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Qualitative in orientation and using the case study methodology, the research drew upon Margaret Archer’s theory of agency to examine how, at the point of confluence of culture, structure and agency, the teacher’s agency was enabled or constrained in attaining the agential project of scaffolding epistemological access in a Grade 4 Natural Science classroom. The study found that when positioned into a face-to-face relationship, or a direct relationship, with the structural, cultural, and agential causal powers, the teacher’s agential project of scaffolding epistemological access in a Grade 4 Natural Science classroom was constrained than enabled. The teacher was placed into a pedagogical dilemma where on the one hand, structural causal powers (e.g., the curriculum, syllabus, school authorities) demanded the teaching of topics on human sexual reproduction and human excretory systems. At the same time, causal cultural powers exerted by cultural properties, which include values, norms, and taboos, render conversation with young children over sexual reproduction matters and human excretory system forbidden discourses. The study concluded that cultural factors are among the myriad factors that potentially lead to poor performance in Natural Science by Namibian learners and African learners in general. The study recommends that in teacher education programs, it is essential to interrogate the school curriculum regarding its sensitivity and responsiveness to the cultural contexts of both teachers and learners. Similarly, such programs should investigate developing appropriate agential powers of aspiring teachers to resist or circumvent causal cultural powers that obstruct or hinder meaningful science learning.

In the Namibian education system, teaching in the junior primary is supposed to be done in the learners’ mother tongue. However, there is always controversy on adopting a language to be used as a medium of instruction (MoI) due to the multi-ethnic and multilingualism of the Namibian society. To make matters worse, parents equally cast doubt on enrolling their children in schools that uses mother tongue as an MoI. Framed within the qualitative case-study orientation, this research investigated: parents’ and teachers’ language ideologies and beliefs; the factors that informed the embodied and expressed language ideologies and beliefs of parents’ and teachers’; and how these dominant language ideologies and belief systems informed parents’ and teachers’ choice of language of instruction and the general implementation of the language policy in a Namibian school. The study found that both parents and teachers harbored monolingual ideological belief systems that did not only construct and perpetuate an “English-only” language zone but also banished all mother tongue languages from the school premises. Not only do the findings point to the hegemonic positioning of the English language in the minds of parents, teachers, and school principals as the only language that can lead to success, but its violation was punishable in a derogatory manner. The study concludes that, among others, parents, teachers, and school principals’ language ideologies and beliefs were shaped and informed by the prevailing English language hegemony. The liberal and duality stance of the Namibian language policy, and its decentralization, partly resulted in parents, teachers, and school principals’ neglect of the multilingualism and heterogeneity that the very same policy purports to advocate. The study recommends raising parents’ and teachers’ awareness of embracing the heteroglossia of language practices and for the ministry of education to consider a more inclusive language policy.