Shadow education and teacher burnout

Private tutoring (PT) has become a popular out-of-school learning activity worldwide, widely known as shadow education. One of the under-researched areas in the domain of shadow education is the washback effect of schoolteachers’ provision of fee-charging PT on top of their regular work and school responsibilities. Although PT provides employment and income, this kind of provision puts teachers into dual teacher-tutor roles. This can lead to burnout, a serious psychological syndrome affecting the well-being of individuals and also the overall functioning of organizations, such as schools. It consists of three basic stages: exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. The qualitative study reported here chapter sought to explore the challenges faced by eight teachers as they navigated dual roles as both teachers and tutors. Specifically, the study focused on the causes of teacher burnout resulting from the washback effect of private tutoring, as well as the strategies employed by these teachers to cope with the associated challenges.