The particular context which has provoked this paper is that of educational reform in Kazakhstan, though the issues this raises are paralleled in many parts of the former Soviet Union and indeed echoed in slightly different formation in Western Europe and elsewhere. The underlying question is familiar to anyone working in teacher education: what sort of knowledge and understanding do student teachers need in order to prepare themselves for their roles in schools? In many countries with the Soviet legacy, this question is normally addressed by reference to three main elements of pre-service teacher education: pedagogics, teaching methods and the practicum, but there are increasing rumblings of discontent with this construction of teachers’ professional knowledge. In particular, where, as in Kazakhstan, educational reform is requiring change in curriculum and assessment and a significant transformation in styles of teaching and learning, the training and retraining of teachers is seen as a key component of success. In Kazakhstan, a large scale programme of in-service training has been introduced which promotes not only different forms of pedagogy but also different approaches to the development of teachers’ understanding based on the principles of ‘reflective practice’, ‘action research’ and ‘collaborative networks’ of teachers. The Pedagogic Institutes have so far remained aloof from major reforms, but new attention is being directed towards their work. The key research questions are: What conception of teachers’ professional knowledge shapes the current programme of pre-service education in Kazakhstan? How does this relate to the constructions of teachers’ professional knowledge that underpin current in-service education programmes? How far does it meet the requirements of contemporary educational reform? The research carried out is based on a mixed methods research design, including semi-structured interviews and focus groups, surveys and documentary analysis. It is too early at this stage to provide an indication of the outcomes of this research, but they will be presented and discussed at ECER.

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