The Attitudes of Chinese Teachers of English and Mathematics Towards Their Students Receiving Private Tutoring

Abstract

Private tutoring continues to grow and expand around the world. However, in 2021 the Chinese government suddenly enacted a double reduction policy. This policy has been described as the strictest policy on private tutoring. This is because it requires all private tutoring in academic subjects to be banned. This policy has revived enthusiasm for private tutoring research. However, the majority of current research on China is from the perspective of students and parents. Few studies have been conducted from the perspective of teachers in mainland China. Therefore, this qualitative study aims to understand the attitudes of Chinese female primary school teachers towards private tutoring and the reasons. The research used semi-structured online interviews to investigate the views of 10 teachers on private tutoring. The final results of the study show that the attitude of teachers towards private tutoring varies according to the situation. Factors influencing teachers' attitudes were categorised into three themes: students, families and teachers themselves.