Shadow education as a phenomenon has expanded globally during the past decades, attracting interest among educational researchers, policymakers and planners. The concept of "shadow education", made popular by Mark Bray, refers to fee-based education activities which are related to the school curricula but provided by private tutors outside ordinary school hours.

This paper presents preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on shadow education in Russia. Specifically, it seeks to throw into light the emergence of shadow education in Russia. This is done by illuminating policy strategies through which the incipient national education system positioned and legitimized itself in relation to a historically well-established tradition of private tutoring.

The study is theoretically framed by a Foucauldian perspective (historicizing of a present phenomenon, namely shadow education) as well as curriculum theory. By that, the paper elaborates on how private tutoring and public education have changed over time with regard to curriculum, positioning and legitimacy.

The paper has a theoretical contribution in that it seeks to historicize a particular phenomenon as well as how this can be discussed in relation to curriculum theory. While curriculum theory has been predominantly used for studying educational institutions governed by the state, it will in this paper be applied to educational processes taking place outside these institutions normally in focus. This raises questions on new ways of thinking about the curriculum concept and the relationship between policy and practice, as well as the public good and the private good in education.