Introduction

The market for shadow education in China is experiencing significant growth, particularly in K-12 subject tutoring (kindergarten through grade 12). Shadow education, like private tutoring and after-class institutes, reportedly prioritises testing tactics to help students strategically win out in exams, including school exams and the National College Entrance Examination (also known as Gaokao). Although attending such courses may raise students’ test scores, it does not necessarily enhance their genuine academic abilities (Clark & Yu, 2022), parents still demonstrate a willingness to engage their children to participate in such tutoring because they seek to ensure the best educational opportunities for their children (Wang & Hamid, 2024). By 2017, nearly 50% of Chinese primary and secondary school students participated in shadow education (Wei & Lu, 2019), with monthly household expenditures averaging 2452 RMB though varying widely across income groups (Meng et al., 2024). One plausible reason to such rely on shadow education is that deep-rooted cultural emphasis on educational achievement. For example, the central role of the Gaokao has driven demand for shadow education, transforming it into a highly competitive arena (Wang & Hamid, 2024). For many families, especially in urban areas, these services are not seen as supplementary but essential, compensating for perceived deficiencies in the public school system and offering tailored exam preparation. Thus, shadow education has become embedded in the educational landscape, shaping the academic experiences and outcomes of students.

To curb the escalating academic burden and reduce educational inequality, the Chinese government introduced a series of regulatory measures (Zhang & Bray, 2021). The most sweeping of these was the Opinions on Further Reducing Assignments and Off-campus Training for Students in Compulsory Education, commonly known as the Double Reduction Policy (the DRP, hereafter) issued in July 2021 by the General Office of the State Council of China. This policy represents a continuation of the government’s effort to regulate the privatisation of the education sectors (Yang et al., 2023). Key provisions included: banning foreign and publicly listed capital investment in subject-based tutoring (Article 4.13); prohibiting excessive or advanced-level content (Article 4.14); and restricting teaching hours beyond 9:00 p.m. (Article 4.15).

The policy had an immediate impact. According to the State Council (2022), the number of offline subject-based tutoring institutions for compulsory education students plummeted from 124,000 to 9728 (92.14% reduction), while online institutions dropped from 263 to just 34. Industry-wide layoffs were extensive of the more than 10 million employees in the sector, over half reportedly lost their jobs (BBC, 2024). However, despite these structural changes, the demand for educational support has persisted. Although average national spending on shadow education fell by 281 RMB post-DRP, this decline masks growing disparities. As Zhou et al. (2023) observed, high-income families have increased their education expenditures to have private tutoring, while low-income families have had limited access to such tutoring, in turn reinforcing educational inequality. In response to these restrictions, underground or informal tutoring services, often priced significantly above market rates, have proliferated, remaining accessible only to wealthier families (Lee et al., 2010).

From a policy standpoint, the contraction of the shadow education market and the decline of numbers in shadow education teachers may be interpreted as indicators of the Double Reduction Policy’s success. After all, one of the policy’s stated goals is to reduce students’ reliance on private tutoring and relieve academic pressure. However, this study adopts a more nuanced position. Rather than evaluating the DRP solely in terms of regulatory effectiveness, it considers the broader implications of such a sweeping policy for stakeholders, particularly teachers who have been significantly impacted but remain underrepresented in existing research. It is estimated that approximately one-third of these teachers lost their jobs or faced major changes in their employment status following the DRP (Beijing Normal University & TAL Education, 2021). Unlike public-school teachers, shadow education teachers typically operate outside the formal education system. Many relied on the tutoring industry as a long-term career path, and the sudden policy shift left them navigating an uncertain professional landscape, often without institutional support. Understanding the experiences and professional identity of these teachers is not intended to challenge the legitimacy of the DRP’s objectives, but rather to highlight the human costs of rapid policy implementation and the unintended consequences for the career development of shadow education teachers.

In light of this circumstance faced by shadow education teachers, this study views the shadow education sector not as a monolithic, negative force to be dismantled, but as a deeply embedded part of China’s education ecosystem. It reflects enduring societal demands and systemic pressures such as high-stakes examinations, parental anxiety, and perceived gaps in formal schooling (Chen & Zhang, 2020; Wang & Hamid, 2024). Despite regulatory restrictions, evidence suggests that demand for tutoring services remains robust, with new forms of informal, sometimes underground, tutoring emerging in response to the DRP (Zhou et al., 2023). In this case, the reduction in formal shadow education provision and corresponding loss of teaching positions may become a redistribution of educational access that often favours wealthier families who can afford costlier and less-regulated services (Lee et al., 2010).

