From policy dumping to a participatory framework: re-envisioning the English medium instruction policy in Kazakhstan’s mainstream schools

Situating EMI policy and planning within the mainstream school in Kazakhstan, this study probes how STEM (sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics) teachers manage the policy, what challenges they confront, and how they respond to the challenges. Employing ‘agency’ as a conceptual frame, the study analyzed 58 teachers’ interviews representing six regions of the country. Findings suggest that teachers’ lower-level English proficiency and lack of English teaching experience challenge them to cope with the policy. However, teachers do demonstrate signs of what we describe as ‘responsive agency’, referring to teachers’ employment of available resources to make up for their language deficiencies. The policy apparently suffers from ‘policy dumping’ and disjunction because the traditional policymakers/actors put the burden of policy implementation mainly on teachers without providing them the required support and resources they need. Policy dumping renders local teachers eliminated from decision-making processes. The way forward is a non-traditional and non-technocratic participation framework.