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