International Education in Kazakhstan: "Peaceful Warriors" on the Pathway for Social Change

• In Event: Changing Higher Education Through International and Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

Many international scholarship programmes are geared towards prospective economic benefits. Only a few have targeted outcomes such as improving civic engagement, promoting democratic values, and nurturing social change agents. This study seeks to examine how graduates of two Kazakhstani government scholarship programmes for international education view their contribution to the development of their home country and, specifically, to creating pathways for social change. The analysis of 95 interviews with scholarship alumni from the fields of STEM (N=45) and social sciences (N=50) shows that although alumni foster and lead many positive changes at personal, organizational and society levels, their efforts are impeded by rigid and bureaucratic workplaces, by economic and cultural factors, and by scholarship regulations.

Authors

• Tatyana Kim, Nazarbayev University

• Dilrabo Jonbekova, Nazarbayev University