National level policy and local level practices: a multilayered analysis of language policy practices in Nepalese school education

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze local practices of the National Level Language Policy in School Education (hereafter, LPSE) in Nepal. Offering examples of three schools from Tanahun District representing two broad categories of Nepalese schools, i.e. private and public, I discuss the following: How is LPSE practiced in each school? How do national policy and local practices interact during policy processes? On the basis of ethnographic study in three schools, I found that the national level LPSE is interpreted and appropriated differently in multiple layers of policy practices in each context, but not beyond the outmost-boundary   proffered by the national level policy structure in Nepal.