Power Dynamics of Medium-of-Instruction Policy Practices in Nepalese Schools

Authors

  • Hari Maya Sharma

    Department of English Education, University Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 44613, Nepal
  • Bal Mukunda Bhandari

    Department of English Education, University Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 44613, Nepal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i5.9111
Received: 16 March 2025 | Revised: 2 May 2025 | Accepted: 4 May 2025 | Published Online: 11 May 2025

Abstract

Nepal’s medium of instruction (MOI) policy offers at least four possibilities for schools, i.e., Nepali, English, Nepali-English or local language that best fits their contexts. Among them, Akalaa School, a community school located in Tanahun district of Gandaki Province, Nepal, strategically used dual medium (i.e., English and Nepali) education in the same school premises and grades, aiming to enhance equal and equitable quality education to students from both   Nepali and English medium education backgrounds. Although the school had good intentions to use dual language medium education, it was still unclear whether equality and equity in education prevail in reality. Therefore, the study aimed to analyse how the practice of dual medium education policy has guaranteed equality and equity among students and teachers. However, critical ethnographic research conducted in Akalaa School revealed incongruities between the intent and the consequences of the policy practices, causing various positioning and tensions among students and teachers. From the time of admission in respective medium, students felt divided as the school administration, knowingly or unknowingly, categorized them as “English medium and Nepali medium”, “English proficient and English non-proficient” and later as “villager and urbane,” “better and poorer,” and “success and failure”, leading to imbalanced positioning and ordering.  Parallel to this, it enforced tensions among teachers, creating hierarchies due to their English proficiency, resulting risks for their job continuation.

Keywords:

Dual Language MOI; Community School; Nepali-English Medium Education; Policy Appropriation; Power Dynamics and Tensions

References

[1] Sharma, H.M., 2018. National level policy and local level practices: A multilayered analysis of language policy practices in Nepalese school education. Globe: A Journal of Language, Culture and Communication. 6, 134–149.

[2] Sharma, H.M., 2020. Language planning and policy in Nepalese school education: Studying through power, agency, and positioning [Unpublished PhD thesis]. Tribhuvan University: Kathmandu, Nepal.

[3] Maclure, M., 2006. A demented form of the familiar: Postmodernism and educational research. Journal of Philosophy of Education. 40(2), 223–239.

[4] Madsen, U.A., 2012. Danishness and the Construction of the Other: A Postmodern School-Ethnography of Dispair, Distrust and Desire. In: Werler, T. (ed.). Heterogeneity : General Didactics Meets the Stranger. Waxmann Verlag: Münster, Germany. pp. 35–55.

[5] Levinson, B.A.U., Sutton, M., Winstead, T., 2009. Education policy as a practice of power: Theoretical tools, ethnographic methods, democratic options. Educational Policy. 23(6), 767–795. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904808320676

[6] Ricento, T., Hornberger, N.H., 1996. Unpeeling the onion: Language planning and policy and the ELT professional. TESOL Quarterly. 30(3), 401–428.

[7] Hornberger, N.H., Johnson, D.C., 2007. Slicing the LPP onion ethnographically: Layers and spaces in multilingual language education policy and practice. TESOL Quarterly. 41(3), 509–532.

[8] Canagarajah, S., 2006. Ethnographic methods in language policy. In: Ricento, T. (ed.). An introduction to language policy: Theory and method. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA, USA. pp. 153–169.

[9] Johnson, E.J., 2012. Arbitrating repression: Language policy and education in Arizona. Language and Education. 26(1), 53–76.

[10] Menken, K., García, O. (eds.), 2010. Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers. Routledge: New York, NY, USA.

[11] Mohanty, A., Panda, M., Pal, R., 2010. Language policy in education and classroom practices in India: Is the teacher a cog in the policy wheel? In: Menken, K., García, O. (eds.). Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers. Routledge: New York, NY, USA. pp. 225–245.

[12] Hornberger, N.H., 2006. Discursive approaches to understanding teacher collaboration: Policy into practice. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 9(4), 495–499. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2167/beb338.0

[13] Sah, P.K., Li, G., 2022. Translanguaging or unequal languaging? Unfolding the plurilingual discourse of English medium instruction policy in Nepal's public schools. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 25(6), 2075–2094. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1849011

[14] Phyak, P., Bui, T.T.N., 2014. Youth engaging language policy and planning: Ideologies and transformations from within. Language Policy. 13(1), 101–119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-013-9303-x

[15] Poudel, P.P., Jackson, L., Choi, T.H., 2022. Decolonisation of curriculum: The case of language education policy in Nepal. London Review of Education. 20(1), 13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.20.1.13

[16] Phyak, P., De Costa, P.I., 2021. Decolonial struggles in Indigenous language education in neoliberal times: Identities, ideologies, and activism. Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 20(5), 291–295. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.1957683

[17] Sharma, B.K., Phyak, P., 2017. Neoliberalism, linguistic commodification, and ethnolinguistic identity in multilingual Nepal. Language in Society. 46(2), 231–256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404517000045

[18] Sah, P.K., 2021. Reproduction of nationalist and neoliberal ideologies in Nepal's language and literacy policies. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 41(2), 238–252.

[19] Sah, P.K., 2022. English medium instruction in South Asia's multilingual schools: Unpacking the dynamics of ideological orientations, policy/practices, and democratic questions. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 25(2), 742–755. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1718591

[20] Gautam, B.L., 2021. Language politics in Nepal: A socio-historical overview. Journal of World Languages. 7(2), 355–374. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl.2021-0010

[21] Gautam, B.L., Poudel, P.P., 2022. Diversity, multilingualism, and democratic practices in Nepal. Bandung. 9(1–2), 80–102.

