Is there a difference or is it the same?.

Indeed there is a difference (besides just using more oil). We are just working on a lesson about shallow frying so stay tuned and we will walk you through the whole thing.

Thanks Dawn!...really looking forward to it.

Traditionally teachings point that shallow frying is a type of pan frying, do they not?

A good question. At first blush, I agree with Matthew. I think this may depend on whether you subscribe to current "healthy-speak" or not. For instance, many cooking show hosts, cookbooks, and the like say "sautéing," when they really mean frying. Sautéing is perceived to be healthier than frying, so this is the term they use, whether it is accurate or not.

On the other hand, shallow frying might seem to imply something done in shallow oil, such as "southern-fried" chicken, and pan frying might seem to imply something done in minimal oil, like pan frying a steak.

As both are done in a pan, and both utilize frying as a the method of cooking, both are "pan frying." Le Cordon Bleu mentions shallow frying in regard to eggs, but this is a basting method. And, I don't have a lot of faith in them anyway, as they also call grilling "barbecuing," and, as anyone who knows their stuff in this regard knows, grilling is to barbecuing as frying is to roasting.

This differentiation is certainly handy, I'm just not sure it technically exists, at least in official culinary terms.

I mostly put it forward to get people thinking... At the CIA, shallow frying is most certainly taught as a method of pan frying, because... by all definition it is.

The application has both subtle and vast differences, but that is neither here nor there.

As you said, a differentiation is handy for understanding, but in culinary terms... it is indeed a pan fry.