Exploring National Educators’ Understanding and Use of International Large Scale Assessments in Kazakhstan

• In Event: Implementing and sustaining systemic educational change – a three year study of the challenges and key issues

Proposal

As international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) have grown in numbers of studies, cycles, and groups of participants (Kamens & McNeely, 2010), so too has the reach and influence of these studies and their results to an increasingly global scale. Some have associated the rise of these assessments with the emergence of a global governance in education (Meyer & Benavot, 2013; Rizvi & Lingard, 2009). In the post-Soviet Central Asian context, this globalization of large-scale achievement tests links to broader educational policy changes in which transnational agendas for education link to post-Soviet geopolitics and the role of prominent policy players in post-Soviet educational reforms, particularly in international development contexts (Silova, 2011; Steiner-Khamsi, 2004). However, despite the increasingly prominent role of transnational policy players in national policy formation, the state remains the primary arena for national educational policy (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010, p. 31; Steiner-Khamsi, 2004, p. 208). State governments fund and policymakers are tasked with interpreting results from ILSAs and developing national policy responses to them (Steiner-Khamsi, 2004, p. 208). As a tool for educational policymakers in many transitional economies such as Kazakhstan, ILSAs have emerged as one of the most technically sound assessments within the country and have great potential to play a role in national educational reforms. For example, after ILSAs are conducted, there is a large amount of data which can be used by national policymakers to inform or legitimize national reform agendas. However, there is a shortage of research based evidence as to how effectively policymakers in many transitional economies, and specifically Kazakhstan, use the results of ILSAs. It is within this setting, this research study is conducted to explore how Kazakhstan policy makers understand and use ILSA data.
Purpose
This research aims to understand the role of two international student assessments, TIMMS and PISA, in national education policymaking in the Republic of Kazakhstan. More specifically, the inquiry seeks to better understand: (a) the ways Kazakhstani Ministry of Education and Science policymakers understand and view TIMMS and PISA; (b) how, specifically, these key policymakers utilize data from these assessments; (c) and how they see the role of the assessments in national policymaking.
1.
Research design/methods/data sources
A qualitative case study design is employed to explore the ways Kazakhstani Ministry of Education and Science policymakers and other relevant state-level stakeholders understand TIMMS and PISA as assessments and how they use data from these assessments for national policymaking. The methods employed in the case study include: semi-structured interviews of eight key stakeholders (High level MoES officials and national assessment center administrators) and content analysis of relevant national policy documents. Consistent with case study design strategy, findings emerging from these multiple methods and data sources will be combined to show the ways these assessments are understood and utilized by policymakers in one national educational system, Kazakhstan.
Results
The researchers are now in the process of collecting data.
Significance of the research to comparative/international education
This study is significant to research on comparative/international education because it explores the role of ILSAs in shaping national education policies and the capacity of education policymakers to interpret and use PISA and TIMMS data. Thus, the study might be relevant to the experiences of other former Soviet and socialist countries.

Authors

• Duishonkul Shamatov, Nazarbayev University

• Jason Sparks, NU