Article Series: Education, Identity, and Peace in Kazakhstan
What does it actually mean for education to contribute to peace?
Not peace as an abstract idea or something we reference in mission statements—but as something lived in the everyday interactions between students, teachers, and communities.
We are living in a time where uncertainty feels constant. Across countries, there are tensions—political, cultural, and social—that shape how people see the world and each other. Schools sit directly within this reality.
So the question becomes more immediate: How do we help young people not only to succeed, but to live alongside difference—with understanding, with respect, and with care?
Over the past two years living and working in Kazakhstan, I’ve started to notice that this question is not always named directly—but it is present.
I work in an international school, and many of our students come from different educational and cultural experiences. Some have grown up in systems shaped by the legacy of the Soviet era – structured, academically rigorous, and grounded in discipline. Others are part of a more modern Kazakhstan – globally connected, multilingual, and outward-looking.
What stands out is not the difference between these experiences, but how students learn to navigate them.I remember sitting in a classroom discussion where students were exploring a global issue. What struck me was not just the range of opinions, but the way students approached each other’s ideas. There was disagreement, but it was measured. Students listened, paused, responded carefully. Some shifted between languages to clarify meaning. Others adjusted their thinking as they heard new perspectives.
It wasn’t a lesson about peace.
But it felt like one.
And over time, I’ve started to realise that moments like this are not incidental – they are shaped by something deeper.
What I’ve also started to notice is that this way of interacting does not sit in isolation from the wider culture. Kazakhstan is often described as a country made up of many nationalities, languages, and traditions. There is a strong emphasis on unity – that people of different backgrounds are part of one shared community. This is reflected not just in formal narratives, but in everyday interactions and in how identity is held.
There is a clear respect for cultural and religious diversity, alongside a sense of belonging that does not require people to set aside who they are.
I noticed this most during national and school celebrations, where traditions are not treated as belonging to one group alone, but are acknowledged more broadly – shared, recognised, and valued across communities. It creates a sense that identity is not something that needs to be reduced in order to belong, but something that can be held with confidence alongside others.
At the same time, like any society, there are also layers of complexity. But perhaps that is also part of the point.
Students are not growing up in a perfectly resolved environment. They are growing up in one where difference exists—and where they begin to make sense of that difference, gradually finding their place within it.
Kazakhstan’s history is present in its classrooms. The post-Soviet legacy continues to shape values around discipline, respect for teachers, and the importance of education. These are not abstract ideas – you can feel them in the way students approach their learning and in the relationships within schools.
At the same time, the country is actively shaping a modern identity. Students are learning in multiple languages – Kazakh, Russian, and English – and engaging with ideas that extend beyond their immediate context. They are growing up connected to both local traditions and a wider world. These are not viewed as isolated experiences, but worlds students learn to hold at once.
Working within this context, I’ve become more aware of the role of teachers in shaping not just learning, but relationships.
One of the things I have come to appreciate most is the warmth and care that Kazakh teachers bring to their work. There is a strong sense of responsibility toward students, rooted in values that feel deeply embedded – respect, community, and a genuine commitment to supporting young people.
Students are expected to work hard, to persevere, and to take learning seriously. But this is often held within relationships that feel steady and human. There is a sense that education is not only about achievement, but about how students learn to exist with others.
This is where the idea of peace becomes tangible.
It is not something separate from the classroom.
It begins in classrooms where students learn to listen before responding, where they learn to hold more than one perspective at a time, and where they learn to navigate differences without losing themselves.
In that sense, what I am seeing in schools here feels significant.
Students are not being taught about complexity as a concept. They are living it everyday.
I am still early in my experience here, and I approach this thought with curiosity more than certainty.
But what I am beginning to see more clearly is that there is something important happening in places like this – contexts where history, culture, and change intersect in everyday learning.
This is why I’m starting this 3-part series.
To explore more deeply what it means to educate in a space where multiple worlds meet, and what that might offer to a broader global conversation.
Because perhaps the work of building a more peaceful world does not begin with just policy or strategy alone.
Perhaps it begins in classrooms like these – where students learn, every day, how to live with difference, how to listen, and how to hold multiple perspectives at once.
This is the first in a three-part series exploring education, identity, and peace in Kazakhstan. In the next article, I take a closer look at what it means for students to live and learn between different educational worlds.