Therefore, examining the professional identity and job satisfaction of shadow education teachers provides insight into the lived experiences of those on the front lines of these transitions. Professional identity also plays a crucial role in how teachers interpret their roles, engage with students, and respond to external pressures (Lasky, 2005; Sachs, 2001). Specifically, shadow education teachers’ professional identity is closely related to their teaching belief and pedagogical practices, shaping their interactions with various stakeholders, including colleagues, students, and parents. Following the DRP, reductions in teaching hours and income have raised existential concerns and disrupted these teachers’ sense of professional identity. Yet, research on how these teachers experience and reconstruct their professional identity remains scarce. To date, most DRP-related research has focused on students or public-school teachers (Gupta & Zhao, 2023; Qian et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2022; Yue et al., 2023), very little has been conducted with teachers in shadow education contexts (e.g., Yang et al., 2023 and Lyu and Lam, 2025). Yang et al. (2023) documented the immediate financial and emotional impact of the policy but lacked a longitudinal perspective. Similarly, while Lyu and Lam (2025) offered important insights into tutors’ agentic responses by identifying pragmatic, entrepreneurial, and developmental forms of agency, their study primarily adopted a cross-sectional design and concentrated on strategy typologies. As a result, it provided limited examination of the emotional, relational, and temporal dimensions of professional identity reconstruction over time. Taken together, these teachers not only mediate between parental demand and student learning but also embody the tensions between state regulation and market-driven education. Their trajectories offer a unique vantage point for understanding the socio-political complexities of education reform in China. In doing so, this study is expected to contribute to a more balanced discourse on policy evaluation by incorporating not only institutional metrics but also the perspectives of practitioners whose voices are often overlooked.

In light of the above, this study aimed to adopt a longitudinal qualitative design to explore the evolving professional identity of shadow education teachers in China. Given that the DRP’s consequences are unlikely to be short-lived, this study aimed to trace how teachers navigate ongoing uncertainty, reconstruct their roles, and respond to changing professional environments over time. To achieve the study’s aim, the overarching question was formulated: Under the implementation of the Double Reduction Policy, how has the professional identity of shadow education teachers changed from 2021 to 2023?

Teachers’ professional identity

The study adopted Canrinus et al.’s (2012) teacher’s professional identity indicator framework to explore the components of professional identity. This model conceptualises professional identity through four interrelated dimensions: job satisfaction, occupational commitment, self-efficacy, and motivation. These dimensions not only capture teachers’ internal dispositions but also reflect how they perceive and navigate their professional lives in relation to institutional and sociopolitical environments (Firestone, 1996; Watt & Richardson, 2008). The four dimensions are discussed pertaining to the context of the Double Reduction Policy in turn below, followed by their interconnections (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
Fig. 1The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
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Theoretical framework of professional identity.

Job satisfaction pertains to an individual’s subjective evaluation of their working environment and the nature of their work, which results in a pleasurable emotional state (Locke, 1969; Troesch & Bauer, 2017). Research highlights the reciprocal relationship between job satisfaction and professional identity, that is, teachers with higher job satisfaction often have a stronger sense of professional identity, and vice versa(Canrinus et al., 2011; Moore & Hofman, 1988). Specifically referring to the shadow education under DRP, job satisfaction carries significant organisational implications. It not only enhances teachers’ emotional well-being but also drives retention, performance, and a positive institutional culture (Frye & Breaugh, 2004). Moreover, policies can impact satisfaction both directly, through adjustments in pay, workload, or job security, and indirectly, by shaping teachers’ sense of autonomy, purpose, and professional worth (Saltzstein et al., 2001). For example, broad education reforms frequently leave teachers feeling professionally disoriented and devalued, challenging their sense of competence and calling (Day, 2002). In such contexts, teachers may seek to reassert their identity by advocating for new practices or aligning their roles with their core values. These efforts can restore a sense of agency but may also provoke conflict and diminish confidence when institutional demands diverge from professional ideals.

Occupational commitment describes the psychological bond between an individual and their profession, grounded in emotional identification and allegiance to one’s work (Lee et al., 2000). Meyer and Allen (1991) conceptualise three components of this commitment: Affective commitment refers to a teacher’s emotional bond with their profession, encompassing strong identification with its values and genuine involvement in its activities. Continuance commitment arises when teachers remain in their role because the perceived costs of leaving are too high. Normative commitment reflects a sense of moral obligation or duty that motivates teachers to stay in their profession even when other options are available. Under the Double Reduction Policy, shadow education teachers confront a delegitimised sector and eroded social esteem. This professional upheaval can fracture teachers’ affective commitment, as they question their emotional connection to a field increasingly viewed as problematic. At the same time, continuance and normative commitments may keep some educators in place, either because the costs of leaving outweigh perceived benefits or because they feel a moral responsibility to their students. Such tensions between these commitment dimensions can lead to profound identity struggles, as teachers strive to reconcile their dedication to teaching with the declining societal value of their work.

Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s perception of their ability to effectively execute a specific task or behaviour (Bandura, 1997). In the context of teaching, a teacher’s self-efficacy refers to an individual’s perception of their ability to effectively perform their professional duties, manage interpersonal relationships inherent in the teaching and educational process and competently execute organisational tasks while navigating the political and social dynamics of the educational institution (Friedman & Kass, 2002). Under the DRP, teachers in shadow education face intensified challenges to their self-efficacy as they adjust to new teaching conditions and shifting societal expectations. The interaction between self-efficacy and institutional constraints highlights the difficulties of sustaining a stable professional identity in uncertain and rapidly changing environments. In such policy-driven contexts marked by labour market insecurity, teachers’ sense of efficacy may be significantly weakened, particularly when they are compelled to meet unfamiliar demands or contemplate exiting the profession.

