'Shadow education' (since 2013)

'Coached habitus' of Indian International students (2023-24) 

• Gupta, A. (2024). Coached habitus: Mapping the role of shadow education in shaping students’ educational trajectories. British Educational Research Journal. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.4085. [Link] 

This project was funded by the University of Southampton.

Scoping review of India's shadow education literature (2023-24)

• Gupta, A. (2025). The Nature and Extent of Heterogeneity of India’s Shadow Education Industry: A Scoping Review. In: Schüpbach, M., Idel, TS., Gogolin, I. (eds) Extended Education. Edition ZfE, vol 18. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47630-4_8 [Link]

Policy enactment of the double burden reduction policy in China (2022-23)

• Gupta, A. & Zhao, X. (2023). Teachers’ work under responsibilising policies: An analysis of educators’ views on China’s 2021 educational reforms. Journal of Education Policy. DOI: 10.1080/02680939.2023.2236067. [Link] 

Schooling, parenting, teacher identity in India (2013-23)

• Gupta, A. (2023). Revisiting educational advantage and social class: A Bourdieusian analysis of middle-class parents’ investment in private schooling and shadow education. British Journal of Sociology of Education. DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2022.2126824. [Link]

• Gupta, A. (2023). The nature and scope of English private tutoring: an analysis of the shadowing process and middle-class identity in globalising India. In K. Yung & A. Hajar (Eds.) International Perspectives on English Private Tutoring: Theories, Practices and Policies, Hong Kong: Palgrave Macmillan. [Link]

• Gupta, A. (2022). Middle-class mothers’ participation in tutoring for spoken English: A case of unlocking middle-class identity and privilege in contemporary India. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2022.2131738. [Link]

• Gupta, A. (2022). A ‘Shadow education’ timescape: An empirical investigation of the temporal arrangement of private tutoring vis-à-vis formal schooling in India. British Journal of Educational Studies. DOI: 10.1080/00071005.2021.2024137. [Link]

• Gupta, A. (2022). Social legitimacy of private tutoring: an investigation of institutional and affective educational practices in India. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 43(4), 571-584. [Link]

• Gupta, A. (2021) Exposing the ‘shadow’: An empirical scrutiny of the ‘shadowing process’ of private tutoring in India, Educational Review. DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2021.1931038. [Link]

• Gupta, A. (2021). Teacher-entrepreneurialism: A case of teacher identity formation in neoliberalizing education space in contemporary India. Critical Studies in Education, 62(4), 422-438. [Link]

• Gupta, A. (2020). Heterogeneous middle-class and disparate educational advantage: parental investment in their children’s schooling in Dehradun, India, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41(1), 48-63. [Link]

This PhD research project was funded by the Lee Kong Chian Scholarship and the Promising Scholar funding from the National University of Singapore. 

'When AI (Artificial Intelligence) Meets AI (Academic Integrity): Educational Opportunities and Challenges in a Digital Age' in England (2023-24)

• Gupta, A. (2024). When generative artificial intelligence meets academic integrity: Educational opportunities and challenges in a digital age. British Educational Research Association. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/when-generative-artificial-intelligence-meets-academic-integrity [Part of series: Education in a digital age: BERA Small Grants Fund research reports]

This project was funded by the British Educational Research Association.

'Education policy enactments' of the 2019 Early Career Framework in England (2023-present)

• Gupta, A., & Newman, R. (2025). Re-Centring the School Context in Policy Enactments: An Empirical Investigation into Mentorship Programmes for Early Career Teachers. British Journal of Educational Studies, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2025.2544586 [Link]

This project was funded by the Society for Educational Studies. 

The impact work related to this research was supported by Southampton University's Impact Funds and the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

'Eurostudents' [constructing higher education students in European countries (England, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Poland and Spain)] (2019-2023)

• Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, A., Lainio, A. and Lazetic, P. (2022) Constructing the Higher Education Student: Perspectives from across Europe, Bristol, Policy Press. [Link]

• Gupta, A., Brooks, R. and Abrahams, J. (2023). Higher education students as consumers: A cross-country comparative analysis of students’ views in Europe. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2023.2234283. [Link]

• Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S., Abrahams, J., & Lažetić, P. (2021). Students as political actors? Similarities and differences across six European nations. British Educational Research Journal, 46(6), 1193-1209. [Link]

• Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S., Abrahams, J. (2021). Students’ views about the purpose of higher education: a comparative analysis of six European countries. Higher Education Research & Development, 40(7), 1375-1388. [Link]

• Brooks, R., Abrahams, J., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S. & Lažetić, P. (2021). Higher education timescapes: temporal understandings of students and learning. Sociology, 55(5), 995-1014. [Link]

• Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S. (2021) Higher education students’ aspirations for their post-university lives: evidence from six European nations, Children’s Geographies (Special Issue: ‘The Place of Aspirations’: Young People’s Socio-spatial (Im)mobilities). DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2021.1934403. [Link]

This project was funded by the European Research Council and led by Professor Rachel Brooks; Dr Achala Gupta was a Research fellow on the project and was responsible for the student strand [focus groups with 295 students across countries].