FACULTY PERCEPTIONS AND EXPERIENCE OF CURRICULUM RENEWAL OF MASTER’S PROGRAMMES IN ONE KAZAKHSTANI UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore faculty members’ perceptions and transitioning experience from State Standards control to greater academic freedom of curriculum renewal of Master’s programmes in one Kazakhstani university. After the dissolution of the USSR, Kazakhstan changed its economic direction to a market-oriented economy. One of the impacts of a market-oriented economy was reforms in education because with fluctuations in the labour market, it was no longer appropriate for the government to control the content of university programmes. As a result, the government incrementally expanded academic freedom in the university curricula by providing of elective courses in line with the General State Standards of Compulsory Education. However, this transition to greater academic freedom raised the question of how faculty members who were experienced in delivering prescribed courses addressed the new role of designing elective courses. Within this context, this study aimed to examine faculty members’ perceptions and experiences of curriculum renewal in Master’s programmes in one Kazakhstani university, focusing on the implementation of elective courses. This qualitative research is premised on an ethnographic design. A grounded theory approach was employed to collect and analyse the data. Data collection was conducted over three-month period in 2015. A total of 42 faculty members engaged in semi-structured interviews; 17 faculty members were involved in focus group discussions; observations of setting and meetings, documentary analysis, and informal talks were undertaken as well. The findings from the study suggest that the expansion of academic freedom has caused uncertainty in faculty members due to the predominance of the previous education paradigms, in particular, the findings reveal a lack of relevant professional knowledge, a lack of support in course design, late adoption of the legal regulations that underpin course design, and ingrained reliance of relying on previous State Standards. The faculty members perceived that the previous Soviet mentality was impeding them from practicing the new education paradigm. The study indicates that these challenges need to be addressed in order to strengthen the education reforms aimed at educating qualified specialists. This study contributes to knowledge of education change in post-Soviet countries by exploring the transition of faculty members from State Standards control to greater academic freedom in curriculum design in Kazakhstan. The research suggests that faculty members feel uncertain about transitioning to greater academic freedom due to the predominance of previous education paradigms in their practice, attitude and mindset.