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226 NEMECEK, KETTERER, IBRAYEVA, and LOS A Survey of Journalism Educators in Kazakhstan Based on the history of teaching journalism in Kazakhstan, this study sought answers to two main questions: What do journalism educators think about the curriculum? And what do they think about their teaching? Thus, the researchers conducted a national survey in Russian, Kazakh, and English. Nearly all educators in Kazakhstan received questionnaires and 53 percent responded. Participants were evenly divided by gender. They were predominantly teachers (81.2 percent) with magister degrees (82.4 percent) in journalism (84.7 percent). Two-thirds were forty-one or older, and nearly the same proportion had eleven or more years of teaching experience. About half had six or more years of journalism experience. Respondents held strong views about the curriculum. They thought teaching ability has more influence on students than curriculum. But they favored updates to include new media and student internships. Moreover, they supported teaching that focuses on national history and culture, and training students to report the country’s accomplishments. They supported, but were less certain, that curriculum should be determined locally instead of nationally. Asked how to improve the curriculum, several educators said it should emphasize the accomplishments of past Kazakh journalists and writers, as well as the country’s traditions. It also should focus more on Kazakh journalism. “Currently, there are no disciplines which prepare students to be adequate citizens of their homeland, to honor national traditions and culture,” one wrote. The curriculum focuses too much on Russian disciplines and not enough on Kazakh ones, said another. More practical examples should be available for teachers, especially Kazakh ones, said a third. The educators held more mixed views about journalism teaching. They most strongly agreed that universities should be free of political influence and that a professional journalism educators’ association should be created. Further, they agreed that they teach the difference between news and opinion and that students learn about their rights and ethics. Interestingly, they acknowledged pressure with regard to students’ grades and from the media industry. Nearly all agreed they give students the grades they deserved despite pressure from administrators and others and that they feel pressure from employers to teach skills. Importantly, about half said they plan to leave journalism education because of inadequate salaries. Fewer than one in ten reported they receive a salary based on merit. They also agreed they receive little support and little EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 227 time for scholarship. Although about half agreed research is important at their university, only 6 percent agreed they keep up with the methods of research and scholarship in Central Asia; the same percent reported receiving some external funding. Only about a third reported reviewing international scholarship for teaching examples. Not surprisingly, higher salaries, less paperwork, and stronger support for scholarship were the main ideas mentioned in open-ended responses as ways to help teachers do a better job. “A better salary will help teachers to pay more attention to each student, rather than to teach more students with lesser attention for more money’s sake,” one respondent wrote. “Teachers should be provided with additional time to do scientific work because they are very busy with exercises for students,” wrote another. “Teachers should be confident in their future, so they will give all of their capabilities to teach, but not for trying to survive,” a third wrote pointedly. Implications for Civil Society and Democracy These are troubling results for those engaged in teaching journalism. While educators struggle with the inadequacies of their profession, they must also contend with fundamental changes that the young people they teach have gone through in the years since independence. The authors of “A Social Portrait of Young People in Today’s Kazakhstan” say that contemporary students are different from those of the Soviet past. For them, freedom for youth is an “essential condition.” Their research finds that students rate positively “the potential opportunities that freedom and democracy promise for their future” (Eshpanova and Nysanbaev 2006). Thus, students demand choices, understand competition, and want a satisfying profession that will present them with good options for a secure future. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has voiced support for these aspirations and set a goal that the country should aspire to be among the world’s top fi y most competitive countries by 2015. His changes include an accreditation system to rank universities according to international standards. In addition, new technology and teaching methods would provide the workforce...

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