When teachers become the external actor

Recent literature on neoliberalism and privatisation of education around the world has noted the growing and complex influence of external actors on educational policies, provisions, governance, and outcomes. The case of private tutoring in Cambodia, generally offered by public school teachers to their own students, adds an interesting dimension to this literature by addressing a situation where actors internal to the school system (teachers) are incentivised to act in external capacities. This chapter describes the ways that this form of private tutoring, rien kuo, is integrated into the schooling experience of students and becomes central to student progress from one grade to the next – and the consequential ‘hybrid public-private education system’ that this produces. We reflect on how this is a form of endogenous privatisation that involves the incorporation of ‘market-oriented mindsets’ into education and, more specifically, into the relationship between teachers and students. Our findings demonstrate how teachers acting in external capacities can have great impact on teacher and student motivations, curriculum and pedagogy, assessment, and broad expectations of public schooling – in ways that differ from contexts where private tutoring is provided by formally external actors.