For the last decade Kazakhstan’s education sector has been experiencing major transformations at all levels due to the processes of internationalisation of education, which inter alia resulted in the increased interest in introducing critical thinking (CT) into the national curriculum. Similar to CT, the English language has become a transferrable skill necessary to have in a rapidly changing and globalizing world. It is crucial that both skills be taught properly and in a way to be most beneficial for students’ future. It is effective to combine them in teaching because as Pishghadam (2011) noted, the class of the English language has its distinctive features, among which are the opportunity for students to talk on many topics of social, political, and cultural character, the variety of activities that can be applied within a classroom, cross-cultural component, and many other peculiarities.

However, as Atkinson (1997) notes, teaching a foreign language by means of the CT approach is a challenging task, for EFL teachers should be cautious about using CT in their classroom with non-native speakers. Apart from the cultural differences, there are other challenges that educators might face in aiming to teach for CT, such as the challenge of misunderstanding what is involved in being critical and teaching for critical thinking, the challenge of the conservative educational ideology, the challenge of “the soft liberal position”, the challenge of critical and feminist pedagogy, and the challenge of risk-taking (Portelli, 1994).

As school teachers are key actors in the successful implementation of any educational reform (Ball et al., 2011), it is worth studying how the teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) understand the concept of CT in general and how they perceive it in the context of current curriculum reforms and regarding their classroom practices. The study is located in North Kazakhstan to explore teachers’ conceptions of the particular region, focusing on schools with the Russian language of instruction. This research can provide valuable information for the design of effective teacher education and professional development programmes in northern and other regions of Kazakhstan and elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to explore EFL teachers’ current conceptions of CT in the secondary education in Kazakhstan. To achieve this, the paper will answer the following questions:

1. How do EFL teachers understand the concept of CT in general and in the context of educational reform?
2. What are teachers’ attitudes towards the application of CT in teaching English?
3. Do teachers’ conceptions and attitudes towards CT differ depending on their education, training, and experience?
4. What are the challenges that EFL teachers face in their practice when integrating CT into curriculum?

For many educators, CT is a philosophical notion, a pedagogical approach aimed at raising good reflective thinkers (Bloom, 1956; Dewey, 1933; Giancarlo & Facione, 2001). Within it, the on-going nature of practicing CT to improve one’s skills and dispositions guided by intellectual standards and traits is emphasized (Cosgrove, 2011; Facione, 1990; Paul & Elder, 2010). From liberal perspective, CT promotes moral and community values to impact social awareness and democracy (Freire, 2005; Greene, 1995), whereas neoliberal approach presents it as a transferrable skill in the context of global knowledge economy that contributes to individuals’ accountability, lifelong learning, and growth of human capital and national economy (Lam et al., 2013; Lim, 2014). The agenda of the latter is implied within current educational reforms in Kazakhstan in terms of reshaping curriculum and changing teaching styles (Burkhalter, 2013; Burkhalter & Shegebayev, 2012).

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