English Language Teachers’ Experience of Teaching in Community School: A Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

This study explored English teachers’ experiences of teaching English in the community school. English is taught along with other subjects as a discipline. Creating an English environment is still a challenge in sub-urban areas like in Manadandeupur. The challenges include cultural barriers, policy and procedure, unsupportive role of local government and lack of resources. Despite these challenges, the community school teachers still teach English in these situations. Additional assistance to create an environment was not possible as the city is located in a sub-urban area, making the world environment not preferable to English learning and teaching. This resulted in low English proficiency among students. Additionally, this hindered understanding of the course material and student's incompetent competition in job employment and in other works Against this backdrop, the objective of this research is to explore community schools’ English language teachers’ experiences. This study addressed the following research questions: How do English language teachers in Mandandeupur experience teaching in community school? This study employed narrative inquiry with Riessman’s thematic narrative inquiry approach. Riessman suggested four types of narrative inquiry. This research followed the thematic inquiry which emphasized on analysis and content and meaning with teachers’ story rather than structure. The participating teachers expressed their experience in two categories: their motivation and challenges. Teachers showed strong enthusiasm, passion and sense of purpose and professional identity. However, the teachers face cultural barriers to implement an English environment, need for professional development and realization of insufficient support of local authorities. The participating teachers also stated a lack of essential resources to teach English in the classroom. The most prominent finding indicated that the multicultural society, especially the Tamang majority, has issues in English learning.