Authenticity, Agency & Local Ecology in Nepal's English Curricula & Materials: Practitioners' Voices

The interview explores English language teachers’ perceptions and practices of ELT curricula, materials and pedagogy in private and public schools including commentary from teacher educator and researcher. It leaves us wondering about many genuine facets left unaddressed in curriculum and materials development in our context. The conversation highlights significant issues regarding the curriculum development process, specifically the exclusion of teachers from this process. It captures practitioners' concerns about using a single textbook across all schools in the country. The thought provoking conversation also opens up possibilities of doing things in a better way.
The audience of the interview are policy makers, curriculum planners, pre/in service English language teachers, and researchers.
Facilitated by Binod Duwadi, speakers are Anju Chimariya, Ram Krishan Puri, Umesh Saud and Jeevan Karki.
**Questions/areas covered in the interview**
~ How often do educators refer to curricula when planning or teaching English language courses?
~ What do the practitioners think of the provision of sending the same sets of textbooks from the center to all schools in 753 local levels?
~ Are textbooks desirable, compulsory, or neither to educators?
~ What about the relevance of the prescribed texts/knowledge in the centralized textbooks?
~ Our curriculum is based on communicative language teaching and a functional approach to language. How often do educators find themselves applying these principles? What other approaches, methods, and strategies do they use in their context?
~ What are the takeaways for curriculum planners, educators , and universities to envision decentralized curricula and materials?
Feel free to share and use this conversation to advance the discourse in curricula, materials pedagogy. Also drop your thoughts, comments and questions below.
Thank you!