History education in transit: where to for Kazakhstan?

Author: Kissane Carolyn  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1360-0486

Source: Comparative Education, Vol.41, Iss.1, 2005-02, pp. : 45-69

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Abstract

This study examines the post-socialist transition in the secondary education history programme in Kazakhstan from 1990 to the present. The article examines the influence of policy talk and action upon official educational policy, and how the deployment of a new national narrative is being used to construct a de-Sovietized-re-Kazakhified national identity. Educational objectives in calling for de-Russification and de-Sovietization are considered in the light of two other objectives: to de-politicize and de-ideologize the curriculum following the break-up of the Soviet Union. I argue that there are two parallel projects at work that both support a more Kazakhified history curriculum and counter-balance an ethno-nationalizing programme by developing the World History programme. This study is based on 10 months of in-country fieldwork encompassing document review, interviews and classroom observations in Kazakh and Russian medium of instruction schools.