Faculty Development Competitive Research Grants 2020-2022
The Republic of Kazakhstan following the global agenda the blueprint of better and sustainable future for all, UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number 4 (Quality Education) and number 10 (Reduced Inequalities) has been paying attention to provisions of inclusive early childhood education (IECE). IECE represents a key policy and practice implementation that facilitates the education and socialization of all children with and without disabilities in Kazakhstan. However, despite the government’s remarkable investments in education, research conducted by global agencies reveal that children with disabilities are unaccounted for in these endeavors (e.g. UNESCO; Human Rights Watch). This explanatory mixed-method research is the first of its kind to explore the policy, provision, implementation, and practices of inclusive early childhood education from multiple perspectives in Kazakhstan. The study is composed of three phases and starts with a quantitative survey on the provision of IECE. There will be 4 separate surveys targeting school principals, IECE teachers, parents and other key education professionals (e.g. defectologist). The findings of the survey will feed into the development of the second phase of the study which includes 15 case-sites in 5 contrasting regions. The findings of the case sites will illuminate on the selection of the case study IECE settings. The case study IECE settings will adopt a more in-depth analysis of the IECE settings practice of inclusion through multiple data collection strategies including a novel observation tool (i.e. Inclusive Classroom Profile). The data sets then will be merged and synthesized in order to develop an in-depth understanding of the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood settings.
|Effective start/end date||1/1/20 → 12/31/22|