Trilingual Education in Kazakhstan: Challenges of Pre-service Teacher Training

Author(s):

Assel Kambatyrova(presenting / submitting)Leila Iyldyz(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 08 A,

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-10

09:00-10:30

Room:

VII. Előadó [C]

Chair:

Smadar Galili

Contribution

This paper is based on the ongoing research project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MES) and implemented by the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education (NUGSE) in partnership with the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. Both presenters are engaged in the trilingual education policy research strand. The objectives of this paper are to explore the difficulties encountered by teacher training institutions in setting up and delivering pre-service teacher education programmes to serve the needs of the emerging trilingual educational system and to identify good practices. We argue that an effective pre-service teacher education system is crucial for successful implementation of the national trilingual education policy.

The promotion of trilingual education has become one of the key elements of the language policy in Kazakhstan, as evidenced in the official rhetoric and strategic programmes (Bridges & Sagintayeva, 2014; Kruzhkova & Firsova, 2009). Kazakhstan presents an interesting case, where Kazakh is promoted as a state language whilst Russian has been widely used as a Soviet legacy. This is in parallel with the introduction of English as a third language of instruction at schools, colleges and universities. English, which has always been a foreign language, is seen as a language of integrating the nation into the global community (Mazhitayeva et al., 2012; Beisenova, 2013; Mehisto et al., 2014, p.152; Yakavets & Dzhadrina, 2014, p.43).

The interest in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and relevant pre-service teacher education is growing in Europe, where various context-specific practices are found in the United Kingdom, Finland, France, and Germany among others. CLIL as “a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language” (Coyle et al., 2010, p.1) can become a solution for increasing and maintaining linguistic proficiency of Kazakhstani students in the three languages. The implementation of trilingual education commenced in 2007 as the MES designated 33 pilot schools. The number of trilingual schools is to reach 700 by 2020 (MES, 2010). However, this is only possible if sufficient numbers of teachers are adequately trained in aspects of trilingual education and CLIL. The research conducted by the NUGSE project in 2013 suggests that pilot schools still face acute problems of shortage of such teachers.

According to the MES, 10% of the teachers would teach Sciences and Mathematics in English (MES, 2010, p. 19) by 2015 and 15% by 2020. To this end, the Strategic Programme for Educational Development (MES, 2010, p. 26) envisages teacher training and an update of the standard curriculum. However, this figure was only 0.15% among teachers of Mathematics and Sciences in 2014 (MES, 2014, p. 52). Since 2008, several universities have engaged in piloting preparation of teachers who would teach subjects in English. However, there is little clarity as to how universities are finding their own ways and developing their best practices. In order to enhance the implementation of trilingual education, the Ministry are about to introduce a Strategic Plan for Trilingual Education and Research for 2015-2020. The research into the current practices is required in order to assist in setting up the envisaged national pre-service teacher training system.

The paper focuses on the following priorities of trilingual education:

- how teacher training institutions have changed their academic programmes to respond to the needs of pedagogical cadre to deliver trilingual education;

- to analyse current practices at these institutions to deliver quality teacher education programmes in trilingual education and identify challenges;

- to identify existing developed good practices that could be used for further dissemination in other teacher training institutions.

Method

This is a qualitative study based on interviews and focus groups. The researchers take into account the nature and aim of the research questions, the expected outcomes and the uniqueness of the situation. The research involves an extensive content analysis of policy documents, existing curricula and programmes, and any other materials that universities have developed to support pre-service teacher education for the trilingual academic system. The fieldwork will involve data collection at three higher educational institutions, purposefully selected on the basis of engagement in pre-service teacher education to serve the needs of the evolving trilingual educational system. This will include one-to-one and focus group interviews with: 1) officials and administrators in higher educational institutions responsible for training trilingual education teachers; 2) teacher educators who directly participate in the teacher learning process; 3) final-year teacher students. We are currently working on the practical and feasible numbers of respondents. Research interviews will be held in English, Kazakh and Russian, transcribed and translated as required, and will be analysed with the use of the NVIVO software. The fieldwork data collection will take place in April 2015 followed by data analysis and write-up in May-August 2015.

Expected Outcomes

The main impetus that led us to undertake this study is to provide a real-life picture of the current state of affairs with pre-service teacher education to serve national needs of the trilingual education system in Kazakhstan. The study is substantially context-driven. The practical purpose at a national level is to provide the Ministry of Education and Science with an analytical report based on empirical data collection and analysis, since the project team’s subsequent recommendations are highly likely to be influential in future trilingual education policy and practice. This research is also significant in that it will contribute to the delivery of the Ministry’s Strategic Plan for Trilingual Education and Research (to be endorsed in February 2015). At an international level, including European contexts, the findings and recommendations will be of interest to those engaged in the development of trilingual/multilingual education systems where one of the languages of instruction will be a foreign language. This research will be of special use at the implementation stage of such systems, as setting up an effective pre-service teacher training can be challenging and require lessons learnt from across various geographical contexts. Since this research is a work in progress, there are no concrete findings, conclusions and recommendations at this stage. However, research findings will be available at the time of the conference.

References

Beisenova, Z. S. (2013). Language shifts in case of language policy of Kazakhstan. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(8), 653-659. Bridges, D., & Sagintayeva, A. (2014). Introduction. In D. Bridges (Ed.), Educational reform and internationalisation: The case of school reform in Kazakhstan (pp.xxii-xxxii). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh D. (2010). CLIL: Content and language integrated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kruzhkova, Y., & Fiersova, Y. (2009). About realization of the politics of polylingual education implementation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Retrieved from www.rusnauka.com Mazhitayeva, S., Smagulova, G., & Tuleuova, B. (2012). Multilingual education as one of priority directions of educational system development in the Republic of Kazakhstan. European Researcher, 33(11-1), 1864-1867. Mehisto, P., Kambatyrova, A., & Nurseitova, Kh. (2014). Three in one? Trilingualism in policy and educational practice. In D. Bridges (Ed.), Educational reform and internationalisation: the case of school reform in Kazakhstan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan [MES] (2010). Государственная программа развития образования Республики Казахстан на 2011-2020 годы [The state programme for educational development for 2011-2020]. Retrieved from http://www.akorda.kz/upload/SPED.doc Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. National Centre for Educational Statistics and Evaluation [MES] (2014). Statistics of education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. National Collection. Yakavets, N., & Dzhadrina M. (2014). Educational reform in Kazakhstan: Entering the world arena. In D. Bridges (Ed.) Educational reform and internationalisation: The case of school reform in Kazakhstan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

Assel Kambatyrova (presenting / submitting)

Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education

Research Institute

Astana

Leila Iyldyz (presenting)

Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, Kazakhstan

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