Dissecting the dominant framings of multilingualism in education in Pakistan: A southern perspective

Abstract In the present study, we combine southern multilingualisms and linguistic governmentality frameworks to analyze the dominant framings of multilingualism in Pakistan and the subject positions they entail. Using critical policy studies and narrative analysis, we draw upon official policy documents (n = 6) and university students’ narratives (n = 2). Our analysis suggests that the dominant framings of multilingualism in Pakistan are informed by (post)colonial and neoliberal ideologies centered on bounded notions of language and commodification of linguistic competencies. They are characterized by hierarchization of named languages and their functions in relation to their political and economic value, otherization of indigenous languages, and compartmentalization of students’ linguistic competencies into economically privileged languages. These framings entailed subject positions that gradually erased their (students’) multilingual identities and instead morphed them into plurimonolingual subjects of/for the state and the market. We also discuss implications for scholars, teachers, and policy makers in this study. (Multilingualism, southern theory, governmentality, neoliberalism, language education, language policy)