Professor Phyak reading an Indigenous Yakthung text during an oral history session with an elder, Gyanodaya Lawoti (83).
Professor Prem Phyak spent the summer of 2026 in Nepal, conducting a wide range of activities, from carrying out an oral history project with Indigenous elders to running municipal workshops with public school teachers.
Oral History Project
Professor Phyak traveled to rural villages in Nepal to collect oral histories of community elders for his research on Indigenous language reclamation and education. He met with six Indigenous Yakthung elders from different districts and collected their oral histories to analyze the trajectories and power of community struggles and activism for Yakthung language education. This oral history project explores the elders’ unwritten and unspoken yet transformative work in promoting Yakthung language and literacy against the state ban.
During the oral history sessions, Professor Phyak read, with the elders, their handwritten books, letters, poems, songs, and magazines from 1960 to 1990, and listened to their stories of motivation, collective struggle, community activism, and state surveillance against their efforts. This project examines how grassroots movements can create ideological and implementational spaces for Indigenous languages in education. It aims to expand current theoretical and methodological approaches to mother tongue and Indigenous language education by investigating the role of community elders through oral history as a decolonial method.
Elders are regarded as knowledge holders in Indigenous communities; they are revered as sources of linguistic, cultural, historical, and political knowledge. Their stories not only educate younger generations about the history and struggles of Indigenous language reclamation but also offer critical insights for developing, revising, and transforming unequal language policies in education.
Workshops with School Teachers
He co-facilitated, with Professor Peshal Khanal of Tribhuvan University, Nepal, a two-day workshop on actor-based policymaking for school transformation for the head teachers and teachers of public schools in Nepal. Organized by Dudhauli Municipality, this workshop engaged teachers in action-oriented policies and plans to address systemic and pedagogical barriers and create an inclusive, collaborative school environment. The goal was to ensure meaningful participation of students and parents from diverse ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Working with 38 head teachers, teachers, and municipality staff, the workshop focused on community-school collaboration, teacher-teacher collaboration, participatory action research, and collaborative planning for improving public schools in the municipality.
He also organized and facilitated a one-day workshop on translanguaging, land/place, and social justice-centered teacher education for in-service teachers. Building on a four-month mentoring scheme with Professor Phyak, the teachers prepared professional development plans to support other teachers to implement translanguaging, land/place, and social justice-centered pedagogies in schools. The mentoring project aims to support public school teachers in creating inclusive, equitable, and participatory school and classroom environments through transformative pedagogies.
I enjoyed listening to teachers’ stories of teaching students from marginalized, low-income, rural, and minoritized language communities in under-resourced contexts. I was impressed by their persistent efforts to support their students and contribute to school transformation.
Professor Prem Phyak
Research and National Engagement
With Suravi Bantawa (a TC graduate), Professor Phyak conducted research on the experiences of early childhood development (ECD) teachers in Nepal’s public schools. The study focuses on teacher preparedness, support, motivation, and strategies to teach young learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in ECD education. It analyzes classroom observation and interview data to explore the current status, challenges, and teachers’ roles in ECD education in Nepal.
In addition, Professor Phyak delivered a keynote speech at the national conference on Yakthung Language Education, Culture and Knowledge. This first-ever conference on Indigenous Yakthung education created a space for Yakthung teachers and students, community members, activists, and politicians to discuss a wide range of issues concerning the policies and practices of Indigenous education in Nepal. Professor Phyak also attended consultation meetings convened by the Ministry of Education and the Indigenous Nationalities Commission.
