Shadow Education Research through TIMSS and PIRLS: Experiences and Lessons in the Republic of Georgia

Abstract

Shadow education has long been clearly visible in the Republic of Georgia. Increasing numbers of students from different socio‑economic backgrounds receive private tutoring from repetitors, the term used colloqui ally in Georgia for individual tutoring providers. According to a 2011 study, the majority (69%) of repetitors were schoolteachers while others were university professors, students and graduates (EPPM 2011). Profit-­ driven tutoring companies are rare in Georgia. Despite its widespread existence, private tutoring as a parallel education system has attracted little academic and policy interest in Georgia. A few studies shed some light on the matter, but much work remains to be done. The existing studies primarily examined demand from students and families rather than the supply by teachers and other providers. Further, the studies were small-‑scale, and none was based on a nationally representative sample. Moreover, no studies explore methodological aspects of collecting and interpreting data on private tutoring in Georgia. This chapter reflects on methodological aspects of data obtained through the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). It Bray, Mark; Kwo, Ora & Jokić, Boris (eds.) (2015): Researching Private Supplementary Tutoring: Methodological Lessons from Diverse Cultures. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC), The University of Hong Kong, and Dordrecht: Springer. © CERC  Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 M. Bray et al. (eds.), Researching Private Supplementary Tutoring, CERC Studies in Comparative Education 32, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30042-9_1 , 23 Magda 24 Nutsa Kobakhidze discusses questions related to the ethics of research, questionnaire construction, characteristics of children as respondents in survey research, and validity and reliability of data obtained through international assessments. The chapter draws on data from a nationally representative sample of 9,362 students obtained through the national component of TIMSS and PIRLS in 2011. The quantitative findings reflect Grade 4 and Grade 8 students’ perspectives on shadow education, and provide in-­‐‑ formation about the scope, nature, intensity, duration and seasonal vari ations of the phenomenon. The chapter also summarises numerical find ings from 4,744 parents of Grade 4 students. Comparison of data from Grade 4 students and their parents provides methodological insights on how to interpret responses from 10-year-­old children, raising the questions: • How much weight should be placed on children’s responses? • How can researchers interpret what children are saying? • What should be the rules for constructing questionnaires for different age groups? Noting some inconsistencies in data obtained through TIMSS and PIRLS in 2011 and building on a wider paper by Bray and Kobakhidze (2014), the paper remarks on ways in which methodological nuances may affect the quality of data. Background Shadow education is firmly embedded in Georgian daily life, and its ori-gins