Beyond the Hegemony of National Language-in-Education Policy: Creating Multilingual Environments Through Local Agency in a Marginalized School Context in Bangladesh

TY - CHAP

T1 - Beyond the Hegemony of National Language-in-Education Policy

T2 - Creating Multilingual Environments Through Local Agency in a Marginalized School Context in Bangladesh

AU - Ali, Maksud

AU - Hamid, M. Obaidul

PY - 2025/9/30

Y1 - 2025/9/30

N2 - Language-in-education policy in Bangladesh emphasizes learners’ proficiency development in Bangla and English for national identity and human capital development. These language priorities based on ideological and economic rationalities pay little attention to the multilingual reality of the country. This raises questions as to how the policy unfolds in schools where majority of the students speak neither Bangla nor English. In this paper, we focus on one such school to examine how the language-in-education policy for human capital development relates to the school and its language situation. Drawing on a larger qualitative study, we analyzed interview and classroom observation data, and the analysis was informed by Bourdieu’s theory of practice, policy enactment literature, and the concept of agency. The findings revealed that students’ learning outcomes were constrained by the language-in-education policy as it could hardly be related to the local language situation. In this condition, the school and the teachers reworked the policy by creating a multilingual environment that went beyond the hegemony of the national language-in-education policy. The study contributes to understanding the role of agency in enacting language-in-education policy in marginalized school contexts.

AB - Language-in-education policy in Bangladesh emphasizes learners’ proficiency development in Bangla and English for national identity and human capital development. These language priorities based on ideological and economic rationalities pay little attention to the multilingual reality of the country. This raises questions as to how the policy unfolds in schools where majority of the students speak neither Bangla nor English. In this paper, we focus on one such school to examine how the language-in-education policy for human capital development relates to the school and its language situation. Drawing on a larger qualitative study, we analyzed interview and classroom observation data, and the analysis was informed by Bourdieu’s theory of practice, policy enactment literature, and the concept of agency. The findings revealed that students’ learning outcomes were constrained by the language-in-education policy as it could hardly be related to the local language situation. In this condition, the school and the teachers reworked the policy by creating a multilingual environment that went beyond the hegemony of the national language-in-education policy. The study contributes to understanding the role of agency in enacting language-in-education policy in marginalized school contexts.

U2 - 10.4324/9781003513599-2

DO - 10.4324/9781003513599-2

M3 - Chapter

BT - Agency in Multilingual Education Policy and Planning in Asia

A2 - Manan, Syed Abdul

A2 - Hajar, Anas

PB - Routledge

CY - London

ER -