Motivation can be defined as a complex construct comprising a set of interconnected beliefs and emotions, it serves as motivator and exerts a significant impact on an individual’s conduct (Wentzel, 1999). It is found that government actions always cause uncertainty, which results in alterations to education (Sorrentino & Short, 1986). These may include personal passion, financial necessity, or moral commitment. In precarious conditions, motivation may be reshaped by survival strategies, entrepreneurial adaptation, or shifting value systems. The DRP’s imposition on the shadow education sector creates a climate of uncertainty, where policy shifts can demotivate teachers by reducing financial rewards and professional autonomy, while simultaneously increasing stress and workload.

There are underlying relationships among the four aspects discussed above, as highlighted in Canrinus et al.’s (2012) research. Teachers’ classroom self-efficacy is significantly associated with their relational satisfaction, occupational commitment, and motivation. Notably, classroom self-efficacy indirectly influences occupational commitment through its effect on motivation. Relational satisfaction plays a critical role in shaping both motivation and occupational commitment. In particular, teachers’ satisfaction with their professional relationships significantly enhances their motivation and strengthens their commitment to the profession. Furthermore, relational satisfaction mitigates the negative impact of low classroom self-efficacy on salary satisfaction. While salary satisfaction does have some influence on occupational commitment, its effect is relatively weak. Overall, relational satisfaction and classroom self-efficacy emerge as key drivers of teacher motivation and commitment. Positive workplace relationships not only foster higher levels of motivation but also deepen teachers’ emotional investment in their work, thereby promoting a stronger sense of professional identity. The interconnections among these dimesions are illustrated in Fig. 1.

An integrated perspective on teacher’s professional identity: from psychological dimensions to political-economic contexts

While psychological models such as Canrinus et al.’s (2012) offered valuable insights into the internal drivers of teacher identity, including satisfaction, motivation, commitment, and efficacy, teacher’s professional identity cannot be fully understood solely as a collection of individual psychological traits. Scholars increasingly recognised that professional identity is multidimensional, dynamic, and contextually situated (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Beijaard et al., 2004). It is continuously constructed through interactions with colleagues, institutions, policies, and broader discourses. For instance, Beijaard et al. (2004) emphasised the coexistence of multiple sub-identities within teachers, shaped by context and professional experiences, while Beauchamp and Thomas (2009) highlighted the dialogical nature of identity construction, influenced by internal values and external expectations.

To deepen the relevance of this study to the Chinese context, especially under the impact of the Double Reduction Policy, in addition to primary use of Canrinus et al.’s (2012) professional identity, sociocultural and political-economic perspectives are also considered. Lasky (2005) argued that teacher identity is shaped through social and institutional interactions, embedded in power relations and affected by emotional and relational dynamics. Sachs (2001) similarly framed teacher identity as a site of ideological contestation, situated between managerial professionalism and transformative professionalism. These two concepts are particularly important in analysing how shadow education teachers respond to the structural and ideological disruptions caused by the DRP. The widespread professional precarity following the policy mirrors global patterns in the casualisation of educational labour (Apple, 2013; Olmedo, 2017). Teachers are increasingly expected to manage these disruptions through self-regulation, resilience, and entrepreneurial adaptation, reflecting the logics of neoliberal governance in education (Hursh, 2007). In this context, neoliberal governance refers to policy frameworks that prioritise market-based logics, decentralise accountability to individuals, and emphasise performativity as a measure of success. Under such frameworks, the responsibility for professional survival shifts from institutions to individuals, who are expected to sustain their careers through personal performance and competitiveness.

By drawing on psychological, sociocultural, and political-economic perspectives, this study aimed to gain a fuller understanding of how shadow education teachers experience and respond to professional disruption in the post-DRP era. It would attend to the interplay between personal values, institutional relationships, and broader governance logics, revealing identity as a dynamic and contested construct. This theoretical grounding would inform the subsequent analysis of how teachers navigate structural uncertainty, negotiate their professional roles, and reconstruct a sense of meaning and commitment in a rapidly changing educational landscape.

The study

This study adopted a longitudinal qualitative research design. While the longitudinal design captured the trajectories of teachers’ professional identity in shadow education contexts for three years, the qualitative approach employed one-on-one, semi-structured interviews and focus groups to explore these teachers’ perspectives, experiences and identities pertaining to the Double Reduction Policy. The study received its institutional ethical approval, and all participants were presented the detailed information sheet and consented to participate in the study.

