The Role of School Principals in Education Reform in Kazakhstan by Dr David Frost, Kazakhstan Programme, Faculty of Education. School Autonomy Policies in Three Former Soviet Countries of Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Antonia Santalova, DPhil Candidate at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
Duration: 1 hour 28 mins
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Description: |
Seminar presentation by Dr David Frost, Kazakhstan Programme, Faculty of Education on the role of school principals in education reform in Kazakhstan.
Seminar presentation by Antonia Santalova, DPhil Candidate at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford on school autonomy policies in three former Soviet countries of Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. |
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Created: | 2013-12-05 09:11 | ||||||||
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Collection: | Kazakhstan programme open seminar series | ||||||||
Publisher: | University of Cambridge | ||||||||
Copyright: | Dr David Frost, University of Cambridge Faculty of Education & Antonia Santalova, DPhil Candidate at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford | ||||||||
Language: | eng (English) | ||||||||
Keywords: | Central Asia; Autonomy; Educational Policies; Post-Soviet; School Principals; Leadership; Kazakhstan; | ||||||||
Credits: |
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Abstract: | It is widely acknowledged that school leadership plays a major role in educational education reform. While the policy directions for schools are decided at the higher/central levels of the education system, their success often depends on understanding, motivation, and actions of leaders at the school level. In this context this paper outlines an initial exploration based on data which includes the results of a workshop designed to reveal the views and experiences of a number of school principals through structured discussion activities supplemented by a small number of interviews and focus group discussions with school principals. The aim of the research was to explore school principals’ views about the current reforms in Kazakhstan and their roles in implementing and mediating reforms at the school level. The analysis supports a discussion about the role of school principals and how they are responding to the challenge of managing change within the context of the currently programme of education reform. The paper informs future research which aims to focus more intensively on the key role of school principals in ensuring that reform makes a difference to classroom practice in schools.
Two decades ago, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan emerged as new independent states in the territory of post-Soviet Central Asia. During the 1990s these countries transformed themselves from constituent republics of the Soviet Union into independent states. This transformational process was accompanied by the establishment of national education systems in all former Soviet states. According to the World Bank assistance strategies and reform recommendations institutional reforms aimed at decentralization were introduced across all three states. The extent to which these developments actually promoted a significant ‘break through’ in greater school autonomy (as opposed to representing a symbolic desire for change) is examined in this thesis. This study is empirically driven, and contributes to the body of literature seeking to explore and explain institutional transformation in public schooling in the former Soviet countries. The primary objective of this study is to explore and compare the patterns in public schooling management in three post-soviet countries concerned, and, drawing on the premises of institutional theory, to explain the educational changes observed. |
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