Senior teacher Chepiga O.I.

Bytursinov state-run university of Kostanay, Kazakhstan

Subject: Multicultural education in modern Kazakhstan.

One of the main peculiarities of the early twenty-first century is an amplification of the intercommunication and interdependence of countries and nations for the purpose of mutual enrichment of cultures. In these circumstances, the problem of tolerant coexistence of different ethnic and social communities is recognized by scientists around all over the world, because there are almost no monoethnic States. Consequently, the importance of multicultural education is emphasizing. This type of education can allow the man to master the ability of tolerance to the foreign culture’s experience.

Kazakhstan has been involved in world’s cultural process from ancient times. Transit peculiarities of Kazakhstan and cultural exchange were clearly appeared at the time of the Silk Road’s discovery. Cultural intercommunications have intensive development in modern times. Particular geographical location at the crossroad of East and West has identified the ethnic look of Kazakhstan. An analysis of the scientific and professional literature about this subject shows, that there are three groups of peoples which determines republic’s ethnic character. This are: The Kazakhs, the European population (East Slavs, Germans), as well as Tatars, peoples of Asian and Caucasian origin (Uzbeks, Uigurs, Turks, Azerbaijanians, Kurds, Tajiks, Dungans). All this units are united by a common faith and the community-based lifestyle.

Kazakhstan as the multicultural society needs in modern Weltanschauung, which is pointed at integration of cultures and nations for their following friendship and mutual enrichment. Eurasian roots of the peoples of Kazakhstan allow to connect the Eastern, Asian, Western, European streams and create an unique Kazakh variant of multiculturalism’s development. In this connection, a modern society makes more demands to a professional and its ability to adapt to constantly changing conditions of life. The teacher should master multicultural training because of needs of education practices.

The main descriptive characteristics of multicultural education consists of its anti-racism focus; mandatory for students of all ethnic and cultural groups; focus on achievement of social justice; continuity and dynamism; reliefs and transformational nature. Thereby we can see how multicultural education allows individuals to break the limits of their cultural experience (background), delivers the ethno-cultural knowledge, provides intercommunication with representatives from different cultures and fosters civil responsibility and political activity for the embodiment of ideals of a democratic society.

Analysis of the leading concepts of multicultural education has allowed to reveal its essential characteristics.

1. Multicultural education is a basic and necessary education for all students, without exception. The condition of multicultural education of students is determined by the degree of their assimilation of the content and capacity of knowledge and concepts of national and universal values, history, art, literature and traditions not only of domestic people, but also of the people living in a multicultural society (at least, the student should know the main events and national heroes of the Nations whose representatives are studying with him in the institution); the student must be good at least one foreign language.

2. Multicultural education aimed at achievement of social justice, that is aimed at protection and improvement of the social status of individuals who belong to the historically oppressed groups, and therefore who did not have access to education (the colored citizens, women, senior citizens, physically and mentally challenged people; people who do not have work and roof over their heads).

3. Multicultural education is described as a dynamic process, in which the teacher teaches students to understand, accept and appreciate a person of other cultures, but not only acquaints them with actual material about ethno-cultural groups.

4. Multicultural education is interconnected with critical pedagogy and relies on its principles, because critical pedagogy contains valuable and useful recommendations for the formation and development of the individual's ability to think critically, which enables him to evaluate various facts and events independently and without biased opinion; contains practical experience of support to the individual before the individual will be able to get adaptation to the requirements of society.

Multicultural environment of society gives rise to the prerequisites for creating a multicultural educational surrounding in the school, which would be represented as a system of continuous, focused educational action of teacher to give students not ready complete knowledge, but the ability to think critically, to evaluate cultural phenomena, historical and political events independently and without bias. The main peculiarity of a multicultural educational environment is its frankness to the needs of society and the readiness to respond to the educational needs of its members.

According to scientists, multicultural educational environment dictates the urgent need to implement the training-instructive, educational process, taking into account ethno-cultural factor, accentuating the cross-group harmony and cultural pluralism, creating conditions for learning the cultures of other peoples, which promotes a tolerant relations between participants of the educational process. Teaching in a multicultural environment is based on the idea that knowledge is a social and evolutionary process, which was subjected to distortions due to the negative influence of various forms of discrimination. Multicultural educational environment requires a reflection of such fact in the content of education, that culture, history, politics and art of Kazakhstan society are all the product of the interaction of different ethnic and cultural groups from Kazakhstan.

Prospects of the further researches are associated primarily with the development of multicultural training of teacher, because Kazakhstan’s society is in dire need of competent teachers who are capable of working in a multicultural educational setting. Also the problem of cultivating of tolerant attitude towards physically challenged people deserves a special consideration because in Kazakhstan such kind of people still not feels themselves as the full-right members of the multicultural society.