Participants

Given the regulatory sensitivity and professional risks faced by shadow education teachers under the DRP during its initial implementation, a snowball sampling strategy was employed. One main reason is that it enabled the study to gain access to a highly specific and hard-to-reach population by leveraging existing professional networks and trust (Creswell, 2021). Participants were first approached through existing professional networks, and subsequent participants were recruited through referrals. The study investigated a cohort of ten teachers (four males and six females) working in three different private tutoring institutes in Beijing over three years (2021, 2022 and 2023). These institutes varied in size, operational duration. Beijing was selected as the study site due to the strong implementation of the DRP and the high prevalence of the shadow education industry in the city, making it a particularly rich setting for this research (cf. Yang et al., 2023, who investigate various cities). Following this, observing and engaging with this cohort of teachers could gain richer data from their direct, multi-year experiences and perspectives. Table 1 presents the demographic information of the participants. It should be highlighted that two participants (Linda and John) had management experience in shadow education, offering an additional layer of information into the impact of the DRP on employees within shadow education. With regard to sample size, this study adhered to the principle of data saturation in qualitative research (Creswell, 2021), that is, the number of participants was considered enough when further interviews were prevented from producing additional thematic accounts. Although there is no universally prescribed number, existing literature indicates that a sample of 10 to 12 participants is often adequate for cores sectional qualitative studies, particularly when participants have shared experience and background within community of practice (Braun & Clarke, 2021; Francis et al., 2010; Malterud et al., 2016). During the first interview in 2021, we preliminarily screened and coded the data in a reflexive approach (Braun & Clarke, 2021) and found no more codes generated at the 10th participates, so we decided to stop recruiting participants.

Table 1 Participants’ demographic information.
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Data collection: semi-structured interviews and focus groups

Overall, three waves of data collected (1) participants’ perspectives on and experiences with the DRP, (2) their perceived impacts of the DRP on teaching practices and (3) the development of their professional identity. The study employed both semi-structured interviews and focus groups for data collection. Specifically, while each wave involved one-on-one, semi-structured interviews, the second wave included an additional focus group session following the completion of all individual interviews. This decision was made because after one-year implementation of DRP, participants had more direct experiences and were familiar with reacting to the policy. Thus, having participants interact with others might help deepen reflections on the research foci through peer discussion among the participants (Carey, 1994). Their qualitative accounts were expected to capture the evolving complexity of participants’ teaching practices, beliefs and identity. The combination of semi-structured interviews and focus groups is common in some large-scale qualitative research, so as to enhance data richness and trustworthiness of findings (Lambert & Loiselle, 2008). Specifically, instead of separate, individual interviews, focus groups enabled the participants with shared experiences to query, probe, and explain ideas to one another (Acocella, 2012), ultimately creating a richer collective dialogue.

However, it should be acknowledged that such interactions may have also shaped qualitative accounts in particular ways. For example, participants may have chosen to withhold more sensitive details due to their colleagues’ presence, especially given the precarious employment conditions in the post-DRP contexts. As such, we treated the focus group as interactional co-constructions among participants, rather than reflections of individual viewpoints. The two focus groups were composed of five participants each. Both focus groups were conducted online, with the researcher acting as facilitator to ensure equitable participation and psychological safety. Participants were informed beforehand of the group format, and they could choose not to show their face and real name during the session and could leave the online focus group once they felt that they could not continue with the conversation.

All interview prompts were developed by synthesising relevant literature (Canrinus et al., 2012; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Yang et al., 2023) and reviewed by a colleague specialising in education policy in China. All interviews were conducted online with audio recorded, and pseudonyms were used to maintain anonymity and confidentiality. During each session, the researcher prepared and recorded an interview memo (Cox, 2012) for each interviewee to aid in reflection during the data analysis phase.

In the first wave (October 2021), semi-structured interviews were conducted to capture the participants’ initial perspectives on the DRP shortly after its release. The interviews followed the same prompts, such as “What do you think about the DRP?” and “How will you respond to this policy?”, which lasted an average of 35 minutes. The second wave (October 2022) consisted of individual interviews and focus groups. Individual interviews, lasting approximately 30 minutes, followed up and explored the participants’ views, experiences and identity. While most prompts were similar as those in the first wave, additional questions included, “What are your and/or your institute’s strategies in response to the DRP?”. One month after, the participants were divided randomly into two focus groups of five. In these sessions, the participants discussed questions like, “How has the DRP affected your teaching practice?” and “What do you think of the DRP so far?”. With the researcher facilitating, each focus group session averaged 100 minutes, and the participants were able to share insights through interaction, enquiry and explanation. In the third wave (October 2023), individual interviews averaged 45 minutes and revisited prompts from the previous waves while adding reflective questions, such as, “Looking back to 2021 and 2022, how do you now view your earlier perspectives?”; “Have you perceived any changes in your teaching practice and beliefs?”; and “What motivates you to remain in the shadow education industry?”

