A contextually adapted model of school engagement in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This study introduces a culturally adapted 17-item scale of school engagement. It seeks to measure school engagement in young people in a society undergoing a rapid transition from a collectivist to individualist mind-set, and an education system focused on improving performance in international assessments such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS. The school engagement scale is validated by testing the empirical fit of a second-order multidimensional factor model of school engagement taken from the Western literature to large-scale data in Kazakhstan. Culturally relevant features are added, such as the strong influence of ‘important others. The model tested was formed from 1) an individual’s cognitions and behaviours associated with school and 2) the social influences of parents, peers, and teachers. 1744 secondary education students in Kazakhstan participated in the study. Confirmatory analyses supported the hypothesized additional contributory factors to school engagement. Differences in means across gender, grade, school-type, and geographic location showed: (1) higher cognitive engagement for young women; (2) rural students with higher levels of behavioural engagement; and (3) substantial differences in social support by grade and rurality.