Education is a privileged area of the dominant development model in Nepal, specifically focusing on women in rural areas. This article analyses the discursive construction of development and education categories in Nepal by exploring the narratives of Nepali women on education and development as lived experiences. It shows how global and institutional discourses are internalised by people as outcomes of cognitive imperialism but it also reveals how women negotiate, re-signify and challenge such discourses from their local realities as active producers of cultural meanings.