Karabay, Akmaral2025-01-172025-01-172024-09-13Karabay, A. (2024). The Sense-Making and Enactment of English Medium Instruction Policy in a National and a State University in Kazakhstan: A Multi-Level, Multi-Actor Perspective. Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education.https://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/8397The internationalization of universities has led to a significant increase in the adoption of English-medium instruction (EMI) within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Outer and Expanding Circles. In Kazakhstani HEIs, the implementation of EMI has gained momentum over the past decade following multiple governmental initiatives, references, and policies. However, the EMI policy, like many other reforms in the country, has been predominantly top-down and has not been clearly articulated at the governmental level. When a government initiates such inchoate policy, institutions, as a rule, tend to introduce the policy, ignoring their capacity and/or enacting it substantially based on their own interpretations. Little knowledge exists about the readiness of HEIs to enact EMI policy or their experiences of translating it into practice. Hence, this study explores how the governmental EMI policy is interpreted and enacted in two different types of HEIs located in two regions in Kazakhstan and how the interpretations and enactment practices differ across levels (national, institutional, and classroom) and universities (state and national). Employing the integrated theoretical lens of Enactment theory (Ball et al., 2012) , the Onion framework (Ricento & Hornberger, 1996), and Language-in-Education Planning (LEP) (Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997), the study explores interpretations and enactment processes at multiple levels and from the perspectives of four main groups of policy actors involved in its enactment (EMI managers, heads of departments, faculty members and students). Framed as a qualitative interpretive multiple case study research design, the study utilized governmental and institutional policy documents, alongside views of policy actors gathered through individual interviews and focus group discussions. The study revealed that policy actors’ interpretations (Chapter 4), framed as governmental, institutional, and individual, are shaped by their role in policy enactment. The policy is largely focused on country at the governmental level, and policy actors’ interpretations are institutionally and individually oriented at the respective levels. As the majority of policy actors support EMI, the governmental framing of EMI within trilingualism policy appears to alleviate resistance towards English. Not only disciplinary differences in EMI interpretations were evident, the analysis also demonstrates that the well-resourced national university has higher expectations from EMI compared to the less-resourced state university. Despite the absence of clear governmental guidelines on institutional policy enactment (Chapter 5), the universities exhibit similar organizational approaches to EMI enactment. Institutional leadership at both universities aims to expand the number of EMI programs, yet concerns at the classroom level center around the quality of EMI delivery due to the lack of thoughtfulness in addressing LEP issues. The classroom level enactment (Chapter 6) also demonstrates little guidance from those at the higher level. The perception of EMI design as a mere language switch is contrasted against the need for methodological changes, suggesting the need for more focused EMI training for faculty members. Overall, the EMI policy in Kazakhstani HEIs demonstrates alignment with broader governmental objectives. However, enactment challenges remain at the institutional and classroom levels. Addressing these challenges requires a nuanced approach to institutional and program planning as well as targeted support for faculty development.enAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United StatesType of access: EmbargoEnglish-medium instruction (EMI)policy enactmenthigher educationKazakhstanlanguage-in-education policypolicy actorsPhD thesis