Kazakhstan is currently experiencing tremendous reforms in secondary education trying on best practices and experiences borrowed from abroad. Important figures at this stage are Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) created to serve the platform for introduction of a new education system (Shamshidinova, Ayubayeva & Bridges, 2014). According to Fimyar and Kurakbayev (2016) these reformist initiatives can be defined as radical and rapid changes (p.87). In such a tense educational climate teachers may feel confused about their ability to adapt to a new form of identity associated with accountability era (Day, Elliot & Kington, 2005 as cited in Davey, 2013, p.17).
The analysis of literature sources shows that there is a strong link between the way teachers perceive themselves as professionals and the effectiveness of the learning and teaching processes. For example, Davey (2013) claims that schoolteachers’ values and beliefs, as well as how they see themselves in the school community and what role they play, directly influence student success (p.4). He points out that the problem arising in this respect is whether all the aforementioned are taken into account when reforms are implemented, whether teachers’ voices are heard by policy-makers (p.5). Thus, it is crucial to explore how teacher identity transforms as it is closely connected with educational change and is continually reshaped within certain historical contexts (Goodson & Norrie, 2005 as cited in Tang, 2011, p. 364).
The main purpose of this qualitative study is to explore in-depth the influence of internal and external factors connected with the present school reforms on NIS teacher perceptions of their professional selves. The study focuses on the following research questions:
• How do NIS teachers define their professional identity?
• How does the teaching-related aspect of the reforms in Kazakhstan influence teacher identity?
• How does the administrative aspect of the reforms influence teacher identity?
Conceptual framework
Considering the studies of the central phenomenon conducted by Davey (2013), Kelchtermans (1993 as cited in Day, Kington, Stobart & Sammons, 2006), Flores and Day (2006), and Vahasantanen (2014), it was concluded that teacher identity can be defined as the way teachers view themselves from four different angles: personal, social, professional, and emotional. Each of these dimensions consists of several components connected with teachers’ both personal and professional lives.
To reveal if Kazakhstani teachers experience any of the forms of teacher professionalism in the context of radical changes, another conceptual framework based on the literature analysis was developed to guide the design of the study. Two aspects of school reforms, internal (or teaching related) and external (or administrative), are viewed as the main factors influencing teacher identity evolution. In the suggested framework, teaching-related reforms lead to reskilling of teachers, which implies shifting teacher professionalism to the form which will satisfy the newly emerged standards and needs (Whitty, 2000, p.282) thus letting them acquire new skills and help them adapt to the changes. On the contrary, administrative factors of the reforms lead to the process of deskilling teachers, i.e. deprive them of autonomy and diminish the sense of agency focusing more on accountability and demonstrable effectiveness (MacBeath, 2012).
Two conflicting types of teacher professionalism suggested by Sachs (2001), democratic and managerial, are associated in the framework with the processes of reskilling and deskilling respectively, with the former focusing on improving skills and practices for ‘the common good’ and the latter focusing on increasing standards and the school formal efficiency. Activist and entrepreneurial identities, emerging from these types of professionalism, are therefore the two main forms of teacher identity in the framework.