning coaches, educational and admission counseling , and access individualized guidance from sources other than school and school teachers .

Fifth, students and parents are increasingly able to get more information and make decisions about learning, teaching , and counseling. Shadow education has made students and parents important decision-making agents .

Sixth, the concept of teacher is expanding. Traditionally, ‘teacher’ referred to school teacher, but now shadow educators have become important elements of student learning, often because they are more skilled than school teachers.

Seventh, it has become clear that student achievement and learning outcomes can no longer be fully grasped by investigating their learning at schools and what school teachers do. They spend considerable time in shadow education spaces, so scholars need to focus on student learning, outcomes, and achievements in both spaces. International comparison achievement tests, such as PISA and TIMMS, should also be analyzed in accordance with how students learn in shadow education spaces, not solely attributing the results to public education .

Eighth, school curricula are limited due to their universal curricula, structured classrooms with age-based grouping, and are generally unable to meet the diverse needs of individual students. Overall, the post-schooling phenomenon reveals the limitations of traditional schooling.

Trans-boundary Culture of Learning in a Post-schooling Era

The following discussion explores some of the characteristics of post-schooling learning culture. First, we present an example of one student’s post-schooling education.

Min Hyuk is an 11th grader who lives in Seoul. He wants to enter KAIST to become a science researcher. He leaves home at 7 a.m. On the bus to school, he watches a social studies lecture from his Internet-based private tutoring company. During the daytime, he learns from his school teachers . Every day after school, he goes to a Science hakwon and an English hakwon. After he gets home, he watches one more lecture from his Internet-based private tutoring company. Twice a week, his math tutor visits him for a two-hour math tutoring session. Min Hyun prioritizes learning from tutoring and hakwons, because they provide new content: School classes are for reviewing and ensuring a good GPA for college admission . Min Hyuk decides what, where, and how to study. He chooses the lessons of subjects he needs to study more and selects exam preparation courses and instructors that fit his style of learning.

The learning materials he uses vary from school textbooks to PTI workbooks, handouts, and learning materials he finds on the Internet. Even in school classrooms, he uses his own materials to supplement the teacher’s materials. For example, in English class, his teacher uses a textbook and a workbook; Min Hyuk also uses a condensed grammar handbook that he bought and his own English word dictionary. He often shops for learning materials at bookstores: New learning materials are published every month and every semester, so he wants to identify the strengths and weakness. These provide him with choices given his academic needs and learning style.

Min Hyuk’s learning life can be characterized by trans-boundary learning as his learning happens across the boundary of school walls and the boundary of online and offline. He also acts as the major decision maker with regard to learning in terms of where, how, and with what materials he studies. In the following section, we explain the characteristics of trans-boundary learning culture.

Decentered Authority of Education

The post-schooling learning culture can best be characterized as decentering the authority of schooling, teachers , and public curriculum materials. Students and parents no longer have blind faith in public education and school teachers and are relying on their authority less and less. Some public school teachers incorporate shadow curriculum into their teaching materials developed by private companies and even encourage students to find shadow education opportunities. Many students feel that shadow education provides more and better educational opportunities than schools (Kim & Kim, 2012, 2015; Paramita, 2015; Yang & Kim, 2010). Many value shadow education more than public schooling (Je, 2002; Kim, 2016; Paramita, 2015), believing that shadow education teachers understand and guide them better; this has been reported in many countries including South Korea , Japan , and India (Kim & Kim, 2012, 2015; Paramita, 2015).

The eroding authority of schools and teachers has been witnessed in many countries through what Bray (2011) called the ‘backwash’ of shadow education. For example, when students learn content that has not yet been taught at school via a shadow curriculum (‘preview learning’), they are likely to lose interest in school lessons and become easily bored (Ripley, 2013). Because the degree of preview learning varies—some students may be one or more years ahead of their peers—school teachers are likely to have students at many different academic levels in their classroom, making it difficult for them to decide what level of instruction to provide. This situation makes school teachers less capable of providing appropriate instruction to all students, resulting in students and parents relying more on shadow education than on schools. Yang and Kim (2010) witnessed this phenomenon of ‘inverted roles’ between public education and shadow education in South Korea as they found that many students consider public schooling secondary to their shadow education. This inversion of roles has also been observed in India; Paramita found that some students ‘follow the private tutors not the teachers ’ (2015, p. 819).

