DSpace Repository

Nazarbayev University Repository (NUR) is an institutional electronic archive designed for the long-term preservation, aggregation, and dissemination of scientific research outcomes and intellectual property produced by the Nazarbayev University community and affiliated organizations.

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001. Theses 3588
002. NU Research Publications 11760
003. NU Research Institutes & Centres 586
004. NU Journals & Magazines 285
005. Forums, Conferences & Projects 1332

Recent Submissions

Access status: Embargo ,
A Mixed Method Study of Faculty Job Autonomy and Job Satisfaction at Kazakhstani Public Universities
(Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, 2026-04) Zhamisheva, Zhannur
Job autonomy is widely recognized as a key factor shaping faculty working conditions in higher education. This thesis addresses the context of Kazakhstan by examining how institutional autonomy reforms are reflected in faculty members’ everyday experiences. It focuses on levels of job autonomy and job satisfaction in public universities, their relationship, differences across demographic and professional groups, how faculty resist intrusions to their autonomy, and what strategies they use to protect their autonomy and negotiate with administrators. The study employs a convergent mixed-methods design, combining survey data from 113 faculty members across four public universities with semi-structured interviews from seven participants. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, ANOVA, and t-tests, while thematic analysis was applied to interview data to capture faculty experiences in greater depth. The findings reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between job autonomy and job satisfaction. Overall, faculty report moderate levels of both autonomy and satisfaction. Differences are observed by age, academic experience, and research productivity, with more senior and research-active faculty perceiving higher autonomy. In contrast, gender, teaching workload, and working hours show no significant effect. Disciplinary differences emerge only for satisfaction, with higher levels reported in Medicine/Health Sciences compared to the Humanities. Qualitative findings showed that faculty resistance to autonomy intrusions manifests individually through time management, informal practices, and demonstrating competence, and collectively through informal peer support and formal collective advocacy. While faculty strategies to protect autonomy and negotiate with administrators include individual empowerment strategies such as skill diversification and building external networks, as well as negotiation strategies such as aligning with institutional goals, seeking protection from mid-level leaders, and compromising on procedures. The thesis recommends targeted institutional support for early-career faculty, strengthen trust, and improve mid-level leadership to better align institutional autonomy with faculty job autonomy and satisfaction.
Access status: Embargo ,
Navigating International Students’ Investments, Language Learning Strategies, and Future Selves in Learning Kazakh as an Additional Language: Evidence From Kazakhstan
(Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, 2026) Baltabekova, Amina
Language is increasingly recognized as a key factor shaping international students’ experiences in higher education, particularly in contexts dominated by English-medium instruction (EMI). Despite this, many international students assume that English alone is sufficient, often overlooking the importance of host-country languages. As a result, research on their engagement with Languages Other Than English (LOTEs) in non-Anglophone settings remains limited. In Kazakhstan, where Kazakh holds growing sociopolitical and cultural significance within a multilingual environment, international students’ experiences of learning Kazakh as an additional language remain underexplored. This study addresses this lacuna by examining how international students invest in learning Kazakh, with particular attention to their changing beliefs, language learning strategies (LLS), and imagined future selves. Adopting a qualitative design, the study draws on narrative writing and semi-structured individual interviews with 10 international students at an EMI university in Kazakhstan. It is guided by Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment, which provides a lens for understanding how identity, access to resources, and ideological conditions shape language learning. The data were analyzed thematically to capture the complexity of participants’ experiences. The findings suggest that participants’ beliefs about Kazakh and Kazakhstani society evolved over time, moving from initially limited and instrumental views toward more nuanced, culturally and ideologically informed understandings. Their investment was shaped by academic demands, social relationships, and future aspirations, but remained fluid and sometimes fragile due to institutional constraints, the dominance of Russian and English, and limited opportunities for meaningful language use. At the same time, participants demonstrated agency through cognitive, social, and self-regulated strategies, while their imagined future selves sustained engagement. These findings suggest the need to move beyond EMI-focused models by integrating context-sensitive support for host-language learning, including tailored curricula, opportunities for authentic interaction, and stronger institutional recognition of Kazakh. They also highlight the importance of preparing international students for multilingual realities prior to and during their studies. Overall, the study contributes to a growing body of research that calls for rethinking internationalization in higher education as a multilingual and socially embedded process rather than an English-dominated one.
Access status: Open Access ,
Formation of compact and GaiaBH-like binaries in young open star clusters: Early Evolution
(Nazarbayev University School of Sciences and Humanities, 2026) Tleukhanov, Yersultan; Shukirgaliyev, Bekdaulet
