Shadow Education Uptake in Ireland: Inequalities and Wellbeing in a High-Stakes Context

ABSTRACT

This paper assesses the role of shadow education (SE), i.e., organised learning activities outside formal schooling, in the lives of secondary school students of different social backgrounds and in different school settings, in a high-stakes context. It draws on multilevel analysis of longitudinal Growing Up in Ireland data, alongside narratives from in-depth case study research in 10 schools. Framed within a social reproduction approach, we show how access to SE as an educational resource is socially stratified, accessible to those with greater levels of family resources, and those attending schools with higher socio-economic student intakes. SE is viewed as an investment, particularly among students with average and above average levels of prior attainment, while high attaining students are less likely to use SE. Perhaps reflecting the normalisation of SE in the Irish context, students do not directly link engagement in such tuition to their socio-emotional wellbeing.

Keywords:

• shadow education
• inequality
• student voice
• high stakes testing
• academic performance
• wellbeing

8. Acknowledgments

Growing Up in Ireland

Funded by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) in association with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Department of Social Protection (DSP). These data have been collected in accordance with the Statistics Act, 1993. The DCYA, CSO and DSP take no responsibility for the views expressed in the research. The project has been designed and implemented by the joint ESRI-TCD Growing Up in Ireland Study Team.

School Study

Funded by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, as part of research examining the impact of changes in the Leaving Certificate grading scheme (published as Author).

9. Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Where neither the primary or secondary care givers has a relevant employment work history outside of the home, social class cannot be assigned, and this group are referred to as ‘never employed’.

² These schools have different origins and management structures, with larger numbers of single-sex and denominational schools in the secondary sector (see Mac Domhnaill et al., 2021).