FHM Researchers - Dr SAH Pramod Kumar

Assistant Professor
Department of English Language Education (ELE)

Research Area(s):

• Language Education

Hello, my name is Pramod K. Sah. I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language Education. I am also a Norhan Honorary Fellow at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. I am interested in supervising RPg students whose research projects focus on one of the following areas:

• English-medium instruction in school or higher education
• Bi/multilingual education
• Language policy and planning
• Race/ethnicity, language, and identity
• Multilingual and multimodal literacies
• Language ideologies
• Language teacher education 

I invite prospective students to get in touch and discuss the possibility of exploring any of the above research areas. I have experience (co-)supervising RPg students internationally, including at the University of Oxford. 

You can explore more about me at https://pramodsah.com  

Selected Publications:

Books:

1. Fang, F., & Sah, P. K. (Eds.) (2024). Pedagogies of English-medium instruction programs in Asian universities. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003173137
2. Sah, P. K., & Fang, F. (Eds.). (2023). Policies, politics, and ideologies of English-medium instruction in Asian universities: Unsettling critical edges. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003173120

Journal Articles:

1. Sah, P. K. (forthcoming) The politics of distraction in English-medium instruction: Deconstructing colonial ideologies in Nepal’s medium of instruction policy. Current Issues in Language Planning.
2. Sah, P. K. (accepted) Teachers’ beliefs and reproduction of language ideologies in English-medium instruction programs in Nepal. International Journal of Bilingualism
3. Zaidi, R., & Sah, P. K. (accepted). Multilingual and multimodal literacy interventions to explore youth’s intersectional identities and racialized experiences: A scoping review. SAGE Open.
4. Sah, P. K. (2023). Emotions as entanglements: Unpacking teachers’ emotion management and policy negotiation in English-medium instruction programmes. The Language Learning Journal, 51(5), 607–620. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2023.2243954.
5. Sah, P. K. (2023). Emotion and imagination in English-medium instruction programs: Illuminating its dark side through Nepali students’ narratives. Linguistics and Education, 75, Article 101150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2023.101150
6. Kubota, R., Corella, M., Lim, K., Sah, P. K. (2023). “Your English is so good”: Linguistic experiences of racialized students and instructors of a Canadian university. Ethnicities, 23(5), 758–778. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968211055808
7. Mendoza, A., Hamman-Ortiz, L., Rajendram, S., Tian, Z., Tai, K., Ho, J., & Sah, P. K. (2023). Sustaining critical approaches to translanguaging in education: A Contextual Framework. TESOL Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3240
8. Sah, P. K., & Karki, J. (2023). Elite appropriation of English as a medium of instruction policy and epistemic inequalities in Himalayan schools. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 44(1), 20-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1789154
9. Sah, P. K. & Uysal, H. (2022). Unbiased but ideologically unclear: Teacher beliefs about language practices of emergent bilingual students in the U.S. Linguistics and Education, 72, Article 101126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2022.101126
10. Sah, P. K., & Kubota, R. (2022). Towards critical translanguaging:  A review of literature on English as a medium of instruction in South Asia’s school education. Asian Englishes, 24(2), 132-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2022.2056796
11. Sah, P. K. (2022). Teacher preparation for primary English education in Nepal: Missing agenda of diversity and inclusion. English Teaching & Learning, 46(2), 373 – 393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-021-00100-7 
12. Phyak, P., Sah, P. K., Ghimire, N. B., Lama, A. (2022). Teacher agency in creating a translingual space in Nepal’s multilingual schools. RELC Journal, 53(2), 431-451. https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882221113950
13. Phyak, P., & Sah, P. K. (2022). Epistemic injustice and neoliberal imaginations in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy. Applied Linguistics Review.  https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0070
14. Sah, P. K., & Li, G. (2022). Translanguaging or unequal languaging? Unfolding the plurilingual discourse of English medium instruction policy in Nepal’s public schools. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(6), 2075-2094. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1849011
15. Sah, P. K. (2022). English medium instruction in South Asia’s multilingual schools: Unpacking the dynamics of ideological orientations, policy/practices, and democratic questions. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 25(2), 742-755. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1718591
16. Sah, P. K. (2021). Reproduction of nationalist and neoliberal ideologies in Nepal’s language and literacy policies. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 41(2), 238-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2020.1751063.
17. Sah, P. K., & Li, G. (2018). English medium instruction (EMI) as linguistic capital in Nepal: Promises and realities. International Multilingual Research Journal, 12(2), 109-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2017.1401448

Book Chapters: 

1. Sah, P. K. (accepted, 2024). Language, schooling, and inequalities for ethnic minority children: An ethnography of medium of instruction policy in Nepal’s public school. In R. A. Giri, A. Padwar and M. M. N. Kabir (eds.), Equity, social justice, and English medium of instruction: Case studies from Asia. Springer.
2. Sah, P. K., and Li, G. (in press, 2024). School as the agency of social reproduction: A case of medium of instruction policymaking for quasi-privatization in Nepali. In Downes, P., Li, G., Praag, L. V., & Lamb, S. (eds.), Routledge handbook on promoting equity in education through inclusive systems and societies. Routledge.
3. Rana, K., *Sah, P. K. (2023). Policy development for English medium instruction at a Nepali University: Unpacking hidden motivations and agendas. In P. K. Sah & F. Fang (eds.), Policies, politics, and ideologies of English-medium instruction in Asian universities: Unsettling critical edges (pp. 48-62). Routledge. 
4. Sah, P. K. (2022). English medium instruction as neoliberalism endowment in Nepal’s higher education: Policy-shaping practices. In J. McKinley & N. Galloway (eds.), English-medium instruction practices in higher education: International perspectives (pp. 71-83). Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350167889.ch-006 
5. Sah, P. K. (2022). English as a medium of instruction, social stratification, and symbolic violence in Nepali schools: Untold stories of Madhesi children. In L. Adinolfi, U. Bhattacharya, & P. Phyak (eds.), Multilingual education in South Asia: At the intersection between policy and practice (pp. 50-68). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003158660-4
6. Sah, P. K., & Phyak, P. (2021). Critical literacies in South Asia. In J. Z. Pandya, R. A. Mora, J. H. Alford, N. A. Golden, & R. S. de Roock (eds.), The handbook of critical literacies (pp. 289-296). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003023425-33
7. Li, G., & Sah, P. K. (2020). Critical pedagogy for preservice teacher education in the US: An agenda for a plurilingual reality of superdiversity. In S. Steinberg, & B. Down (eds.), The Sage handbook of critical pedagogies (pp. 884-898). Sage Publications. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526486455.n821.

Selected Awards:

Research Grants:   

1. 2023 – 2024 Elevating Research Grant (University of Calgary), $10,000. Project title, “Antiracist Literacy Engagement: Examining ESL Students’ Entangled Experiences in Canadian Schools.” [Co-Investigator; awarded with Rahat Zaidi as Principal Investigator]
2. 2022 – 2023 Funded by the British Council, London, £100,000 GBP. Project title, “English-Medium Education in Low- and Middle-Income Contexts: Enabler or Barrier to Gender Equality?” [Co-Principal Investigator, awarded with Kristina Hultgren as Principal Investigator]
3. 2018 – 2022 Awarded by the Killam Trust, Canada, to conduct a doctoral study, $60,000. Project title, “The Political Economy of English-Medium Instruction: Unsettling Language Ideologies, Class, and Ethnicity in Language Planning and Policy in Nepal.” [Doctoral Researcher]

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