Data analysis

Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was employed to analyse all data from the interviews and focus groups. Both deductive and inductive approaches were employed to analyse the data; such an approach has been widely used in social sciences (Matthews & Ross, 2010). While the deductive approach helped code the qualitative accounts aligning to the framework, given the longitudinal data in nature, the inductive approach further allowed us to code the data that was challenging to fit the framework due to the dynamic perceptions and attitudes from participants across three years. Prior to the formal analysis, all audio-recordings were transcribed verbatim, and transcripts were sent to each participant for content verification. Afterwards, all verified interview accounts were imported into NVivo 12 for analysis. The six-step analysis included (note that steps 2 and 3 progressed concomitantly): (1) thoroughly reading the entire data set; (2) inductive coding: initial codes were generated directly from the data to surface novel concepts and unforeseen insights and (3) deductive coding: emergent codes were then systematically compared against Canrinus et al.’s (2012) four dimensions of professional identity; (4) reviewing the identified themes to maintain analysis quality; (5) defining and naming themes where necessary to capture the participants’ overall perspectives and experiences; and (6) writing-up the findings. The first author independently coded all data, and the colleague in the same research discipline independently coded 30% of the data. To enhance trustworthiness and analytical rigour, we assessed inter coder agreement by using Cohen’s kappa within a thematic analysis framework (Braun & Clarke, 2019; Nowell et al., 2017).

During the inductive coding phase, we noted initial codes that did not directly align with the framework, such as “emotional spillover,” “family tensions,” and “peer community building.” These were discussed within the research team, and some were merged into broader categories (e.g., “coping strategies”), while others were set aside if they fell outside the study’s scope. This reflexive coding process ensured that inductive insights informed theme development, maintaining sensitivity to participant perspectives while engaging with the theoretical framework.

Findings and discussion

Thematic analysis produced five major themes which are introduced and discussed in turn below. While the theoretical framework informed our analysis, the themes presented emerged inductively from participants’ narratives, reflecting the dynamic and evolving nature of teacher identity under the DRP.

Theme 1. Destabilization: the disruption of identity continuity and meaning

In the initial stage, many participants experienced a profound rupture in their professional identities. The sudden implementation of the DRP not only led to economic uncertainty but also triggered existential confusion about their role and legitimacy as educators. Teachers described being “at a loss” (Cindy-2021; Jack-2021; Lisa-2021) and “struggling to understand” (Leo-2021) their status, particularly due to the ambiguous messaging around the policy’s intentions.

As Cindy elaborated on this, “I was very at a loss at the beginning. I didn’t know how the policy would develop, and I didn’t know if my work was legal or not. So I felt like I was in the grey zone… I didn’t know what to do.” (Cindy-2021)

This sense of ambiguity and uncertainty reflects that participants were unsure not only about what was expected of them, but also whether their work still carried moral or social value. Additionally, with the policy moving onwards, several noted how their “self-worth as educators” (Nina-2021; Daniel-2022; Leo-2022) had been tied to “external validation” (Jeffrey-2022; Paul-2021; John-2022), which the policy had been abruptly announced and moved without rooms of negotiation.

Explicitly, Jack reflected this in terms of his self-perceived identity, saying, “I used to think the job is quite decent. But now it seems like we’re doing something disgraceful. I don’t even want to let others know what I am doing anymore.” (Jack-2021)

The loss of perceived legitimacy initially led to a decline in self-efficacy for some participants. However, more experienced teachers display greater self-efficacy, affective commitment and lower turnover intention than their less experienced peers. These teachers demonstrated stronger belief in their ability to navigate adversity (Bandura, 1997). In response to the changes brought by the DRP, they found ways to adapt, reframe their roles, and reaffirm their professional identity. As one teacher with over ten years of experience reflected:

“Despite all the changes, I’ve been through so much in this industry that I still believe I can adapt. It’s hard, but I’ve learned how to survive in this environment.” (Linda-2022)

This resilience among longer-tenured teachers (as seen in the cases of John and Leo) highlights that while the policy’s initial impact destabilized their identity, it “did not lead to an irrevocable collapse in professional confidence” (John-2023). Instead, it “prompted a rethinking and reconfiguration of [their] role” (Leo-2023), drawing on “[their] accumulated experience and adaptive strategies” (Leo-2023; Linda-2023).

These accounts demonstrate how the initial destabilization was not just an emotional or personal reaction, but a reflection of how external structural changes embodied in the DRP disrupted established identity narratives. For many, their professional identities were not entirely fragmented but rather reframed within a shifting socio-political context.

Theme 2. Between constraint and conviction: negotiating professional identity amid policy shifts

Following the initial disorientation, many teachers in our study began a process of internal negotiation, striving to re-establish coherence between their roles and professional identities. This stage was marked by emotional ambivalence and shifting motivations, as teachers oscillated between resignation and resistance. A key pattern during this phase was the prevalence of continuance commitment, in which teachers remained not out of affective attachment, but due to pragmatic constraints.

“To be honest, there aren’t any more enticing options outside. Other companies aren’t offering better conditions. That’s why the appeal of staying with my current institution is still strong.” (Linda-2021)

This form of instrumental persistence reflects a reconstruction of professional identity under constraint. Teachers were aware that the nature of their work had changed, yet they actively weighed economic risks, labour conditions, and their own skillsets when choosing to stay. Their continued presence was thus a form of reluctant adaptation, not passive endurance.

Alongside such pragmatic considerations, some participants articulated a renewed sense of intrinsic purpose, especially in relation to educational equity. For these individuals, affective commitment stemmed not from institutional loyalty but from moral purpose, echoing Canrinus et al.’s (2012) emphasis on the value dimension of teacher identity.