Interestingly, there is a ‘fandom’ phenomenon in some Asian countries and regions such as Hong Kong , South Korea , and Japan (Cheng, 2007; Kim, 2016; Ozaki, 2015). Highly popular and favored tutors are called ‘God Tutors’ in Hong Kong (Cheng, 2007). In South Korea , they are called ‘Star Instructors.’ One of these is a $4 million-dollar instructor who wrote a book called Smartest Kids in the World (Ripley, 2013). Such figures become idols of students, and many students follow such star tutors and instructors, being mesmerized by their teaching and charisma. South Korean students often travel to another city, usually Seoul, during vacations and weekends to take classes from the figures. Access to these figures has become much easier with the advent of Internet-based private institutes.

Furthermore, some teachers encourage students to find shadow education opportunities. For instance, some students we interviewed began learning in shadow education because their school teachers suggested it to them. Misun told us:

I have been doing ok with my learning at school. I worked hard and I thought I could do it by myself. But, when I reached 11th grade, the amount of material I had to learn became so demanding to me. When I faced challenges in my math learning that I was really struggling with to resolve, my grade dropped. I was called upon by my home-room teacher at my school. I told her my difficulties. The teacher suggested I find a tutor or a hakwon who could help me. She even suggested a couple of hakwons which are famous for Math education. This is how I started attending hakwon. It has been really helpful for me. I think I will continue to take classes there until I take the KSAT . (Individual interview with Misun, January 18, 2018)

Overall, the authority of education no longer remains within the boundary of school and public education curriculum. Shadow curriculum is increasingly being incorporated into the public education sector, and the two interact via the decisions of students and parents and the acceptance of shadow education by public school teachers .

Conversion of Decision-Making Agents

Another characteristic of post-schooling learning culture is that many students and parents are taking over the primary role in making decisions about learning. Decision-making agents in educational matters include governments, policy-makers, teachers , students, and parents. Traditionally, governments, schools, and teachers took the primary roles, but this is changing with the proliferation of shadow education. Teachers and governments may believe they are still responsible for making decisions about student learning, but in reality, the responsibility now lies with students and parents.

We are not blaming teachers for this, but suggesting that students, and to a lesser degree their parents, are ultimately responsible for their learning outcomes. Putting this responsibility solely on teachers is a political and intellectual trap (Poetter & Googins, 2017), often strengthened by the forceful standardization of education (see Jung, 2016; Pinar, 2015). Many students increasingly believe that because they are responsible for their learning, they should make decisions about their learning in and out of schools, searching for the best curriculum and teachers, and evaluating learning materials and other educational opportunities to achieve their goals. In this sense, students’ curriculum is not designed or entirely regulated by school or teachers but constructed by students and their parents. For instance, students are less willing to wait for school teachers to direct their learning and provide them with materials. Passive learning in schools through standardized curriculum and structured lectures is being augmented (or replaced) by shadow education.

Because of the profit-making nature of shadow curricula, the consumers—students and parents—can aggressively ask for and eventually obtain what students need. If shadow curriculum providers cannot or do not address expressed needs, consumers will leave and find another provider. In this way, curriculum in terms of content, teaching style, learning materials , and learning sequence is constructed by individual students. This feature makes sense within the understanding that the ultimate responsibility for learning should be shouldered by the student and parents. With the advent of shadow education, curricula have become malleable, purposeful, flexible, and individualized in terms of content and levels of materials, ways of learning, and learning progress.

Some parents take a strong role in managing their children’s learning, as reported in Japan , England , the USA, and South Korea (Sriprakash, Proctor, & Hu, 2015; Vincent & Ball, 2007; Vincent, Rollock, Ball, & Gillborn, 2012, 2013). Shadow curricula have exposed parents to numerous possibilities outside of public schooling , and some parents are desperate to find the very best curricula and teachers for their children, as illustrated by the term such as ‘helicopter mom ’ in the USA (Hunt, 2008), ‘tiger mom ’ in Chinese communities in the USA (Chua, 2011), and ‘Gangnam mom ’ in South Korea (Park, Lim, & Choi, 2015). These parents might have played an equally active role in public schooling , but shadow education provides more opportunities for them to make decisions. As Park et al. (2015) reported, many Korean parents actively search for information about schools, admission criteria of universities, PTIs , and tutors . According to Bernstein’s (1975, 1996 [2000]) theories of invisible and visible pedagogies, parents have an invisible role that tacitly influences student learning and education; in contrast, visible pedagogies include strong framing and explicit controls over the relay of educational practices. Bernstein made an important contribution to the sociology of education by elucidating the familial influence, especially with regard to socioeconomic status. This is beyond the scope of our discussion here, but it is clear that parental influence is no longer implicit or invisible: It is visible and explicit in their decisions about their child’s career path, school, curriculum, materials, teachers , and tutors.

