Market-Making Practices of Private Tutoring in Finland - Commercialization of Exam Preparation for Admission to Higher Education

Oct 15, 2026

This study examines university entrance-exam preparation courses in Finland, focusing on how a private tutoring field is constructed and commercialized. Using Çalikan and Callon’s five framings as a marketization heuristic, the analysis integrates course-provision data, thematic interviews, documents, and ethnographic notes. The findings argue that preparatory course markets operate within applicants’ exam-preparation privacy, driven by a parallel assemblage of interacting agents.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose

Design/Approach/Methods

Findings

Introduction

Private tutoring and shadow education

Finland’s competitive entrance examinations

Study aims and theoretical framework

Market-Making Practices of Private Tutoring in Finland: Commercialization of Exam Preparation for Admission to Higher Education Suvi Jokila University of Turku Nina Haltia University of Turku Sonja Kosunen University of Helsinki ECNU Review of Education 2021, Vol. 4(3) 590–614 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/2096531120956666](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120956666)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120956666)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: This study focuses on courses that prepare applicants for universities’ highly competitive entrance examinations in Finland. The analysis clarifies the market-making practices and the construction of this field. Design/Approach/Methods: To understand these processes, we use C¸alikan and Callon’s five framings for studying marketization as a heuristic framework. In our analysis, we combine different data sets, including data on course provision, thematic interviews, documents, and ethnographic notes. Findings: In this article, we argue that the preparatory course markets in Finland are an example of private tutoring which operates in the privacy of the university applicants’ exam preparation process, thus commercializing this process. The market making of this type of private tutoring is an assemblage of a variety of agents that interact in parallel with each other. Corresponding author: Suvi Jokila, Department of Education, University of Turku, Assistentinkatu 5, Turku 20014, Finland. Email: suvi.joki[la@utu.fi](la@utu.fi) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). Originality/Value: This study aims to contribute to the systemic understanding of the assemblage of private tutoring markets in an equality-focused Nordic country by providing new heuristic lenses from economic sociology through which to view private tutoring. Keywords Commercialization, entrance examination, Finland, market-making practice, private tutoring Date received: 17 December 2019; accepted: 5 August 2020 Introduction The development of private tutoring markets shadowing public schooling is a widely identified phenomenon (Bray, 2011; Stevenson & Baker, 1992) . Private tutoring, also known as shadow education, refers to “a set of educational activities that occur outside formal schooling and are designed to enhance the student’s formal school career”(Stevenson & Baker, 1992, p. 1639) . The evolvement of shadow education in comprehensive and secondary schooling is often attached to certain characteristics of the education system, such as its competitive examination system, cultural features, and an increased emphasis on individualization (e.g., Lee et al., 2010). A major body of research focuses on academic subject tutoring alongside comprehensive and secondary schooling through one-on-one or group tutoring, either in the form of contact teaching and/or an online course (Bray et al., 2015) . Aside from this mimicking of public schooling (Bray, 2013), other forms of private tutoring include preparing for a specific high-stakes exam using a separate body of content knowledge (Kosunen et al., 2015) . With this study, we aim to gain a systemic understanding of private tutoring markets. Previous studies have shown the parallel relations of public and private actors, identifying active measures from all actors that have shape

FAQs

What is the purpose of this study on private tutoring in Finland?

The study clarifies market-making practices and the construction of the field, focusing on courses that prepare applicants for highly competitive entrance examinations in Finland.

Which methods and framework does the study use to analyze marketization?

It uses Çalikan and Callon’s five framings as a heuristic and combines multiple data sets, including course provision data, thematic interviews, documents, and ethnographic notes.

How does the article characterize the commercialization of exam preparation courses?

It argues that preparatory course markets are an example of private tutoring operating within applicants’ exam-preparation privacy, thereby commercializing this process.

Oct 15, 2026

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