From hobbies to examination progression: a study of art-track candidates' motivations for participating in non-academic tutoring

Non-academic tutoring is an important channel through which families help their children accumulate cultural capital. Existing studies have mostly analysed parental motivations from a static perspective, and few have examined how students' motivations change across educational stages. Based on in-depth interviews with 22 art-track candidates, this article finds that their motivations for participating in arts tutoring show a marked shift from value rationality to instrumental rationality. In primary school and before, the intrinsic motivation of personal interest dominated their participation in interest classes. At the two key educational transitions of the high school entrance examination (zhongkao) and the college entrance examination (gaokao), they chose to study art majors out of the extrinsic motivation of examination progression. In this process, the form of tutoring they attended shifted from arts interest classes to professional intensive training classes, and the learning content was replaced by examination subjects for art majors.