Making a Beautiful Difference: How Teachers Support Students with Learning Challenges in Rural Nepal

Abstract

The growing demand for high-level English education in south Asia has created a network of private schools, promising better results and outcomes for students than local-language government schools. This in turn creates an expectation that all children should be able to access this type of schooling, and an environment where academic achievement is prioritized for a variety of complex reasons. Typically within these systems, students who did not succeed in school were pushed out early, or held back repeatedly over multiple years. However, with the global push to ensure access to education to all of the world’s children, children who struggle academically are spending more and more years in a classroom, despite their lack of perceived success. How do teachers support students who are struggling academically within a system which emphasizes academic achievement, and which measures success based on a strict series of exams? The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of teachers in supporting students who struggle academically in a small community in rural Nepal, and explore the process of creating a positive model of support for students at the study school. I interviewed teachers and explored ideas related to the supports and barriers they faced in supporting struggling students, the value of education to their community, and the changes they felt were needed to better support students with learning challenges. I took a qualitative case study approach based in narrative and ethnographic traditions, and collected data through individual interviews and group discussions with the participants, as well as through the analysis of field texts, including the use of reports, journals and photographs. I analyzed the data using thematic analysis and organized in relation to an initial, and then revised, conceptual framework that included a variety of influences impacting the teachers in their work. I used narrative and story throughout to contextualize and discuss the findings, and discuss implications for theory, practice and further research.