Schooling Future Citizens: Constructing Citizenship Education in Kazakhstan

• In Event: Dissertation workshop session
  In Special Session: Youth, Citizenship, and Belonging

Proposal

Education University of Hong Kong
Advisor: Professor John Chi Kin LEE

Purpose of the Study
The purposes of this investigation are to investigate citizenship education in contemporary Kazakhstani schools taking into consideration the regime-led and policy driven ideals of citizenship and school curriculum, and perceptions and practices of school principals and teachers who are in the front line of citizenship education implementation.

Research Questions
The central research question of the project is: How has regime change impacted on the development of citizenship education in Kazakhstan and how has this been reflected in the policy development and school and classroom practice?
The following questions will guide the study:
RQ 1: How is citizenship education conceptualized at the regime level?
• How is citizenship constructed in government policy documents?
• What are the ideological underpinnings of citizenship education in Kazakhstan?
• How does Soviet legacy reflect on citizenship education?
RQ 2: How is citizenship education promoted in case-study schools formally and informally?
• What are the aims of citizenship education at the school level?
• To what extent are these consistent with regime ideologies and curriculum policy?
• How is citizenship education organized and facilitated in schools?
RQ3: How do teachers and school management perceive citizenship education?
• How do they articulate citizenship in the context of schooling and teaching of school subjects?
• What values, attributes and skills do teachers define as important for citizenship?
• What schooling practices do they define as important for implementation of citizenship education?
• How do teachers’ values and understandings influence the implementation of citizenship education?

Thesis Statement
Although Soviet ideology was scrapped from curriculum, overly-politicized interpretation of citizenship education and the role of schools in socialization of young people continue to hinder the implementation of new citizenship curriculum in contemporary Kazakhstan. Regime ideologies, government policies, social contexts, school policies and teachers influence the place and form of citizenship education in the official and hidden curriculum.


The perspective(s), theoretical/conceptual framework

The study is grounded on curriculum perspective as it requires both understanding of citizenship education in its form and content, and how it is implemented and adapted to fit the local contexts of schools. Curriculum is both ideological and political (Apple, 2008). In this study it is defined as:
(1) a prescribed plan for learning;
(2) all the learning experiences encountered at school, planned and unplanned;
(3) a reflection of the expectations that society has for young people;
(4) a statement of values. (Kennedy, 2005 as cited in Grossman et al, 2008, p. 3).
In particular, the important issue is who selects the particulars of knowledge, skills, and values of the school curriculum. Thus, the study takes on a mutual adaptation perspective by Snyder, Bolin, & Zumwalkt (1992). Mutual adaptation approach allows educators to make adjustments to the externally prescribed curriculum according to the teaching and learning needs of their classroom.
Conceptual framework is based on a wide range of literature on conceptions of citizenship, and citizenship education. McLaughlin’s (1992) minimal and maximal continuum of citizenship is particularly important. Since there is lack of studies in Kazakhstani context, the study draws on much of the international literature. In particular, conceptual framework is developed with consideration of citizenship education in Western perspective (Ichilov, 1998; Hahn, 2010; Piattoeva, 2010), Asian perspective (Kennedy and Fairbrother, 2004; Lee, 2010), and post-Soviet/post-Socialist perspective (Dimitrov & Boyadjieva, 2008; Karolewski, 2013). The study examines citizenship and citizenship education at the regime level, school level and classroom level, and including teacher identity by Beijard (2014) as pedagogical expert, didactical expert, and subject expert & curricular-instructional gatekeeping (Thornton, 1991). The complete framework allows seeing how citizenship ideals of the regime can be embedded into policies and curriculum and how teachers and leadership understand and facilitate those requirements for citizenship education.

Method
The purpose and nature of this study indicates a need for qualitative inquiry. By utilizing interpretivist view, the study employs a multiple case study design. Case studies will include three types of schools at urban settings: a mainstream Kazakh school, mainstream Russian medium school, and specialized trilingual school. To collect data, the study will employ document analysis, interviews and school and lesson observations as methods of data collection.
PhD Stage:
I have recently passed my qualifying presentation and I am currently at the stage of writing rebuttal and revising my thesis proposal, and applying for the approval of Ethics Committee at the University. I am planning to complete my data collection by April.

Author

• Kuralay Bozymbekova, Education University of Hong Kong