Kazakhstan programme open seminar series

Latest Episodes:

1) Globalizing Minds: Rhetoric and Realities in International Schools. 2) New Educational Governance in Post-Socialist Education Space: Examining the (Side)Effects of International Comparisons, Benchmarking, and Best Practices. Jan 30, 2015

Show notes

1) Abstract: Globalization has a profound effect on the mission and goals of education worldwide. One of its most visible manifestations is the worldwide endorsement of the idea of “education for global citizenship,” which has been enthusiastically supported by national governments, politicians, and policy-makers across different nations. What is the role of international schools in implementing the idea of “education for global citizenship”? How do these schools attempt to create a culturally unbiased global curriculum when the adopted models have been developed by Western societies and at the very least are replete with (Western) cultural values, traditions, and biases? 2) The International comparisons and benchmarking have become a major influence on education policy- making in Central Asia and other post-Soviet states. Joining the international student achievement studies such as PISA, TIMSS, and TALIS have brought significant benefits to participating countries, while also enabling the new political technologies of governing the post-Soviet education space by numbers. International benchmarking, and the “best practices” that come along with it, have contributed to the production of educational knowledge that not only attempts to explain education phenomena but also constructs “norms” embedded in education policies and practices.

1) ‘Reflecting on Reflection’: An exploration of trainers’ perceptions of reflective practice in Kazakhstan. 2) Teachers’ beliefs on assessment for learning and how this relates to national assessment practices Jan 12, 2015

Show notes

1) The call for reflective practitioners remains ever present with the persistent demand for quality provision in education (UNESCO, 2014). 2) This presentation is based upon an empirical paper that sets one particular form of national assessment against the wider picture of what teachers say they set out to achieve for their pupils during school. This starts with the collection of teachers’ attitudes towards assessment that return the range of where teachers see themselves in terms of meeting their own definitions of students’ needs. Next, these attitudes inform on whether satisfactory achievement of any overall teaching mission (Korthagen, 2004) is seen as possible or not.

1) Russian Higher Education and the Post-Soviet Transition. 2) Between ‘modernisation’ and ‘transition’: the discourse of the Serbian 2001 civic education policy. Jan 07, 2015

Show notes

1) The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 required the system of education, as with all other Soviet institutions, to adjust if it were to survive in the new Russian conditions. It was faced, above all, with the need to identify a new social and economic role as the education system of a radically different society and economy. This raised fundamental questions that required urgent answer. What was its purpose? Who should it serve? How was it to be organized and financed? 2) This project explored the development of the Serbian 2001 civic education policy, a policy which marked the start of an all-encompassing education reform that was hailed as one of the tools in assisting the country’s transition from various forms of authoritarianism to a modern democracy. It was also a strong political signal that the then governing elite was dedicated to joining Serbia with other post-communist countries on their way ‘back to Europe’.

'Action Research as a Strategy for Teacher Development' & ‘The development of school-based Learning Study and Stenhouse’s idea of the Teacher as Researcher’ May 30, 2014

Show notes

Action Research - Presenters: Professor Colleen McLaughlin (University of Sussex and University of Cambridge), Dr Ros Mclellan, Michael Fordham and Nazipa Ayubayeva (University of Cambridge) School-based Learning - Presenter: Professor John Elliott, Chief Editor of the International Journal of Lesson and Learning Studies (IJLLS) and the Journal of the World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS).

Reform at Scale: The Centre of Excellence Programme of Teacher Development in Kazakhstan Oct 28, 2013

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Recording of the seminar 'Reform at Scale: The Centre of Excellence Programme of Teacher Development in Kazakhstan' delivered by Dr Elaine Wilson and Dr Fay Turner from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. The seminar took place at the Faculty of Education on Thursday 10th October 2013. The seminar was organised and presented by Dr Olena Fimyar.

The ethics and politics of the international transfer of educational policy and practice Jun 13, 2013

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Seminar on ethics and politics of the international transfer of educational policy and practice by Prof. David Bridges, Director of Research (Kazakhstan and Mongolia Programmes), University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education

Evolving child welfare policies in Central Asia after the independence: The case of Kazakhstan Jun 07, 2013

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Seminar on evolving child welfare policies in Central Asia by Anel Kulakhmetova, PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge

Cultural and Institutional Dimensions of Transformation: Tensions and complementarities Jun 07, 2013

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Seminar on cultural and institutional dimensions of transformation by Prof. Dr. Giedrius Jucevicius, Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania)

Gifted Education and the Process of Educational Change: post-Soviet Kazakhstan Apr 12, 2013

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Seminar on gifted education in Kazakhstan by Dr Natallia Yakavets. The discussion that followed this seminar can be listened to at http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1459800 at 27 minutes 55 seconds.

Teachers as Researchers: Rhetoric or Reality in Kazakhstan Apr 12, 2013

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Seminar and discussion on action research in Kazakhstan by Dr Kairat Kurakbayev and Darkhan Bilyalov..