Engineering Coaching Industry and Popular Media: Emerging Forms during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Delhi

Ruchi Sharma | pp. 23–49

Abstract :
This study explores the transformations within the engineering coaching industry in the Indian context during the COVID-19 pandemic, situating it with an ethnographic engagement of Variance Classes, a coaching institute based in West Delhi. The study follows the phenomenon of coaching as embedded within the framework of shadow education (Bray, 2006) and develops the concept of the “shadows” of shadow education to theorise the emerging forms of coaching that intensified during the pandemic. Drawing from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) and Apple’s critique of neoliberal education (2006, 2019), this paper foregrounds how educational practices are actively shaped by macro-level socioeconomic forces, yet at the same time, are closely intertwined with meso-level institutional dynamics and micro-level everyday interactions and aspirations. The data were drawn from field observations and semi-structured interviews conducted with students, teachers, and the coaching centre owner-cum-administrator at Variance Classes. With this, insightful information was gathered from popular media. The findings reveal several interrelated themes, namely, the everydayness of coaching institutes, reflecting market-driven strategies, pandemic-induced changes, and the influence of popular media that actively constructs and shapes the aspirations of aspirants and legitimises the coaching industry and its integration within one’s educational trajectory. These crucial findings reveal the dynamic yet adaptive nature of the coaching industry, i.e., shadow education in neoliberal India. This study contributes to the understanding of the preparatory phase—particularly for engineering education, neoliberalism, and popular media—by providing a grounded account of how Variance Classes negotiated its survival. The study also theorises the layered emergence of the new “shadows” of shadow education, having implications for policy reforms in higher education, especially in addressing equity, career counselling, and cultivating critical thinking in students.

Keywords: Engineering coaching industry, neoliberalism, shadows of shadow education, popular media, COVID-19, ethnography