Teacher agency in early bi/multilingual education: An insight from the government primary schools of Balochistan
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
12-1-2021 10:15 AM
End Date
12-1-2021 10:35 AM
Abstract
Balochistan is the province known for its language and cultural diversity. In the early phase, young children acquire their first language (Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi, and, Persian). Moreover, in their school phase, they are bound to learn Urdu (National language of Pakistan) and English (Official language of Pakistan) languages. Additionally, the family language of the majority of the children differs from the teaching and learning practices of educational institutes. The un/less educated parents (that do not speak socially dominating language) often hesitate while communicating with school while monitoring the language progress of their children. In this research project, the researcher focused on the important role that the agency plays in students’ basic language learning need in the government primary schools of Balochistan (Pakistan). Besides, teacher agency in a bilingual/multilingual context, at the best information of the researcher, is not previously explored in the context of Pakistan in general and Balochistan in particular. In this research study, the research will identify, how teachers experience agency while implementing language policy in government primary school of Balochistan. This study falls under interpretative research. Creswell (2009) explained interpretive research as ‘not much has been written about the topic or the population being studied, and the researcher seeks to listen to participants and build an understanding based on what is heard’ (p. 26). This research technique would assist the researcher to investigate primary school teacher agency while teaching English to students from multi-lingual/cultural backgrounds. Based on the major findings the researcher concluded that teachers need to own the responsibility for their learning. Lastly, this paper highlighted the role of the school administration and Education department can play to improve teacher agency so that the teachers continue to improve their teaching methodologies and accelerate students learning practices.
Keywords
Language Policy, Teacher agency, Balochistan, English language
Teacher agency in early bi/multilingual education: An insight from the government primary schools of Balochistan
Balochistan is the province known for its language and cultural diversity. In the early phase, young children acquire their first language (Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi, and, Persian). Moreover, in their school phase, they are bound to learn Urdu (National language of Pakistan) and English (Official language of Pakistan) languages. Additionally, the family language of the majority of the children differs from the teaching and learning practices of educational institutes. The un/less educated parents (that do not speak socially dominating language) often hesitate while communicating with school while monitoring the language progress of their children. In this research project, the researcher focused on the important role that the agency plays in students’ basic language learning need in the government primary schools of Balochistan (Pakistan). Besides, teacher agency in a bilingual/multilingual context, at the best information of the researcher, is not previously explored in the context of Pakistan in general and Balochistan in particular. In this research study, the research will identify, how teachers experience agency while implementing language policy in government primary school of Balochistan. This study falls under interpretative research. Creswell (2009) explained interpretive research as ‘not much has been written about the topic or the population being studied, and the researcher seeks to listen to participants and build an understanding based on what is heard’ (p. 26). This research technique would assist the researcher to investigate primary school teacher agency while teaching English to students from multi-lingual/cultural backgrounds. Based on the major findings the researcher concluded that teachers need to own the responsibility for their learning. Lastly, this paper highlighted the role of the school administration and Education department can play to improve teacher agency so that the teachers continue to improve their teaching methodologies and accelerate students learning practices.