India has borrowed a colonial legacy of English language education from its British colonizers. Post-Independence, education policies pertaining to the language of instruction in school education have unequivocally been supporting multilingual education. However, the policy mandates have not been translated in the same way in classroom practices. This study, situated in the complex linguistic background of the country, examines the role of teacher orientations in executing policy directives in instructional practices in multilingual science classrooms where both teacher and students speak Hindi as their home language. Among the student population, almost two-thirds have chosen Hindi as their language of instruction, while others have opted for English. In a case study, it emerged that a teacher, owing to her academic and professional expertise in the English language, with no training in multilingual science education, coupled with firm faith in the political ascendancy of the English language, preferred to conduct science instruction in English. A need to engage in extensive professional development to equip teachers with multilingual science education teaching–learning strategies is recommended.

印度从英国殖民者那里借鉴了英语教育的殖民遗产。独立后，与学校教育中的教学语言有关的教育政策明确支持多语言教育。然而，政策要求在课堂实践中并没有以同样的方式转化。本研究位于该国复杂的语言背景中，研究了教师定位在多语言科学课堂教学实践中执行政策指令中的作用，教师和学生都以印地语为母语。在学生群体中，近三分之二选择印地语作为他们的教学语言，而其他人则选择英语。在一个案例研究中，发现一位老师，由于她在英语方面的学术和专业知识，没有受过多语种科学教育的培训，再加上对英语语言的政治优势的坚定信念，更喜欢用英语进行科学教学。建议需要进行广泛的专业发展，为教师提供多语言科学教育教学策略。