The shadow education market in Australia: a study of online tutoring intermediaries

This research examines the private tutoring market in NSW. While other researchers have conducted research on ‘learning centres’, this research focuses specifically on one-on-one ‘in home’ tutoring facilitated through online intermediaries. The methods encompass a content analysis of 65 websites that facilitate tutoring lessons, together with interviews with tutors who utilise these websites to find work. Within this thesis, the different intermediaries that exist within this market are classified and compared in relation to the functions that they perform. Research on online labour markets is used to try to explain how these intermediaries operate. This thesis also draws on classical economic sociology to explore the impact of different kinds of intermediation on tutors’ work and their relationships with their students. This shows the influence of intermediaries on the flexibility of the job of being a tutor and the way that tutors find students to tutor. I also demonstrate how tutors generate a trusting relationship between themselves and their students and show how intermediaries attempt to foster a similar relationship between their users.