The aim of the Positive Peace Education in Kazakhstan research project, funded by the Central Asian Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Transformation (CARCEIT), is to explore conceptualizations and enactment of culturally relevant positive peace education in schools in Kazakhstan, in order to inform national curriculum development. Researchers, policy makers and school leaders and teachers are working together closely in the project, which began in May 2023 and will finish in December 2025.

We are currently working with 33 teachers in 7 schools across Kazakhstan, who have designed and are implementing action research projects based on the Positive Peace Matrix after participating in intensive workshops led by Hilary Cremin and NU-based researchers. Through regular interaction with these teachers and through their weekly reflection notes, as well as observation notes from our school visits, and questionnaires and interviews with students, teachers and school leaders, we are gradually learning what positive peace is and can be in the multiethnic context of Kazakhstan.