A Case Study of the Conception of Curriculum Internationalisation in a Secondary School in Kazakhstan.

Abstract

Curriculum internationalisation has been long associated with higher educational institutions (e.g. Knight, 2012, 2003; De Haan, 2013; Deardorff, de Wit & Heyl, 2012; Brewer, E. & Teekens, H., 2007; James, 2005; Wilkinson, 1998; Starr, 1979). However, globalisation and the growing interconnectedness of the world have led to the urgent need for internationalising the curriculum of national secondary education. Therefore, the importance of research in secondary education curriculum internationalisation has been recognised (Yemini, 2014). This thesis aims at exploring the perception of school curriculum internationalisation within one secondary school in Kazakhstan. In order to achieve that aim this research employed interpretative case study methodology to explore the phenomenon under examination. Thematic analysis of the interviews with the school stakeholders and the school policies was applied. The sampling was purposeful and included school stakeholders at different levels: senior management, local and international teachers, students and parents. The school policies and documents were selected on the basis of the interviews.
The selected school is notable for being an experimental platform for educational reforms of secondary education in Kazakhstan. The research revealed that the perceptions can be divided into two converging definitions of school curriculum internationalisation in terms of the outcome: educating a global citizen and educating a competitive graduate. Those definitions were supplemented with the perceived strategies or aspects that can help achieve the aim of curriculum internationalisation.
Furthermore, the participants identified the challenges associated with curriculum internationalisation. Those challenges included tension between national identity and global citizenship education, the challenge of innovating a teaching and learning approach, and the difficulty in diversifying the staff and student body.