Many students we met told us that their parents, mostly mothers, provide them with information about admission criteria of the school they want to enter, PTIs , tutors, and learning materials . For example, Youngsuk, a 10th grader, told us:

My mom recommends which hakwons I can attend, and the tutors I can learn from. It would be more accurate to say that she mostly makes decisions for me. Of course, I do not simply follow all her suggestions. But, I am busy studying at school, hakwons, and tutoring . I do not have much time to search for such information. Mom, since she stays home, does it for me. She has friends she meets almost every day and they share their information about how they help their children with learning. She does it for me. (Individual interview with YoungSuk, December 3, 2017)

In South Korea , some parents—mostly mothers—consider managing their children’s learning to be a full-time job. It requires considerable time, as well as work finding information and appropriate supports. Mothers may drive their students to school, hakwon , and home, so that their children save time and energy that they could spend on learning. Parenting and parenting styles have important effects on children’s academic success , and many curriculum studies scholars have discussed how ethnicity , race, culture, and familial socioeconomic status affect student learning (Spera, Wentzel, & Matto, 2009; Vincent et al., 2013).

Inflow of Shadow Curriculum into Public Education Space

Above, we discussed the eroding authority of school and teachers from the perspective of students and parents. This section discusses it from the perspective of public educators. Schools have incorporated various elements of shadow education, including after-school programs that serve as a form of shadow education. These are the result of public education policies with various purposes in countries including Hong Kong (Kwon, 2012), the UK (Dyson & Jones, 2014), South Korea (Kim, 2016), New Zealand (Youthtown, 2015), Switzerland (Schüpbach, 2014; Schüpbach & von Allmen, 2013), the Netherlands (du Bois-Reymond, 2013), and Denmark (Holm, 2015). Most of these after-school programs are offered by private tutoring instructors or private tutoring agencies that have contracts with schools.

Additionally, instead of insisting on maintaining their authority and the authority of public education materials, some school teachers try to find ways to improve their teaching by incorporating elements of shadow curriculum . Many teachers use teaching and learning materials produced by private education companies, instead of just using the traditional textbooks and whiteboards. For example, with technological innovations, some school teachers in South Korea use an Internet-based lesson platform that provides all lessons in all subjects, extracurricular materials, and evaluation sources. One such service is I-Scream, which is the most popular in South Korea . It is a private company, but it is exclusively provided to public school teachers , and 99% of elementary school teachers in South Korea now use this service daily (Pyo, 2017). It also provides various in-service teacher training courses such as methods of teaching , language, and student counseling courses.

Many teachers also use shadow education materials such as educational videos, workbooks, question books, and mock test materials. Yu Jeong, a 10th grader told us:

My school teachers finish the textbook as quickly as possible. Then, they teach us with question books and learning materials produced by really famous hakwon companies. They ask us to buy them. I think teachers use them more and more because the materials have a lot more questions and mock tests than textbooks do. They often give out handouts which are condensed versions of hakwon materials. I know that because I have the materials. (Individual interview with Yujeong, March 10, 2018)

Overall, shadow education practices and materials have moved into the public education space, crossing the boundary of school walls. However, unlike the extensive research that has been conducted on public education materials, few scholars have focused on the strengths and weaknesses of shadow curriculum materials, so more research is needed.

