Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions, Challenges and Strategies for Teaching Culturally Diverse Students in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Kazakhstan is a multinational society, where the government and the Ministry of Education and Science aim to establish peaceful relationships and communication among all cultures. In this culturally diverse national context, schools need to address students’ cultures, since each child has his/her own cultural background, core values, attitude towards learning, native language and beliefs. However, there is a lack of pedagogical knowledge for teaching culturally diverse students in the context of Kazakhstan. The purpose of this study is to explore teachers’ perceptions, challenges and strategies for working with culturally diverse students from secondary classes in an international school in Kazakhstan. This qualitative, single case study research used semi-structured interviews to collect data from eight participants. The study presents the perceptions of teachers’ about their beliefs and pedagogical approaches to dealing with diversity. Participants were recruited using purposeful sampling within a convenience selected site. The collected data were analysed using open coding. The findings show that teachers’ beliefs are influenced by school policy and school core values. While some participants were culturally aware, a limited range of pedagogical practices were adopted. The practices adopted focused on awareness of diverse cultures, rather than more sophisticated approaches to developing cultural competence. It was also found that the English medium of instruction of the school was the area in which most teachers identified challenges related to linguistic culture. The study concluded by making recommendations for school administrators about how to improve school policy and school values to consider the cultures of students.