Factors influencing secondary school English teachers’ inclination towards private tutoring in English

Abstract

In recent times educational researchers have given attention to Private tutoring in English (PTE) due to the overwhelming prevalence of PTE in Bangladesh. Some studies have explored the factors influencing students’ inclination towards PTE. However, in PTE, teachers played a vital role, so teachers’ perceptions and inclinations are as important as students. Not many studies have investigated the reasons behind teachers’ inclination towards PTE and overall perception of teachers about PTE in ESOL country like Bangladesh. This study examines the teachers’ perception and the factors leading teachers’ inclination toward PTE in Bangladeshi Secondary level Bangla medium educational platform. By adopting the Herzberg’s two-factor theory (1966) as the conceptual framework of this study, the researcher proposes to count PTE as another dimension of an English teaching ‘job’ for teachers and tries find out the motivators and hygiene factors which are responsible for their satisfaction in taking PTE sessions that ultimately motivated them towards PTE. The researcher also tries to give voices to the teachers and represents their perceptions of the overall PTE situation. This study uses a qualitative research methodology and multiple case-study based research that included a semi-structured qualitative interview of with six secondary English school teachers who are currently involved in PTE. The study researcher finds out that the main reasons behind teachers’ inclination towards PTE are comfortability, ability to balance double role, responsibility for students, popularity and recognition count as an achievement for PTE tutors, etc. These findings will determine which motivational factors of teachers are needed to bring them back to take English classes effectively in mainstream school. If authorities recognize the motivations behind their inclination and acknowledge their viewpoints towards PTE and investigate these situations and take proper initiatives on bringing back effective teaching in the mainstream English classroom with fully motivated teachers, thus students will be more benefited by those initiatives.