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While decolonisation is usually discussed in relation to countries that were formally colonised, countries that have not been formally colonised have also faced challenges related to colonialism. In this case, it is worth considering whether decolonial theory has more widespread applicability to respond to global challenges faced in the postcolonial era. This article documents the historical trajectories of colonisation and decolonisation of the school curriculum in Nepal. Although Nepal was never formally colonised, the introduction of modern schooling in Nepal was informed by the British colonisation of India, where local languages were replaced by English in the curriculum, diminishing the value of local languages and knowledges. Against this backdrop, the Nepal government issued a series of policies supporting Nepali supremacy, but the expansion of English was not significantly challenged. Rather, the policies resulted in a double colonisation of ethnic/Indigenous languages: external colonisation by English, and internal colonisation by the Nepali language. However, significant decolonisation efforts have recently made space for minoritised languages in the curriculum. This article illustrates these colonisation and decolonisation waves, shaped by the government, local communities and other actors. Drawing on Nepal's legislative and educational policies, the article relates language policy decisions and actions as decolonial efforts to support ethnic/Indigenous languages and explores the implications for understanding tensions around decolonisation of curriculum.

This paper explores the relationship between education policy and the trajectory of English fever in Korea. English fever refers to a fervent desire to become proficient in English at almost any cost. English fever started with governments' globalisation efforts in the 1980s and further intensified in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Drawing on policy enactment theory and analysing policy documents, this paper shows how English fever, once having taken root in Korean society, defied all policy measures to tackle it. The English language having a close relationship with social equity, these policies pursued an additional aim of increasing educational equity for students from low-income families. Their impact, however, proved minimal, partly due to educational stakeholders' resistance. In order to relieve pressure on students, presidents Pak Geun-hye and Mun Jae-in tried to decrease the strong emphasis on English in curricula during the last decade.

Language policy and planning in Nepal has been contested due to the co-existence of multiple contradictory discourses concerning teaching and learning of local, national, foreign, and international languages. Recently a multilingual policy was issued to create space for the once-banned ethnic/indigenous languages in public schooling, further complexifying the landscape. A few studies have paid attention to teaching and learning of the lesser taught ethnic/indigenous and foreign languages; however, what discursive orientations have contributed towards enabling (or constraining) the use of such languages in education and how have yet to receive scholarly attention. Framed by the perspectives of the intersectionality of discourses, and drawing on in-depth interviews with policymakers, headteachers, teachers, students, and their parents of five schools of Nepal, this paper concludes that the interplay between broader discourses such as globalisation, neoliberal marketisation and nationalism has played a significant role in shaping language policy decisions and localised practice of language(s). It also reveals that the spaces for ethnic/indigenous languages in education are delimited, in preference of English, Nepali, and other emerging foreign languages, leading to their further marginalisation. Such trends diminish the potential use of lesser taught languages, threatening Nepal's multilingual education policy towards sustaining existing linguistic diversity.

Purpose: The study systematically analyses the path dependency and path-shaping of borrowed education policy, tracing it from the global through the national to individual schools. It also revisits the case schools after five years to map the school level policy paths. Design/methodology/approach: Recently, path-dependency heuristics have drawn attention in predicting educational policy trajectories. However, these studies are primarily theoretical, and those empirical studies do not capture what happens at the school level. This paper fills the research gap by presenting a model that synthesises the research from diverse fields and is informed by findings from a longitudinal case study of educational outsourcing in public schools in Hong Kong and Korea. Findings: The findings highlight path dependency interactions across educational levels diachronically and synchronically, while aptly incorporating the creative ways school leaders exercise their agency therein. The paper concludes with new insights into policy trajectory and education outsourcing. Originality/value: The study substantiates and extends previously suggested theoretical models on the paths of travelling educational policies and identifies the factors that shape the paths. It also sheds light on how school leaders navigate the structures that constrain their actions or create a new path and pursue their educational goals.

The outsourcing of education services has been widely adopted across international contexts as a 'tested solution' or panacea to meet various educational problems including school management, curriculum design, teaching and student discipline. Contracting third-party providers, it is argued, enhances organisational goals such as efficiency, quality and school improvement. However, the outsourcing of education services has also impacted on established notions concerning the boundaries around teachers' work. This paper deploys the framework of discursive institutionalism to offer insight into how the idea of outsourcing has been activated and circulated by discursive communities in three diverse international settings. Despite its problem-solution logic, the institutionalisation of outsourcing creates its own problems, not least the undermining of teacher professionalism, the 'businessification' of schools and a diminishing of their educational mission.

The medium of instruction (MOI) has been a contested issue in multilingual polities globally, as English medium of instruction (EMI) has seen unprecedented growth, threatening the use and sometimes very survival of local/indigenous and even national languages. While the struggles to address related issues have been well researched, how and why local level policymakers enact the well-meant national policies in a way that marginalises indigenous languages and expands EMI has yet to receive due attention. The research is scarce especially when language policy and planning (LPP) is dealt with as part of overall educational governance. Drawing on in-depth interviews with senior policymakers in two similar constituencies in Nepal, and appropriating David Block's agency framework [(2012). Unpicking agency in sociolinguistic research with immigrants. In S. Gardner & M. Martin-Jones (Eds.), "Multilingualism, discourse, and ethnography" (pp. 47-60). Routledge.], the paper shows the elements of structure that enable or delimit the decision-making of different policymakers concerning the MOI. While professing multilingualism as their ideal language policy, the policymakers are designing policies that sideline indigenous languages. This unintended outcome results from dealing with diverse aspects of structure, i.e. history, physical and imagined spaces, culture, and discourses around languages. Though situated within Nepal, the discussion has wider implications for understanding agentive acts in this globalising world and for LPP as part of general educational policymaking.

