Shadow education: new areas of inquiry in teaching, learning and development (Educación en la sombra: nuevas áreas de estudio sobre enseñanza, aprendizaje y desarrollo)

Shadow education research has expanded rapidly worldwide in the past decades. Whilst most studies have focused on somewhat broad dimensions of shadow education (for example, its prevalence, nature and characteristics at different educational levels, or its impact on social inequalities), there are various important micro dimensions of this phenomenon that have received limited scholarly attention. In fact, the field lacks research on topics such as the impact of shadow education on students’ developmental outcomes beyond grades and performance scores, teaching and learning practices or the effects of related policies on the various educational stakeholders. This special issue contributes to filling these gaps. The first part of this introductory article briefly defines the concept of shadow education and discusses its evolvement, before identifying the trends and gaps in the extant research. The second part describes the structure and content of the special issue. After the present introduction, readers will find a ‘Prospectives’ article, followed by four empirical studies. These contributions investigate innovative topics and identify new areas of inquiry in shadow education pertaining to teaching, learning and development.