Proxy involvement of Czech parents in education: inner tensions and situational burdens behind decisions to buy private tutoring

Abstract

While previous research on private tutoring has focused predominantly on its meso- or macro-level determinants, this qualitative study, anchored in the literature on parental involvement, explores proximal factors, including psychological and situational influences, that affect parental decisions to seek private tutoring. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 65 Czech parents, who considered buying or had bought private tutoring for their child. It demonstrates that due to their internalised active parental role, parents feel a strong obligation to intervene when their educational expectations for their children are unmet. Private tutoring is considered when parents cannot or do not want be directly involved because of various barriers. Parents then use private tutoring as a compensatory mechanism, effectively outsourcing their involvement to a proxy: a tutoring provider. This study contributes to existing literature by presenting a conceptual model illustrating the interplay of these proximal factors, which can be further empirically tested.