The right to education is guaranteed by the constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan. One of the main objectives of Kazakhstan’s education system is creating necessary conditions for quality education (Nabi et al., 2016).  Kazakhstan has a strong focus on excellence, and this is reflected in the ambitious reform agenda for the education sector that envisions an educated country with a smart economy and a highly qualified labor force by 2020.  Until today, Kazakhstan continues to embark on profound reforms to improve the quality of the education system and is increasingly looking at international standards and best practices.  Consequently, there is a growing number of students in schools for the gifted that offer several subjects that are taught at an advanced level.  The most prestigious, however, are the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS). They are created through the initiative of the President to develop new educational practices (OECD: Kazakhstan 2015).  With their educational programmes in place, NIS has been setting the work of identifying how to best quality assure the system they had built (Mozhayeva, 2019). However, the term quality is relative; it can mean and convey different things to different people, in different times and circumstances, and different contexts.  These differences in meaning tantamount to the differences in perceptions or measurements of quality (Pimentel Botas, 2008).

In the academe, there is no generally accepted nor generally used definitions on quality education, though, it is often thought of as a great value any education system should have. It is noteworthy though that there is one description of quality teaching/education that emerged. It is described as a certain degree of excellence in the form of evaluation against a defined scale ( Miskeljin & Arsenijevic, 2014;  Botas,2008).  Morevoer, Lockheed (2004) has described the basic ingredients of quality education which include a curriculum, a teacher capable of teaching it, time for learning, and children who are capable of learning.  Also, Anderson and Pesikan (2017) suggest that meaningful learning tasks are also one of the components of quality education.

Many researchers have embarked on this area through the years. A review of research findings shows that teacher effect, discovery-based approaches, explicit teaching, and prioritizing reading promote quality teaching and quality education (Gauthier et al, 2005). Hence, the authors deemed it necessary to elicit from the stakeholders a common understanding of what quality education is. A good opportunity to this is during goal-setting activity. It said that goal-setting and task performance are sufficient to provide a framework for understanding the philosophy of goals, which may include quality education, especially that the goal framework could influence the attainment of desired outcomes, under specific individual and organizational conditions (Ogbeiwi, 2018). With a clear goal and definition, NIS Kokshetau can effectively deliver quality education to all its stakeholders. 

A close working relationship with stakeholders can lead to the achievement of the overall goals of an institution. As with all development processes, power relations have a big impact in coming up with a definition.  Stakeholders are seen as a powerful influence and information source that can be used for educational development.  Different groups of stakeholders have different needs and expectations; their objectives are diverse (Labanauskis, 2017; Taylor, 2004).  Thus, a participatory development process is encouraged.  This participatory process allows stakeholders in education who might be normally marginalized to gain the right to take part in decision-making about teaching and learning.  This greater participation increases the likelihood of the goal being achieved (Taylor, 2004).  Therefore, in this study, four different groups of stakeholders of NIS Kokshetau were involved to give their perspectives about quality education.

The purpose of this study is to explore NIS Kokshetau stakeholders’ perceptions regarding quality education. This study utilized qualitative case study research to examine how four different stakeholders, namely: (1) school administrators; (2) parents; (3) teachers; and (4) students, make sense of their real-life experience of quality education in NIS Kokshetau (Cropley, 2019). It probed and elicited on the stakeholders’ context of what quality education is. A total of 1,702 participants: 131 teachers, 835 students, 725 parents, and 7 administrators, were involved through a convenient sampling strategy within purposeful sampling since it allows the researchers to select the site based on accessibility and proximity (Creswell, 2014). Data for this study were obtained through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. In doing so, focus groups through multiple-category design were organized. Each group of stakeholders discussed among themselves their view of quality education to gain a range of perspectives about the subject (Gray, 2014). A facilitator for each group was assigned to elicit a discussion among the participants and reduce communication barriers. Results of the discussion were recorded in the form of concept maps. Thematic analysis through an inductive approach was used to identify and analyze the patterns (themes) that arise from the responses of all stakeholders. A theme is something valuable that is captured and has emerged among the data gathered in relation to the question imposed on the participants. The theme oftentimes represents a level of patterned response or meaning within the gathered data. To form an overall interpretation of the themes identified by the authors, a document analysis of publications - produced locally and by international organizations, and official government policies, was done (Brown, 2020).

Thematic analysis of responses revealed the perspectives of NIS stakeholders about quality education into four themes, namely, relevant curriculum, instructional design, school environment, and teachers. All stakeholders set forth that one of the elements of quality education is a curriculum that follows international standards and advances 21st -century skills. The school administration together with the parents and teachers sees instructional design as one of the ingredients of quality education. Administrators expect modern technologies to be used in the teaching process while teachers want student-centered strategies that would evoke the curiosity of the students and at the same time allow them to reflect on their learnings. On the other hand, parents expect quality teaching to be good which involves successful teaching that upholds high standards and that yield high-impact student learning. In addition to another element of quality education that was identified from the answers of the stakeholders is the school environment. Parents would like their children to grow and improve in a positive learning environment. They want their children to be disciplined, diligent, self-motivated students. They also believed that part of having a quality education is the development of moral values and having a healthy way of life within the school community. Parents further elaborate that they want to be involved in giving their children quality education. Teachers and administrators also envision a school environment that supports favorable and enjoyable learning conditions. Another important element of quality education are the teachers. For teachers to offer quality education, parents expect the teaching force not only to have high qualifications but also diligent and motivated to teach. They would like the school leadership to send the teachers to professional development seminars regularly to keep abreast with the recent trends in teaching and learning. Teachers see themselves to be compassionate for them to provide quality education.

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