Investment and Identity: Unpacking Mixed-Family University Students’ Kazakh Learning Experiences

Abstract

As pаrt of ongoing efforts to strengthen the status of Kazakh as the state language, the government has implemented severаl policies to expand its use across education and society (Smagulova, 2021). In this context, Kazakh language is promoted as a marker of national belonging, however it remаins unevenly used across social domains. In this context, students from mixed-family backgrounds represent an underexplored group of people whose linguistic experiences аre shaped by complex family and education practices, and identity tensions. By addressing this gap and drawing on Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment, this qualitative narrative inquiry investigates how students construct their experiences, what drives their investment or disinvestment, and how they negotiate their present and future identities through language learning. This study was conducted at one English-medium university in Astana, and it involved ten purposively selected participants from mixed families with one Kazakh parent. Data were collected through language portraits and semi-structured interviews and analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006, 2021) thematic analysis. The findings indicate that participants’ language learning is uneven across family and school contexts, where Kazakh remains present but not significant in everyday use. Further leading to partial linguistic socialization and limited confidence. Investment in Kazakh emerges when it allows social recognition and meaningful participation, whereas disinvestment reflects learners’ responses to insecurity, pressure, and its limited relevance to their imagined futures (Darvin & Norton, 2015; Norton & Toohey, 2011). Furthermore, identity among mixed-family students is often in-between, with Kazakh functioning as context-dependent resource rather than as a fixed marker of belonging. Overall, this study shows that learning Kazakh is not an individual or educational process, but it is connected with in social, emotional, and ideological conditions. Study further highlights the need for more inclusive and supportive language education practices and research on minority communities in Kazakhstan.