Consilience of Learning Materials

Consilience of public and private curriculum materials is another characteristic of the post-schooling learning culture. In the educational context, consilience can be defined as a phenomenon of constructing knowledge that converges evidence, paradigms, and multiple disciplines (Wilson, 1999). In the post-schooling learning culture, students who access both public curriculum and shadow curriculum are seeking consilience : They are using various learning materials from various sources and providers. The example of Min Hyuk above helps illustrate this: When he finds content difficult to grasp, he accesses many kinds of learning sources: school textbooks and workbooks, hakwon materials, and online content like Wikipedia, online encyclopedias, YouTube channels, and Google. Many other students also choose to use various learning materials on their own because they feel that textbooks and materials provided by school teachers are insufficient. Yu Jeong told us:

Yes, the textbook is important because there should be a standard. However, I cannot imagine myself studying only with the textbook. No. Textbooks have little exemplary questions, and in KSAT there are a lot of questions, content, terminologies, and sets of texts that do not appear in textbooks. Importantly, school teachers do not rely on textbooks. They also encourage us to use other sources. (Individual interview with Yu Jeong, February 7, 2018)

Yu Jeong has more than six learning materials in book format for math learning, and more than 10 for English. For English, she has a textbook , three listening workbooks, four reading workbooks, three question-focused workbooks, two grammar books, two word-idiom focused books, and two English KSAT mock test books.

School textbooks mostly provide contents with explanations; many students feel that they lack examples of questions, and importantly, they lack a systemic mechanism to check if students really understand the content. Therefore, many students use workbooks of private companies with collections of questions to resolve the limitations of textbook . These workbooks are developed by private publishers and provide many questions with in-depth, and/or summarized, explanations of targeted content. Barron’s, Kaplan, Kallis, and McGraw-Hill Education provide SAT preparation materials. In some countries, there are numerous privately produced materials for each subject, sub-categories of subjects, school mid-term and final-term tests, and of course preparation for the College Scholastic Ability Test in South Korea . Table 8.1 lists some of learning materials that Min Hyuk bought at bookstores.

Table 8.1 Min Hyuk’s learning materials
Full size table

Min Hyuk’s various learning materials illustrate the consilience of learning materials by individual students. In addition to commercially produced printed learning materials, students may also use non-commercial materials provided by school teachers and shadow educators . For example, many PTI instructors provide learning materials for students in the form of handouts or booklets to maximize the efficiency of their lessons and student learning. Yu Jeong told us:

I like the instructor’s handout because it saves me a lot of time, and more importantly it is much less boring than textbooks . I also prefer learning with such materials because I learn how to make my own notetaking, thinking about how to organize the contents I learn. (Individual interview with Yu Jeong, February 8, 2018)

Relatively recently, more learning materials have become available online, including online platforms of question banks, with numerous questions to help students prepare for school exams and the College Scholastic Ability Test. Students solve questions online; the system immediately checks and evaluates answers and guides students to the next step. If a student gets a question wrong, the system provides more questions, either at a similar or less difficult level. If the answer is correct, the system leads the student to the next level. This online system helps students save time and increases the efficiency of their learning. It tracks student learning and analyses their strengths and weaknesses.

This discussion of the consilience of learning materials has been based mainly on our own fieldwork in South Korea . Similar phenomena may be observed in other countries, especially those with a strong prevalence of shadow education, but few studies have focused on how students use the various materials and characteristics of commercialized or non-commercialized learning materials, and more research is needed.

Complex Learning Space

Learning spaces for today’s learners are becoming increasingly complex. In the context of architecture, Norberg-Schulz (1988) defined complexity as a phenomenon in which heterogeneous elements are combined to produce new values and meanings: Complex buildings have multiple purposes or are built according to a collection of different concepts . Similarly, we can characterize today’s learning spaces as complex learning spaces as students learn in multiple spaces.

In the past, students learned only from school teachers , and the school curriculum was the only guideline for determining what and how students learned. Now, the emergence and expansion of shadow education have changed learning spaces , crossing the boundary of school walls and being shaped and influenced by shadow education spaces. Chapter 3 explored how students now learn in multiple spaces and make their own decisions about which space is the ‘center’ of their learning. For some, it may still be school, but for some others, it may be home with a one-on-one tutor or a private tutoring institute . Some may have multiple centers, learning new content from their tutors or PTI instructors and then using school as a place to review this content. For example, one student told us:

I learn at hakwons first. It prepares me well for my learning at school. I like this pattern because I can be prepared and do better at school. I do not think that I can do well with learning at school only. I prefer to learn things in advance. (Individual interview with Hye Young, March 3, 2018)

Internet-based private tutoring is a good example of this phenomenon: Students can take lessons wherever they want: at home, school classrooms, hakwons , buses, subways, or cafes. Another student told us:

I like taking ingang [lectures of IPT ] classes. I can take them on the bus going to school or hakwons. If I find myself not focused or want to go to washroom, I pause it. When I am in a good mood for learning, I take 3 or 4 lectures at a time. When I do not get it, I retake the classes. (Individual interview with Sung Jin, October 4, 2017)

Overall, trans-boundary learning in terms of space and time blurs the boundary between learning spaces and living spaces. A comprehensive examination of current learning culture requires analyzing how students learn in multiple spaces, how they use the spaces, and which spaces are centered or decentered.

