ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the principles, methods, and procedures of doing engaged ethnographic research to examine contested language ideologies in EMI policies. We adopt ethnographically grounded dialogue as a principal method of data collection from multiple stakeholders, particularly teachers, in Nepal. Informed by the principles of ethnography, we collect data by engaging stakeholders in critical dialogue on EMI policies and practices. Our dialogic method includes multiple techniques such as observation, informal interactions, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to gather locally situated understandings about EMI policies in Nepal’s public schools. We will discuss how each of us collected data from three different rural sites, representing different linguistic and cultural contexts. We will use both thematic and anecdotal approaches to analyze and interpret dialogic data. Our analytical perspectives are informed by the theory of language ideology. Although the principal data we report are presented in the form of dialogue, we provide in-depth ethnographic contexts to situate the dialogues in local contexts. In the chapter, we argue that engaged ethnographic research is an appropriate design to understand multiple and contested language ideologies and provide multiple stakeholders a dialogic space for building awareness of the ideological issues of EMI policies.