“I believe that online education can connect students from undeveloped cities to teachers from big cities, I want to be there for my students,… I firmly believe that I can survive and thrive in this field.” (John-2022)

However, even such expressions of dedication among these participants were often couched in terms of individual effort, rather than collective institutional ethos. The negotiation process involved ongoing identity conflict, as teachers reconciled contradictions between declining social legitimacy and residual pride in their pedagogical work. As Nina put it:

“We are still helping students learn something. But society sees us differently now. It’s like we became a problem instead of a solution.” (Nina-2021)

This stage thus reflects a struggle not only for economic survival, but also for restoring coherence and meaning in one’s professional identity within an unstable and morally contested policy landscape.

Theme 3. Coping strategies: redefining success and finding new roles

Building upon the initial disorientation and subsequent negotiations in 2021 and 2022, this section highlights how participants’ perspectives and practices further evolved by 2023 as they sought stability and redefined professional identity. However, this stability was not a return to pre-DRP identity, but rather a redefinition of what it meant to be a “teacher” in the new context (Jack; Daniel; Paul; Linda; Lisa; John). For some, this involved embracing “new roles such as private tutors or online influencers” (Nina; Cindy; Lisa; Leo). For others, it meant “redefining success and contribution” (Jack; Paul; John). This reframing indicates identity reconstruction rather than restoration. Teachers adapted not only behaviourally but also ideologically, reassessing what constitutes professional identity and legitimacy.

Interestingly, teachers with longer tenure appeared more likely to engage in reflective identity work.

“After 13 years, I finally stopped chasing bonuses and promotion and started thinking about what teaching means to me… I quit all my management roles this year and now only focus on teaching. It also gives me more time to enjoy life.” (John-2023)

Similar reflections were shared by several experienced teachers in the study, who described using the disruption as a turning point for reassessing their goals and re-aligning their professional identities with evolving realities.

Rather than simply enduring the policy shift, these teachers used the moment of disruption to re-evaluate the construction of their professional identity, particularly in terms of what constituted job satisfaction, the nature of their work commitment, their underlying motivation for remaining in shadow education. In doing so, they began to rebuild the professional identity that was more closely aligned with their current circumstances.

Theme 4. From identity rupture to meaning reconstruction: a nonlinear trajectory

Building on the emotional and professional disruptions described in earlier sections, this part traces how participants’ perspectives changed across 2021, 2022, and 2023. Rather than presenting a uniform trajectory of decline, the interviews reveal a dynamic, nonlinear process shaped by affective experiences, self-reflection, and strategic adaptation.

In the aftermath of the DRP’s implementation, many teachers experienced what could be termed an identity rupture, a sudden dislocation from previously held sources of legitimacy and pride. Cindy, in 2022, commented that, “I used to be proud of helping students enter top schools. Now, I feel like my work is no longer seen as real education.” Such sentiments reflect more than just emotional distress; they signal a fundamental disruption to the evaluative and normative dimensions of professional identity (Canrinus et al., 2012). Teachers no longer felt aligned with what their roles used to mean, morally, socially, and professionally.

Yet rather than remain suspended in a state of loss, many participants demonstrated a gradual shift toward what we conceptualise as meaning reconstruction. This did not entail a return to previous identity configurations, but rather a renegotiation of what it meant to be an educator under new constraints. Some teachers began reframing their roles in terms of “soft skill” cultivation, individualised mentoring, or holistic development. Jeffrey in 2022 shared, “Now I think less about exam scores, and more about whether students enjoy learning with me.” These narratives suggest the emergence of alternative value systems that allowed participants to re-establish coherence in their professional identities, even when traditional markers of success, such as student grades or parental satisfaction, were no longer available or relevant.

Crucially, this reconstruction process was neither universal nor linear. For example, John “moved between phases of disillusionment and renewal” from 2021 to 2023, often depending on institutional context and peer networks, due to his role of a manager. This oscillation between disillusionment and renewal was echoed by others in managerial roles, highlighting the nonlinear trajectories of adaptation. What emerges here might be a more nuanced understanding of professional identity as relational, situated, and temporally fluid, constructed not in isolation, but through ongoing interaction with policy, institutions, and broader sociocultural discourses. This evolving identity trajectory among participants in our study sets the stage for a deeper analysis of how teachers navigated institutional constraints and policy narratives in the aftermath of systemic reform.

Taken together, these accounts illustrate how individual participants’ perspectives evolved over the three waves of data collection. For example, some teachers initially expressed disorientation and a loss of legitimacy in 2021, began reassessing their roles under policy constraints in 2022, and by 2023, reported new forms of adaptation, such as embracing hybrid roles or redefining success on their own terms. While the trajectory of these changes was nonlinear, often oscillating between hope and frustration, it demonstrates a clear shift from crisis to reconstruction and pragmatic adaptation over time. This cross-temporal view highlights how professional identity reconstruction was not static but developed dynamically across different phases of policy implementation.