While public consultation is a signature process of democratic policy formulation, many governments manoeuvre to refract citizen's opinions or conduct it perfunctorily. Using the case of a medium of instruction policy in Hong Kong, this article unveils the strategies that the state and citizens employ to put their opinion through to the final policy text, during a public consultation process. Recent literature has identified the mechanisms through which individual actors or organisations contribute to broad policy agenda-setting or policy programme development. However, yet to be investigated is how they – sometimes with conflicting interests – collectively negotiate a policy with the state via public consultations. This paper investigates this very phenomenon, building on previous work conducted in the public policy field, analysing 51 government-generated documents through both thematic content analysis and critical discourse analysis. The paper uncovers four strategies adopted by administrations (non-commitment, case closure, disengagement for irrelevance, and placation) to evade citizens' equity-oriented demands and stakeholders' three counter strategies (mobilising other stakeholders into a coalition, reopening the case pointing out a new problem, and appealing by affirming relevance). The state's discrete refusals and stakeholders' conjoint reengagement tactics draw our attention to the complexity and subtlety involved in negotiation via public consultations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores teachers' resistance against pedagogic reform in South Korea, which was instituted in the form of an in-service teacher certification. Ideas for the reform, Teaching English in English (TEE), were borrowed from "native-English-speaking countries" and implemented without systematic localization, therefore, it was not surprising that teachers resisted it, although hidden from the reform managers to avoid disciplinary action. The paper starts with a description of the educational context in South Korea, which has fashioned teachers' practices of resistance. The conceptualization of resistance follows, drawing on studies from varied disciplines, including Foucault's work on resistance "of conduct" (counter-conducts) and Scott's "invisible" resistance. Findings from a case study of the TEE certification are then discussed. Teachers were engaged in various forms of low-profile resistance, which culminated to impact on the fate of the certification. The paper highlights the potential impact of resistance on the course of a reform, which has often been disregarded as non-constituent or unimportant or even misunderstood as compliance by reform managers and researchers. Thus, it contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of teachers' resistance in the context of educational reforms, which has wider implications, as borrowed educational reforms are becoming all too frequent around the world.

In recent years, Asian countries including South Korea have been trying to redefine the role of English in response to globalisation. The impact of this on English language teaching and on Korean society more generally has been well documented; however, the impact of this change on individual teachers and their teaching calls for further attention. This article investigates the impact of an in-service teacher certification scheme which promotes English as the medium of instruction (MOI) for teaching English in the South Korean context, and examines the factors which shaped this impact. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders and insights from a larger case study of which these interviews form a part, this article provides important insights into the implementation and impact of language planning and policy (LPP). It examines the ways in which particular elements of the design of LPP, their implementation and the context interact to affect teachers and their adoption of English as the MOI. It also draws attention to unplanned impacts of LPP including significant shifts in teachers' identity. It concludes with wider implications for future LPP which aims to change the relative importance and roles of a foreign language.

This paper explores the relationship between education policy and the trajectory of English fever in Korea. English fever refers to a fervent desire to become proficient in English at almost any cost. English fever started with governments' globalisation efforts in the 1980s and further intensified in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Drawing on policy enactment theory and analysing policy documents, this paper shows how English fever, once having taken root in Korean society, defied all policy measures to tackle it. The English language having a close relationship with social equity, these policies pursued an additional aim of increasing educational equity for students from low-income families. Their impact, however, proved minimal, partly due to educational stakeholders' resistance. In order to relieve pressure on students, presidents Pak Geun-hye and Mun Jae-in tried to decrease the strong emphasis on English in curricula during the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language policy and planning in Nepal has been contested due to the co-existence of multiple contradictory discourses concerning teaching and learning of local, national, foreign, and international languages. Recently a multilingual policy was issued to create space for the once-banned ethnic/indigenous languages in public schooling, further complexifying the landscape. A few studies have paid attention to teaching and learning of the lesser taught ethnic/indigenous and foreign languages; however, what discursive orientations have contributed towards enabling (or constraining) the use of such languages in education and how have yet to receive scholarly attention. Framed by the perspectives of the intersectionality of discourses, and drawing on in-depth interviews with policymakers, headteachers, teachers, students, and their parents of five schools of Nepal, this paper concludes that the interplay between broader discourses such as globalisation, neoliberal marketisation and nationalism has played a significant role in shaping language policy decisions and localised practice of language(s). It also reveals that the spaces for ethnic/indigenous languages in education are delimited, in preference of English, Nepali, and other emerging foreign languages, leading to their further marginalisation. Such trends diminish the potential use of lesser taught languages, threatening Nepal's multilingual education policy towards sustaining existing linguistic diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]