Abstract
This chapter reflects on the analytical, procedural and methodological processes which have contributed to the emergence of the paper ‘The “Soviet” in the memories and teachers’ processional beliefs in Kazakhstan’ (Fimyar and Kurakbayev, under review), a part of a larger study on Internationalisation and School Reform in Kazakhstan (Bridges, 2014). In providing an account of the choices and constraints faced by the authors, the chapter makes explicit the relationships between the researchers’ intellectual biographies, the politics of research and the selection of a particular strategic point for analysis. This contribution argues for a more encompassing view of research data, which in this case includes literature on Soviet education, interview data and, of equal importance, the authors’ experiences of Soviet schooling. The key benefit of analysing teachers’ beliefs through the double lens of policy sociology and auto-ethnography is the ability to capture how change and continuity coexist in the complex present, and how memory is used strategically to legitimise new approaches to teaching and learning. The additional benefit of the approach is the possibility to produce dialogic, multi-layered interpretative narratives which talk to various actors in the field of education policy, comparative and international education and educational consultancy.
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Notes
- 1.
There are a number of studies by local scholars on the history of pedagogy and education in Kazakhstan. However, the majority of those studies tend to focus on the issues of ethno-pedagogy and national identity, rather than approaching the question of Soviet education, its legacies, and ways of socialization from a sociological perspective.
- 2.
All interviewees are assigned letters A–K according to the order they appear in the article. These letters do not correspond to their initials and are used here to indicate the number of respondents quoted in the paper. The respondents’ career stage (early, mid, late) is also indicated because the involvement of early-career professionals is a significant feature of the new initiatives. The gender of the respondents is not indicated as it could compromise the anonymity of the interviewees. However, it is important to mention that our sample was overwhelmingly female. Out of the 11 respondents cited in the paper, 8 are female and only 3 are male.
- 3.
- 4.
In the original paper, Borytko (2005) uses the term “humanitarian,” but we think that “humanistic” is a more appropriate term.
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Fimyar, O. (2015). 8.6 Five Conversations and Three Notes on the “Soviet,” or Finding a Place for Personal History in the Study of Teacher Education Policy in Kazakhstan. In: Smeyers, P., Bridges, D., Burbules, N., Griffiths, M. (eds) International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_74
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