Governmental rationalities and misrecognising human and social conditions in English-in-education policy for individual and social development

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Abstract
Although contemporary language-in-education policy (LEP) in developing societies often represents English as a panacea for poverty and a key tool for empowering people from socioeconomic disadvantage, not much is known about how this development potential unfolds for disenfranchised people. Motivated by social justice, and drawing on a framework that construes development as an ideology and utilises social theories from Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, and Sara Ahmed, this article interrogates how English-in-education for individual and social development relates to students and parents in low socioeconomic status contexts. We focus on one school located in such a context in Bangladesh, and engage with the school principal, English teachers, parents, and students using interview and focus group discussion. Thematic analysis of the data reveals that while English-in-education policy creates neoliberal subjectivities among students and parents in relation to a transformative social imaginary and better economic futures, LEP misrecognises how the acquisition of the linguistic capital of English is conditioned by their human and social experiences of living. We highlight how education, including English learning, is grounded in parents’ and students’ everyday life experiences and struggles, and argue that by misrecognising these key dimensions, LEP hides the systems of marginalisation and uneven provisions for linguistic human capital development. The study offers new perspectives to critique development ideology in relation to LEP and contributes to language policy around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for inclusive and equitable provision for language education to ensure inclusive social development in developing societies.

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