This project hosts one doctoral candidate.
Elizabeth Briant (PhD)
Principal supervisor: Professor Greg Thompson
Association supervisor: Professor Karen Dooley
Contact: elizabeth.briant@qut.edu.au
Parental engagement with private tuition: understandings parents’ beliefs about education and family in a liquid modern era.
Australia’s private tuition industry is booming. While previous research suggests that factors such as families’ socio-economic status and students’ academic progress contribute to the choice to employ private tuition, little is known about the latent social mechanisms that might be nudging parents to choose private tuition for their children in the senior years of school. Through the lens of Giddens’ structuration theory, this narrative study will explore how, in a liquid modern era characterised by change, risk and uncertainty, private tuition might be symptomatic of parents’ desire to anticipate the future, manage risks and preserve their sense of security in the world.