This study examines how teachers in Kazakhstan experience the implementation of a large-scale, top-down school improvement initiative, the “Targeted Schools” program. Drawing on semistructured interviews with 32 teachers across three regions, thematic analysis revealed three patterns: administrative shock stemming from opaque school selection criteria; superficial professional development characterized by misaligned content and compulsory testing under degrading conditions; and psycho-emotional burnout accompanied by defensive collective behavior, the study conceptualizes as forced solidarity. The findings demonstrate how uncritical policy borrowing produces compliance without genuine improvement, and how accountability-driven reform, absent adequate capacity and relational trust, systematically undermines teacher professional identity. Implications for the design of equitable school improvement policy are discussed.
Sarmurzin et al. (Sat,) studied this question.