Who Are We? The Professional Identity of STEM Private Tutors for International High Schools in China

This study explores the professional identities of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) private tutors teaching international high school students in China. Drawing upon semi‐structured interviews and qualitative thematic analysis, the research investigates the factors contributing to tutors' sense of self as educators in the STEM fields. Through in‐depth interviews with nine experienced STEM tutors, the study reveals four primary identities: exam experts, mentors, psychological counsellors, and potential reputation creators. As exam experts, tutors impart knowledge and exam strategies. They evolve into mentors, guiding students academically, career‐wise, and personally. Their close relationships with students position them as psychological counsellors, offering emotional support. Finally, tutors establish themselves as potential reputation creators, attracting students through their teaching excellence and multifaceted support. This research fills a gap in the literature on the tutors' professional identities, providing insights into the role of private tutoring in complementing and enhancing formal STEM education in Chinese international schools.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  European Journal of Education

• Publication date

  2025-11-11

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/ejed.70349
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Private English tutors’ agency amid China’s ‘double reduction’ policy: a Bourdieusian perspective

  2025cited by this paper
• Drawing the past to envision the future: supporting the development of primary STEM teacher identity

  2024cited by this paper
• Private Tutoring and its Effect on Students’ Learning Performance

  2024cited by this paper
• Private Tutoring Before and After the “Double-Reduction” Policy in China: Choices and Rationale

  2024cited by this paper
• The Role of Motivation and Commitment in Teachers’ Professional Identity

  2022cited by this paper
• Teaching in the shadow: Explorations of teachers' professional identities in private tutoring institutions in China

  2021cited by this paper
• The evolution of shadow education in China: From emergence to capitalisation

  2021cited by this paper
• Effectiveness of private tutoring during secondary schooling in Germany: Do the duration of private tutoring and tutor qualification affect school achievement?

  2020cited by this paper
• Shadow education as a form of oppression: conceptualizing experiences and reflections of secondary students in Hong Kong

  2020cited by this paper
• Teaching English in the shadow: identity construction of private English language tutors in China

  2020cited by this paper
• The case for engaging online tutors for supporting learners in higher education in refugee contexts

  2020cited by this paper
• Marketising private tuition: Representations of tutors’ competence, entrepreneurial opportunities and service legitimation in home tutoring business manuals

  2020cited by this paper
• The Determinants of Private Tutoring Participation for Mathematics in China: Focusing on the Role of Student Metacognition

  2020cited by this paper
• Teacher-entrepreneurialism: a case of teacher identity formation in neoliberalizing education space in contemporary India

  2019cited by this paper
• Teacher or friend? – consumer narratives on private supplementary tutoring in Sweden as policy enactment

  2019cited by this paper
• Shadow Education as Worldwide Curriculum Studies

  2019cited by this paper
• The relationship between EFL teachers’ professional identity and their self-esteem

  2018cited by this paper
• ‘The most popular star-tutor of English’: discursive construction of tutor identities in shadow education

  2018cited by this paper
• Micro-neoliberalism in China: public-private interactions at the confluence of mainstream and shadow education

  2017cited by this paper
• The internal dynamics of privatised public education: Fee-charging supplementary tutoring provided by teachers in Cambodia

  2016cited by this paper
• Evolving ecosystems in education: The nature and implications of private supplementary tutoring in Hong Kong

  2015cited by this paper
• The Changing Landscape of International Schooling: Implications for theory and practice

  2014cited by this paper
• Shadow Education: Comparative Perspectives on the Expansion and Implications of Private Supplementary Tutoring

  2013cited by this paper
• Teacher Possible Selves: How Thinking about the Future Contributes to the Formation of Professional Identity

  2013cited by this paper
• Interactions of Metacognition With Motivation and Affect in Self-Regulated Learning: The MASRL Model

  2011cited by this paper
• Parental Involvement and Students’ Cognitive Outcomes in Korea

  2011cited by this paper
• Hidden Markets

  2009cited by this paper
• Understanding teacher identity: an overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education

  2009cited by this paper
• The Growing Phenomenon of Private Tutoring

  2008cited by this paper
• Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner: An Overview

  2002cited by this paper
• Teacher professional identity: competing discourses, competing outcomes

  2001cited by this paper
• International Schools and International Education : Improving Teaching, Management and Quality

  2000cited by this paper
• Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, 3rd ed.

  1998cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.