19 research outputs found
Sticking and tipping points: a case study of preschool education policy and practice in Astana, Kazakhstan
This article presents a case study exploring how national guidance for kindergartens in Kazakhstan was interpreted in practice. Document analysis of the State Education Standards of Preschool Upbringing and Education, together with stakeholder interviews and observations of six Astana kindergarten settings, illustrates how competing perspectives on preparing children for school can both promote and limit opportunities for child-led activity in early education. The article considers postcolonial and neocolonial pasts and their potential to influence the present, identifying potential sticking points that may limit change processes. The article suggests processes for building locally grounded praxis in order to create tipping points where child-initiated pedagogy could become a more frequent feature of practice
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âWe Have a Window Seatâ: A Bakhtinian Analysis of International Teachersâ Identity in Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in Kazakhstan
The paper explores dynamic positionality of international teachers in Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) in Kazakhstan. The study participants include 11 international teachers from three NIS schools. The experiences of international teachers in NIS schools are characterised by two main tendencies. On the one hand, the study participants report a fascination and enjoyment with the stimulating academic environment of the schools. On the other hand, the participants report a degree of disaffection as a result of multiple constraints, which prevent them from being fully integrated in the life of the schools. The paper contributes to the literature on teacher mobility and migration examined from the perspective of Bakhtinâs dialogical approach
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Cultural trauma and the politics of access to higher education in Syria
This paper takes interest in the relationship between the politics of HE access pertaining to longstanding practices of patrimonial authoritarian politics and between the narration of collective trauma. Building on an empirical study of Syrian HE during war, we suggest that a narrative disjuncture within HEIs has a damaging impact not only upon the educational process, HE reconstruction and reform but also upon the very possibility of social reconciliation. This is especially true when access to education and post-graduation opportunities are directly linked with patrimonial favouritism; widespread social inequalities in access and retention; a violent turn in the purging of oppositional academics; a severely exacerbated brain drain linked to political views; and significantly sparser employment opportunities. Building on the study findings we show how these challenges are linked to ethico-political positioning vis-Ă -vis the mass movement of 2011 and related cultural trauma narratives. In closing we suggest that understanding the relationship between HE access and cultural trauma, and the mechanisms of power and narrative reproduction resultant from the politicisation of HE access in such contexts, can inform decision-making on HE reconstruction and future reform, as well as further research on HE under dictatorship and conflict, in important ways.British Council and SOROS foundation to Council for At Risk Academic