A critical interpretive reading of international higher education in Kazakhstan

This critical interpretive study aims to contribute to the scholarship that calls for epistemological recognition and representation of the global South. This call is seen as displacing questions of redistribution. The article utilizes interviews and focus group sessions with Kazakhstani graduate students to explore their experiences and perspectives on international education. The views are analyzed and interpreted employing three theoretical perspectives: (1) critical (decolonial) internationalization to show how internationalization promotes independence from the Soviet system while encouraging the adoption of Eurocentric education systems, (2) whiteness to illustrate the influence of the global racialized social system dominated by western/English knowledges and (3) distributive justice to demonstrate the benefits the nation and individuals obtain from internationalization amidst inequity claims. With these frameworks, both the individual and national benefits accrued from internationalization can be seen, while English/Western knowledge practices undermine national knowledges and languages. The processes ultimately sustain global North epistemological supremacy and hegemony.