This paper will examine the last in the raft of reforms in Kazakhstan, that of the reform of initial teacher education. This could be said to be one of the hardest areas to reform and this will be examined. The paper will begin with a detailed analysis of the situation of teacher preparation in Kazakhstan, showing that the following problems are prevalent and these problems are common to many systems of education. They are a low quality of intake, an oversupply of teachers, a lack of quality controls or debates, a system that is now out of sync with the reforms taking place in secondary education, a history of a low quality, part time system of teacher education and low status for teachers. The majority of students and teachers are in rural multi-graded schools and preparation for this location is one of the key challenges. The historical and cultural influences are very prevalent. The pre independence influence of the old Soviet system, which emphasised amongst many things theoretical learning, which was privileged over pedagogical knowledge or pedagogical preparation, and subject knowledge particularly the sciences. Good teaching was measured by winning Olympiads and having students with high content knowledge reproduced in a national test of 100 set questions. The power or status system placed schoolteachers and pedagogical knowledge below university generated knowledge. There are few links between teacher preparation institutions and schools. The paper will examine the particular and general challenges of reforming teacher education institutions and of generating a fit for purpose teacher education system. It will also examine other global attempts to reform teacher education systems such as in Canada, Ireland and Finland. It will critically review the models being used and look at the particular challenges in a post Soviet context. It will also examine what is particular about reforming pedagogical institutes and why this is seen as so difficult

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