Secularism, Security, and Education Policy:  Religious Studies and Civic Integration in Kazakhstan

Arstan Satanov; Assel Myrzakhmetova; Igor Khlebnikov; Yevgeniya Matorina; Farida Kadirova

doi:10.32350/jitc.162.15

Authors

Arstan Satanov Astana IT University , Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3206-4976
Assel Myrzakhmetova Karaganda Buketov University , Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7695-9475
Igor Khlebnikov Karaganda Buketov University , Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2695-5580
Yevgeniya Matorina Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools , Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6701-7361
Farida Kadirova International Public Foundation "Bilim-Innovation", Kazakhstan https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4358-669X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32350/jitc.162.15

Keywords:

civic integration, extremism prevention, Islam in Kazakhstan, Post-Soviet education reforms, religious literacy, secularism, state-centric relational model

Abstract

Studies of religion and education policies are well-developed in modern Kazakhstan. However, scholarship on the interrelation between these two fields remains somewhat insufficient. The current study attempted to fill this gap by showing how Religious Studies were introduced in secondary schools. Furthermore, this study also showed how Religious Studies developed into a full-scale government policy of profiling and neutralizing the radicalization of the youth as a main source of the growing challenge of religious extremism. In depicting the peculiarities of the state-centered approach in the implementation of social engineering, the current study also showed the shortcomings of a strictly administrative approach to complex societal problems. While administrative inertia is crucial in pushing a secularist agenda in curriculum and schooling instruction, the underdevelopment of textbooks, training of cadres, as well as the cold communal response to the governmental intervention into what is considered personal beliefs represent crucial factors undermining these policies. The study of the respective socially sensitive topic was conducted by examining the state legislation in archival documents, textbooks, curriculum, literature as well as media narratives’ review and the original survey of teachers (N=675).

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