Gaia’s third data release found three wide, dormant black hole binaries: GaiaBH1, GaiaBH2, and GaiaBH3. isolated binary evolution models don’t reproduce similar orbital properties. Most simulated Milky Ways yield nearly zero detectable systems like these. Dynamical formation in young star clusters does better, producing Gaia-like binaries up to a thousand times more efficiently per unit of stellar mass. This thesis explores what this formation channel will yield in a realistic environment, using N-body simulations of open clusters that undergo instantaneous gas expulsion. We ran 81 star cluster simulations. The pipeline combines MCLUSTER for initial mass and binary distributions, the AGAMA library for phase-space sampling in a residual gas potential, and PeTar with SSE/BSE stellar evolution. Every cluster has a star formation efficiency of SFE = 0.17, a primordial binary fraction of fb = 0.5, and solar metallicity (Z = 0.02). They sit in a Milky Way-like tidal field at roughly 8 kpc from the Galactic center. Initial mass and phase-space random seeds are the only things that vary between runs. Each cluster evolved for 150 Myr, with snapshots saved every 1 Myr. We tracked black hole–star, neutron star-star, and black hole–black hole binaries, classifying each as primordial, dynamical, retained, or escaped. Across the 81 runs, the simulations produced 4006 binary systems, mostly primordial, including 271 black hole–star and 144 black hole–black hole pairs. Black hole–luminous companion binaries tend toward orbital periods of 170 − 200 days, near-zero eccentricities, and companion masses of 1.0 − 1.2 M⊙. These are within Gaia’s detectability window but still don’t match the observed systems well enough. The bottleneck is the mass-ratio distribution (q ∈ [0.1, 1]), which doesn’t generate the extreme mass-ratio progenitors (q ∼ 0.03 − 0.05) that Gaia-like systems require. Getting there means trying different pairing prescriptions, exploring lower metallicities, and running bigger simulations.
Access status: Embargo ,
Gender, Schooling, and Socialization: A Comparative Study of Educational Practices in Single-Gender Schools in Kazakhstan
(Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, 2026-04-27) Abilda, Nurzat; Qanay, Gulmira
This study examines how educational practices in single-gender schools contribute to processes of gender socialization, with a particular focus on the Bilim-Innovation Lyceums in Kazakhstan. While global debates on single-gender education have largely centered on academic outcomes, this research shifts the analytical focus toward the everyday institutional practices through which gendered meanings, identities, and dispositions are constructed and reproduced. Grounded in a pragmatic philosophical stance, the study employs a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Quantitative data were collected through a teacher questionnaire, while qualitative insights were generated via semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations. The research focuses on one boys’ and one girls’ single-gender school, enabling a comparative analysis across key domains: curriculum, pedagogy, extracurricular activities, school culture, and pastoral care. The study is guided by an integrated conceptual framework combining social constructionist perspectives, social learning theory, hidden curriculum theory, and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and cultural reproduction. This framework enables a multi-level analysis of how gender is produced through institutional practices, interactional dynamics, and symbolic structures within schools. Findings indicate that formal curricular and pedagogical practices remain largely similar across boys’ and girls’ schools, challenging assumptions of explicit gender-differentiated instruction. However, significant differences emerge within the hidden curriculum, particularly in mentorship systems, extracurricular activities, leadership structures, and institutional expectations. These implicit practices play a central role in shaping gendered dispositions and identities. The study also reveals tensions between stable institutional structures and evolving teacher attitudes toward gender roles, suggesting a dynamic process of negotiation rather than simple reproduction. The research contributes to global debates on single-gender education by demonstrating that the impact of such schooling lies not in formal instructional differences but in the broader ecology of practices through which gender is socially constructed. In the Kazakhstani context, the findings raise important questions regarding equity, particularly in relation to unequal access to elite educational opportunities for boys and girls. The study offers implications for policy, school leadership, and teacher professional development, emphasizing the need for more reflective and evidence-based approaches to gender in education.
Access status: Embargo ,
STEM Identity Development Through Participation in Informal STEM Education Programs: High School Girls’ Experiences in Uzbekistan
(Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, 2026-04) Suraganova, Janat
This qualitative study explores how high school girls in Uzbekistan experienced participation in informal STEM programs and how these experiences influenced their STEM identity development. Guided by Situated Learning Theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991), data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019). The analysis identified four main themes: (1) entering and participating in informal STEM practices; (2) social participation, recognition, and belonging; (3) STEM identity development and future aspirations; and (4) sociocultural and structural conditions shaping participation. The findings show that informal STEM programs provided entry points into STEM through hands-on and real-world activities, while mentorship, peer collaboration, and the presence of other girls supported a sense of belonging. Participation in these programs was associated with changes in how girls saw themselves as STEM learners, as well as with expanded career aspirations. At the same time, the study found that access to these opportunities was not equal, as participation was shaped by factors such as school type, language, location, and family dynamics. Overall, the study shows that informal STEM programs can support STEM identity development, but their impact depends on who is able to access them.