Conceptualizing shadow curriculum: definition, features and the changing landscapes of learning cultures

ABSTRACT

This article presents a new conceptualization of ‘shadow curriculum’, one component of the worldwide phenomenon of shadow education, i.e. learning outside of school. Traditional conceptions of curriculum are not applicable to shadow education, and so this article begins by exploring how shadow education practices qualify as a new focus of curriculum studies. Based on existing scholarship and our own field experience in South Korea, we propose that shadow curriculum can be defined as supplementary curriculum out of schooling provided by educational business industries that are aimed for individual students’ academic success in formal education. The following discussion explores the characteristics of shadow curriculum and shows that incorporating shadow curriculum as a new area of focus in the field of curriculum studies can broaden existing understandings of student learning and the concept of curriculum. Our hope is that this discussion will open a new intellectual space for analysis of the complex phenomenon of shadow education within the field of curriculum studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum studies
• curriculum theorizing
• definition of curriculum
• private supplementary tutoring
• shadow curriculum
• shadow education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The diversification of definitions of curriculum began with the reconceptualization movement in the 1970s, with the emergence of perspectives including curriculum as political text, curriculum as gendered text and curriculum as autobiographical text (for the historical development and diversification of the definitions of curriculum, see Jung & Pinar, 2015). Since then, theorization of new definitions of curriculum has contributed to the development of the field of curriculum studies, incorporating various perspectives, theories and disciplines. Beginning in the 2000s, the internationalization and transnationalization movements have further diversified the concept of curriculum, incorporating the German notion of Bildung (Klafki, 2000; Terhart, 1998), Ubuntu from Africa (Goduka, 1999) and the Chinese notion of Ke-cheng informed by Chinese Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism (Zhang & Zhenyu, 2014).

2. Shadow curriculum excludes any form of schooling, both public and private, as well as home-schooling funded and/or regulated by governments as they receive public funds. Shadow curriculum also excludes individual or group self-directed study at home, as this does not involve an instructor. It also excludes various available learning sources such as online videos uploaded by Kan Academy or individual creators as they do not specifically target registered students—however, these can be components of shadow curriculum when they are intentionally assigned to specific students by shadow education instructors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Young Chun Kim

Young Chun Kim is a professor in the Department of Education at Chinju National University of Education, Chinju, Republic of Korea. His research includes curriculum theorising, qualitative research, cultural studies, and postcolonial and transnational curriculum studies. Email: [email protected]

Jung-Hoon Jung

Jung-Hoon Jung (corresponding author) teaches in the Department of Education of Chonnam National University, Chinju, Republic of Korea. His research interests include curriculum theorising, teacher education, inter-cultural studies, and autobiographical inquiry. His works resist, theoretically and practically, the instrumental rationality in education. Email: [email protected]