Language Maintenance in Multilingual Education in the Context of Karnali Province of Nepal: Teacher Agency Perspectives

Abstract

While a significant number of ethnic and minority languages have gradually lost their status in education and public spaces, teachers as primary actors in the education system can contribute to the reinstatement of such languages in education system. Drawing on the data gathered from a general qualitative research design, the study examines the role of teacher’s agency to compensate for the local and institutional policy absence in local language maintenance. In this case study, in-depth interviews were taken with two purposively selected teachers teaching in two different schools of Surkhet District, Karnali Province, Nepal. The teachers were teaching in diverse linguistic contexts in the classroom at the basic level. The study found that the teachers intentionally developed their agency to enact the national multilingual education policies in the classroom despite their school’s unofficial policies of educating in the dominant official languages such as Nepali and English. It also found that teachers’ multilingual repertoire and determination to support multilingual learners increased their agentic actions in the classroom and beyond. Their informed actions contributed to the maintenance of the local languages in education practices. It implies that enhancing teacher agency as a bottom-up force for language maintenance would contribute to the realization of Nepal’s goal of multilingual education.