Various Models of Academic Success

The post-schooling learning culture includes various models of academic success . Simply put, academic success can no longer be attributed solely to the role of public education —it now extends to shadow curricula. Although educators in public education are hesitant to acknowledge it, empirical research has shown that academic success is seriously influenced by participation in shadow education (OECD , 2012). Many students achieve their academic goals by learning in the shadow education sector. In South Korea and Japan , many high school graduates may spend another year or two studying in the shadow education sector before retaking college entrance examinations . Research in both countries has revealed that many of these students successfully enter the university they want with the help of shadow education (Ozaki, 2015). Students may access shadow education to learn their strengths and weaknesses, get caught up in school, increase their grades, get individualized coaching and accelerated and advanced learning , and even students in remote areas can now access lectures by Star Instructors online. Students of today, especially in South Korea , do not believe that working hard at school is the only way to ensure academic success . This belief is reflected in what Yu Jeong told us about model students who are diligent in their learning and do well at schools:

I think that students who do not use shadow education and do well in their learning are mobumsaeng [model students]. I also think that those who go to hakwons and take tutoring sessions are also mobumsaeng. It is not the matter of where they study but it is about how well they do. (Individual interview with Yu Jeong, March 10, 2018)

With the existence of various shadow education opportunities, there are a lot of different cases of academic success . Some students may still rely on schooling and school teachers ; some students rely heavily on home-visit private tutors ; some students achieve their academic goals by using mostly Internet-based private tutoring ; some may combine various forms of educational opportunities. For example, Min Su, a high school graduate, prepares KSAT by himself with only taking lessons from IPTs, of course with various learning materials that he bought at bookstores. He told us:

I prefer studying alone. I never really liked school teachers or hakwon teachers . Because I am highly self-organized, I can manage my learning, and I think that I am doing pretty well. Because I do not need to attend any off-line classes, it saves me a lot of time so that I can use the saved time for exercise or more studying. I like it this way because I can freely control what to study and how to study. I can especially control my learning pace. If I am in a class, I am forced to follow as the class moves even though I do not get what is going. (Individual interview with Min Su, January 10, 2018)

Other examples show different means of academic success :

I like to be taught by home-visit private tutors. I have three: a math tutor, an English tutor, and a Korean tutor. For other subjects, I learn at school and hakwons . I prefer my tutors because they spend the whole lesson time on me. They know me and my learning really well. So I almost entirely trust their judgment and the decisions they make for me. Yes, the lessons are expensive. I feel that I am really fortunate in that way because my parents can support my learning that way. (Individual interview with Mi Ryung, February 23, 2018)

My school is located in a rural area as you know. There are not many hakwons or tutors. At the end of my middle school , I had to make an important decision regarding which high school I wanted to enter. My grades were high enough to enter good high schools in a big city. But, my family is not rich. So I gave up going to a big city school. Instead, I entered a high school in my hometown. It is small but the teachers are all passionate. Importantly, the regional office provides our school with a lot of financial supports. They built a dormitory in which I stay now. They provide money so that our school can buy various, I mean tons of, commercial learning materials . In the teachers’ office at my school, there are bookshelves with all available learning sources. Whenever I need more question books or learning materials, I go to teachers ’ office. I just pick what I need from there. They are free. When I study in the evening in my room at the dormitory, there are resident teachers always who I can ask questions regarding my learning. For KSAT preparation, my school bought a service package of Jinhaksa, an online service for KSAT consultation. Using Jinhaksa, I know which universities or majors I may be able to enter. My teachers consult with me with the data we get from Jinhaksa. (Individual interview with Su Hyun, December 17, 2017)

In the South Korean context, these models of student success are radically different from the traditional model of sitting in a school classroom and diligently following school teachers . Shadow education has allowed the development of many models for academic success . Therefore, research needs to move beyond the school context and focus on all the different ways of learning. In this respect, we theorize shadow education as nomadic curriculum inquiry in the final chapter.