Preparing globally competent citizens in Kazakhstan

Faculty-development competitive research grants program for 2020-2022 (batch 2)

The purpose of this study is to assesses the extent to which international education programs in Kazakhstan are preparing students to become globally competent citizens. The project will compare two groups of education graduate students (masters and doctoral); those studying locally at Nazarbayev University and those studying abroad. The study will utilize a qualitatively driven sequential mixed methods design (quan-QUAL). Kazakhstani students studying in the country and those studying abroad
will complete questionnaires. A document analysis of official curriculum documents will be done. In keeping with the dialectical principle of a mixed methods approach, subsamples from the questionnaire survey will be used in semi-structured interviews and focus group sessions that will assess the level of understanding of local and global issues. A holistic analysis of all the collected data will be utilized to develop and propose a global (citizenship) education course of study for Kazakhstan. The thesis is that without global competency, Kazakhstan cannot compete on the international/global scene.