Theme 5. Making space within constraints

As the policy environment shifted in 2022 and 2023, participants’ adaptive strategies also evolved, reflecting ongoing reconstruction of professional identity across the longitudinal trajectory. Our findings reveal that the period from 2022 to 2023 marked a significant shift, not only in regulatory enforcement, but also in the ways educators and institutions negotiated space for continuity, agency, and innovation within the boundaries of the DRP.

Firstly, participants widely reported a perceptible easing of enforcement compared to the initial shock of 2021. This shift aligns with the “evaluation and adjustment” phase of the policy cycle (Hill & Hupe, 2021), wherein earlier strict implementation gives way to local reinterpretation and selective flexibility. Linda in 2023 noted, “there’s less government inspection now. Our company leaders are more concerned about teacher stability than compliance”. Such accounts suggest that the policy, rather than closing off all possibility for professional development, entered a new phase where adaptive spaces reopened, however limited.

In response, the institutions in our study began restructuring their operational models by downsizing physical branches, investing in asynchronous materials, and diversifying course formats. In these contexts, many teachers reported adopting hybrid roles that combined teaching, content development, and administrative tasks. Jack in 2023 addressed, “We record more personalised videos now. It’s partly for compliance, but also for quality.” These changes reflect more than passive compliance; they represent “strategic adaptations that both accommodate and reinterpret external constraints” (John-2023).

Simultaneously, many educators displayed forms of professional resilience (Day & Gu, 2013; Folke et al., 2010). Despite declining salaries and increased managerial pressure, they developed new digital competencies, reorganised informal peer support groups, and redefined success on their own terms.

“Formal support from the company wasn’t really there, so we reached out to colleagues from other companies to share ideas and keep each other updated. I know some of them have even started doing live-stream selling instead of teaching.” (Nina-2023)

The narratives, reported by several participants across the three institutions, were marked by pragmatic optimism, illustrating how resilience was enacted not just psychologically but also structurally and socially.

Importantly, this phase also illuminated how teachers internalised or resisted state policy discourses. While some adopted official framings, emphasising “student well-being or burden reduction” (as explicated in Linda-2023 extracts), others remained sceptical, describing the policy as a “political performance” (Paul-2023; Lisa-2023). Jack in 2023 even noted, “We still teach school subjects, but we call it ‘literacy training’ now”. These micro-level acts of discursive re-labelling suggest that educators were not merely implementing policy; they were actively engaged in shaping its meaning in ways that aligned with their professional values and survival needs.

Placing discussion in DRP contexts and beyond

The longitudinal insights gained from 2021 to 2023 enable this study to contextualize teachers’ professional identity reconstruction within the evolving DRP in China and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of this process. Unlike Yang et al. (2023), who focused predominantly on the immediate, disempowering impacts of the DRP, such as sudden job loss, income reduction, and career disorientation, this research reveals a more dynamic and agentive trajectory. Yang et al. (2023) portrayed tutors largely as passive victims of abrupt policy intervention, offering a snapshot of crisis and dislocation. In contrast, the present study demonstrates that tutors engaged in complex processes of identity reconstruction, pragmatic negotiation, and professional reinvention over an extended period. This longitudinal and relational perspective challenges deterministic narratives by emphasizing teachers’ active role in navigating systemic change.

This study’s findings also reflect Sachs (2001) notion of activist teacher identities, illustrating how some teachers, despite systemic constraints, sought to align their professional roles with personal values around educational equity. Moreover, the emotional and political nature of identity work highlighted by Lasky (2005) is evident in teachers’ accounts of emotional turbulence, strategic adaptation, and moral negotiation under policy changes. The structural and political-economic pressures described by Apple (2013) contextualise how macro-level policy environments shaped micro-level decisions and identity reconstruction processes among teachers in the shadow education sector.

Furthermore, while Lyu and Lam (2025) offered valuable insights into the agentic responses of tutors through a Bourdieusian framework, identifying pragmatic, entrepreneurial, and developmental agency types, their study remained largely at the level of categorizing strategies. The current research advances this line of inquiry by illustrating that tutors’ agency was not solely strategic or survival-oriented but deeply affective and morally grounded. Tutors’ decisions to persist, adapt, or redefine success were intertwined with emotional struggles, ethical reflections, and a search for restored legitimacy in a shifting socio-political context. By foregrounding the emotional labor and value-based dilemmas inherent in professional identity work, this study extends Bourdieusian analyses and offers a richer account of how structure and agency interact in times of disruption.

Moreover, this study sheds light on the evolving nature of policy implementation. Rather than treating the DRP as a monolithic and static force, the findings demonstrate that the policy environment itself underwent changes over time, creating adaptive spaces for negotiation and reinterpretation. Tutors and institutions did not merely comply with or resist the DRP; they actively shaped its operational meaning at the micro level through strategic labeling, flexible role adoption, and informal professional networks. This perspective, which emphasizes the temporality and negotiability of policy effects, offers a more dynamic view than that presented in earlier studies that focused primarily on initial policy impacts.

By adopting a longitudinal qualitative design, this research also addresses methodological limitations in the existing literature. Previous studies often captured early-stage reactions without tracing the ongoing processes of emotional, cognitive, and strategic adjustment. In contrast, the present study illuminates the temporal fluidity and relational construction of professional identity under conditions of systemic uncertainty. This processual understanding of adaptation challenges static portrayals and provides deeper insight into how educators sustain their professional meaning in volatile policy environments.