[22] Singh, N.K., Zhang, S., Besmel, P., 2012. Globalization and language policies of multilingual societies: Some case studies of South East Asia. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada. 12(2), 349–380.

[23] Taylor, S., 2010. Beyond bilingual education: Multilingual language education in Nepal. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal. 4(1), 138–154.

[24] Tin, T.B., 2014. A look into the local pedagogy of an English language classroom in Nepal. Language Teaching Research. 18(3), 397–417. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168813510387

[25] Toba, S., Toba, I., Rai, N. K., 2005. Diversity and endangerment of languages in Nepal. UNESCO Kathmandu Series of Monographs and Working Papers. No. id: 2520. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: Kathmandu, Nepal. Available from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000139952 (cited 20 May 2024).

[26] Freire, P., 2000. Pedagogy of the oppressed. In: Beck, J., Jenks, C., Keddie, N., et al. (eds.). Toward a Sociology of Education. Routledge: New York, NY, USA. pp. 374–386.

[27] Baral, L.N., 2015. Expansion and growth of English as a language of instruction in Nepal's school education: Towards pre-conflict reproduction or post-conflict transformation [Master's thesis]. The Arctic University of Norway: Tromsø, Norway.

[28] Khati, A.R., 2016. English as a medium of instruction: My experience from a Nepali hinterland. Journal of NELTA. 21(1–2), 24–30.

[29] Phyak, P., Ojha, L.P., 2019. Language education policy and inequalities of multilingualism in Nepal: Ideologies, histories, and updates. In: Kirkpatrick, A., Liddicoat, A.J. (eds.). The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia. Routledge: New York, NY, USA. pp. 341–354.

[30] Sah, P.K., Karki, J., 2020. Elite appropriation of English as a medium of instruction policy and epistemic inequalities in Himalayan schools. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 44(1), 20–34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1789154

[31] Sultana, S., 2020. English-medium instruction in Bangladesh: Teachers' agency and identity. Current Issues in Language Planning. 21(5), 512–531.

[32] Poudel, P.P., 2019. The medium of instruction policy in Nepal: Towards critical engagement on the ideological and pedagogical debate. Journal of Language and Education. 5(3), 102–110. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2019.8995

[33] Davis, K.A., Phyak, P., 2015. In the face of neoliberal adversity: Engaging language education policy and practices. L2 Journal: An Open Access Refereed Journal for World Language Educators. 7(3), 146–166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5070/L27323494

[34] Phyak, P., 2016. 'For our cho:tlung': Decolonizing language ideologies and (re)imagining multicultural education policies and practices in Nepal [PhD thesis]. University of Hawai'i at Mānoa: Honolulu, HI, USA.

[35] Phyak, P., 2021. Epistemicide, deficit language ideology, and (de)coloniality in language education policy. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2021(267–268), 219–233.

[36] UNICEF, 2024. Understanding the impact of language policies on children's learning outcomes in Nepal. UNICEF Nepal Report. Available from: https://tinyurl.com/eyh2nzj3 (cited 20 January 2025).

[37] Said, E., 1978. Orientalism. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, UK.

[38] Kymlicka, W., 1995. Multicultural citizenship. Clarendon Press: Oxford, UK.

[39] Scott, D., 2003. Culture in political theory. Political Theory. 31(1), 92–115.

[40] Saxena, M., 2009. Construction & deconstruction of linguistic otherness: Conflict and cooperative code-switching in (English) bilingual classrooms. English Teaching: Practice and Critique. 8(2), 167–187.

[41] Hornberger, N.H., 1988. Bilingual education and language maintenance. Foris Publications: Dordrecht, Netherlands.

[42] Seel, A., Yadava, Y.P., Kadel, S., 2017. Medium of instruction and languages for education (MILE): Ways forward for education policy, planning and practice in Nepal. Transcend Vision Nepal: Kathmandu, Nepal.

[43] Amit, V., 2000. Constructing the field: Ethnographic fieldwork in the contemporary world. Routledge: New York, NY, USA.

[44] Bernard, H.R., 1994. Participant observation. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. AltaMira Press: Walnut Creek, CA, USA. pp. 342–386.

[45] Emerson, R.M., Fretz, R.I., Shaw, L.L., 1995. Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, USA.

[46] Brewer, J., 2000. What is ethnography? Ethnography as methods and methodology. In: Brewer, J. (ed.). Ethnography. Open University Press: Buckingham, UK. pp. 11–55.

[47] Valentin, K., 2011. Modernity, education and its alternatives: Schooling among the urban poor in Kathmandu. Globalisation, Societies and Education. 9(1), 99–113.

[48] Pigg, S.L., 1992. Inventing social categories through place: Social representations and development in Nepal. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 34(3), 491–513.

[49] Bourdieu, P., 1991. Language and symbolic power. Polity: Cambridge, UK.

[50] Phillipson, R., 1992. Linguistic imperialism. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

[51] Cummins, J., 2000. Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Multilingual Matters: Clevedon, UK.

[52] Bourdieu, P., 1986. The forms of capital. In: Richardson, J. (ed.). Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, USA. pp. 241–258.

[53] Shohamy, E., 2006. Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. Routledge: New York, NY, USA.

Downloads

How to Cite

Sharma, H. M., & Bal Mukunda Bhandari. (2025). Power Dynamics of Medium-of-Instruction Policy Practices in Nepalese Schools. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(5), 873–890. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i5.9111

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 5 (May 2025)

Article Type

Article

License

Copyright © 2025 Hari Maya Sharma, Bal Mukunda Bhandar

Creative Commons License

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.