Charting ethnic Kazakh returnee students’ journey through Community of Practice in Kazakhstan

Abstract

The concept of Community of Practice (CoP) plays a central role in shaping the dynamics of members’ participation within a community; particularly new members’ transition from periphery to full participation in a new CoP. Additionally, the CoP framework highlights the need to consider the power members of host community exercise in both supporting and challenging newcomers’ journey of participation. This study applies the framework of CoP to explore the journey of participation undertaken by returnee students from China in a new environment of Kazakhstan. Specifically, the research is aimed to address the following questions: i. How does the linguistic backgrounds of returnee students influence their level of participation in a new CoP in Kazakhstan?; ii. How do returnee students identify themselves as members of a new CoP and what membership identities are ascribed to them by old members?; iii. What are additional factors that promote returnee students’ transition towards full participation in a new environment? The study employed a qualitative phenomenological research approach comprising individual semi-structured interviews with six returnee students in one university located in the Eastern Region of Kazakhstan. The data was subjected to an iterative thematic analysis informed by the CoP framework. The analysis revealed that returnee students’ transition from the periphery to the core is a multilayered process. Their journey of participation from peripheral to full participation in academic and social domains is shaped by language constraints encountered in three languages—Kazakh, Russian and English. In addition, returnee students’ transition from marginal to core membership in their new CoP is both impeded and supported by the identities ascribed to returnee students by old members such as teachers, local students and other community members. Finally, the study identified other factors that support returnee students’ journey towards core membership including the support offered by older members of the new CoP, i.e. more-experienced returnee students, teaching staff, university administration. The findings imply that gaining deeper understanding of returnee students’ participation would enable university and teaching staff to foster returnee students’ participation and engagement in academic and social settings.