While this study focuses on the Chinese context, the findings may hold relevance for other East Asian countries with high-stakes examination systems and substantial shadow education sectors, such as Korea and Japan. Similar to China, teachers in these contexts operate within competitive educational markets shaped by policy regulations and societal expectations (Mori & Baker, 2010; Park et al., 2011). However, differences in regulatory frameworks and cultural interpretations of teacher identity may vary across how educators experience and negotiate systemic reforms (Bray, 2012). Future comparative studies could further examine these dynamics to enrich understandings of professional identity reconstruction under policy changes across diverse educational settings.

Conclusion

By tracing participants’ experiences from 2021 through 2023, this longitudinal qualitative study addresses the underrepresentation of Chinese shadow education teachers. These findings resonate with sociocultural and political-economic perspectives on teacher identity (Apple, 2013; Lasky, 2005; Sachs, 2001), underscoring how teachers’ agency, emotions, and moral commitments interact with structural constraints during identity reconstruction. This study provides valuable insights into the professional identity of shadow education teachers in China, particularly in the context of the Double Reduction Policy. The findings highlight the complex and evolving nature of teacher identity in response to significant policy disruption. While many teachers in our study initially experienced identity rupture, characterized by a loss of professional pride and alignment with their traditional roles, they later engaged in a process of redefining their professional meaning.

The study also highlights the resilience and adaptability of teachers in the face of structural challenges and policy-driven constraints. As the policy environment evolved, so did the strategies employed by teachers to maintain a sense of professional agency. Teachers in our study navigated a shifting landscape by embracing hybrid roles, engaging in new digital practices, and, in some cases, subtly contesting the policy through acts of re-framing and re-labelling. These findings demonstrate the dynamic, relational, and temporally fluid nature of professional identity construction.

Implications

With these findings, the study may hold some implications for policy-makers, teachers, and researchers. Policymakers should recognize that regulatory interventions, if implemented without adequate support structures, can trigger profound disruptions not only in employment markets but also in the moral and emotional landscapes of affected professionals. Rather than viewing tutors merely as market actors to be regulated, it is essential to acknowledge their role as educators engaged in ongoing identity work. Providing transitional support programs, professional retraining pathways, and mechanisms for identity reconstruction could mitigate the negative impacts of abrupt policy shifts. For teachers working in shadow education contexts, the study recommends a commitment to continuous professional development, particularly in light of the ongoing demand within the K-12 shadow education market (Lyu & Lam, 2025). Despite regulatory changes in policy, fundamental needs of parents and students remain largely unchanged, particularly due to the persistent structure of high-stakes exams in China (e.g., the Gaokao system) and in other Asian countries sharing similar socio-cultural, educational contexts. Teachers working in similar contexts may benefit from engaging in peer collaboration, reflective practices, and pursuing additional training opportunities that align with evolving educational policies. Moreover, addressing financial concerns by diversifying relevant income sources (e.g., edit textbooks, design testlets, make asynchronous teaching videos) can nurture long-term career satisfaction in the shadow education sector. For researchers, this study highlights the value of longitudinal and relational approaches to examining professional adaptation. Future studies should continue to move beyond static snapshots of disruption and instead trace the dynamic and negotiated processes through which professional identities evolve over time. This would allow for a richer understanding of how educational reforms are lived, interpreted, and reshaped on the ground.

Limitations and future studies

The research also has several limitations. While the longitudinal design offered insights into temporal shifts in teacher identity, the present findings from interview-based data could be further triangulated by having multiple data sources. That is, future research in this issue could benefit from incorporating multiple data sources, such as surveys, teachers’ reflective journals and/or, if possible, classroom observations so as to better understand the issues studied.

With regard to data collection, this study adopted a combination of semi-structured interviews and focus groups. While focus groups encouraged shared reflection and dialogic meaning-making, they may also have constrained participants’ willingness to disclose personal or dissenting views, especially within a politically sensitive and high-stakes policy context marked by employment precarity. Despite our efforts to foster a voluntary, supportive, and non-judgmental environment, some perspectives may have remained unexpressed due to perceived risks. Future studies should critically examine how group settings influence narrative construction and consider incorporating additional methods, such as anonymous surveys or individual reflective journals. We also recommend that researchers working in sensitive contexts invest in relationship-building and informal engagement prior to data collection to enhance trust and authenticity.

Furthermore, as with all qualitative research, this study acknowledges the potential for researcher bias in the interpretation of data. Despite employing strategies such as iterative coding, double coding and external auditing to maintain the quality of analysis, our positionalities may have shaped the construction of themes and meanings. Continued reflexivity remains essential in similar research endeavours. Finally, this study focused exclusively on the perspectives of shadow education teachers. To achieve a more holistic understanding of the policy’s impact, future research could include a broader range of stakeholders, such as parents, students, and policymakers, thereby enriching the analysis of how educational reforms are experienced and interpreted across the system.