2. Medium of instruction and educational equity: Implications for multilingual policy
Juldyz Smagulova
(with Elise Ahn and Aliya Zhakupova)
Astana, November 23-24, 2016

3. Aim
To observe and analyze emergent patterns of education inequity by focusing on the nature of structural, social and cultural barriers to educational access.
Question:
What is the relationship between language of instruction and students’ literacy practices and literacy skills?

4. Theoretical assumptions
Underpinning this project was the assumption that language is a pre-condition to educational equity.
By examining how languages are distributed in society is a key to understanding issues of access and provide insight into the ramifications of real-world policy decisions.
Equity in this paper is defined as the practices, systems and environment promoting students’ equal opportunities and equal access to educational resources.
Literacy is not just knowing how to read and write, but also to be able to apply this in specific contexts (Scribner and Cole, 1981)
Literacy is a social practice (Street, 2003)
Literacy is contextualized and embedded in social relations of power and equity

5. Data
I. Data collection instruments: Survey, field notes, and documents
Languages: Russian and Kazakh
Site: 29 public secondary schools
Participants: 2954 students (9-11th grades)
Period: Spring 2014
II. Data collection instrument: Literacy test
Site: 10 randomly public secondary schools
Participants: 241 students (4th grade)
Period: Spring 2015

6. Context 1,67 mln residents Educational, cultural, and financial center
In 2014, Kazakhs – 53%, Russians – 33%, Others – 14%
Languages – Kazakh, Russian, others

7. Survey Tool Category # Sub-category # * Examples Education 25 Language3
What is the language of education at your school?
Logistics 5
Do you live your area of registered residence?
Goals 6
Do you plan on taking the UNT?
Resources and Activities 17
Do you participate in education activities outside of school? 4
Practice 7
Evaluate your language proficiency in X language.
Personal 23
Household Expenditures
How many people live with you in your residence (including yourself)?
Background 2
Do you have your own room?
Resources
Do you have a mobile phone?
Technology
Do you have a social media account, e.g., VKONTAKTE profile?
Personal/Family 22
Who is the primary caregiver in your family?
Total 52 71

8. UNT Plans by MOI

9. University Choices by MOI

10. Self-Reported Proficiency in the MOI

11. Educational and reading practices
Twice as many students from the Russian-medium schools attend tutorials and twice as less say they prepare specifically to UNT.
Many Russian-speaking students start additional tutoring in secondary school and their parents spend more money on extra-curricular activities.
Kazakh-speaking students tend to start extra-curricular activities later, in high school, and 20% of respondents reported attend UNT preparation courses that focused on teaching to test.
Children from Russian-speaking schools report that they have bigger home libraries and read more books for pleasure.

12. Questionnaire and Literacy Test
Background questionnaire
Literacy test - four parts
Two texts: fiction and non-fiction
Non-fiction text from Grade 4 science textbook (Дүниетану and Познание мира,Алматыкітаб,2015)
Fiction: a translated story from English
Literacy tasks include:
expressing and justifying an opinion
reading comprehension
retrieving an explicitly stated information
making straightforward inferences
demonstrating functional literacy
demonstrating logical reasoning in argumentation

13. Results Table 1. Home language, %
There are more students in Russian-medium school who use MOI at home
Bilingualism in Kazakh and Russian is higher in Kazakh-medium schools
More than third of students from Russian-medium schools have access to other languages
Table 1. Home language, %
What language do you use to communicate in addition to the medium of instruction at school?
Only MOI
Russian
Kazakh
Other languages
Kazakh-medium school
25.3 69 - 6
Russian-medium school
43.4 17
39.6

14. Results
Majority of students from Russian-medium schools read in Russian outside of school
Students in Russian-medium schools are more likely to come from more economically advantageous households

15. Russian-medium school
Results
On average students from Kazakh-medium schools spent 25% more time on the test than their peers from Russian-language schools
Students from Kazakh-medium schools performed worse in all parts of the test
Table 6. Reading comprehension, % of correct answers
Russian-medium school
Kazakh-medium school
Where else do animals get water besides water reservoirs? (after reading an extract from a grade 4 textbook) 73
23.9

16. Results Table 7. Functional literacy, % of correct answers
Table 8. Inference, % of correct answers
Russian-medium school
Kazakh-medium school
If you want to watch a cartoon, what time do you need to turn on TV? (after reading a TV schedule) 89 38
Russian-medium school
Kazakh-medium school
Why do many desert plants have long and thin leaves? 83 31

17. Results Table 9. Expressing opinion, % of responses
Did you like the story? Explain your answer
Russian-medium school
Kazakh-medium school
0 – irrelevant answer or no answer 8
44.3
1 – partial comprehension: either feeling or explanation 55
48.5
2 – complete comprehension: feeling + explanation + one or more reasons 36 7

18. Findings Literacy gap due to:
Socio-economic factors and cultural capital (e.g., home literacy practices)
Insufficient language proficiency in MOI

19. Conclusion
Asanova (2007 contends that in Kazakhstan “education policy makers tend to view the reasons of the achievement gaps as residing with schools, rather than occurring due to structural inequalities, including inequalities in learning opportunities for privileged and disadvantaged students” (p. 82).
Our data hints at systematic imbalance in educational opportunities, particularly access to literacy resources and opportunities to acquire literacy skills, between students of Kazakh and Russian-medium schools.

20. Recommendations
Reevaluate current literacy curriculum and intended learning outcomes.
Prepare literacy specialists and provide teacher training in literacy.
Consider mother-tongue education or support program for L2 learners.
Develop support programs for children from socially disadvantageous groups.
Start literacy campaign and parent education.

21. Sources
Asanova, J. (2007). Seeing near and far: Balancing stakeholder needs and rights in Kazakhstan’s educational reform. Canadian and International Education 36 (2), Article 6. Available:
Hull G., Hernandez G. Literacy. In The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. Oxford: Willey-Blackwell, 2010.
OECD (2014). Reviews of national policies for education: Secondary education in Kazakhstan [Обзор национальной образовательной политики: Среднее образование в Казахстане]. policies-for-education_rus_iac2014.pdf
Street, B. (2003).What’s “new” in New Literacy Studies? Critical approaches to literacy in theory and practice. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 5(2),