Abstract
Responding to globalisation, neoliberalism, and its attendant imperatives (e.g. internationalisation, economic competitiveness), Kazakhstan, like many other countries, introduced a trilingual policy and English medium instruction (EMI) reforms in schools. Research on EMI suggests that purported affordances aside, EMI can also entail potential disadvantages, and emotional cost for practitioners, especially teachers with a relatively limited professional training and lower linguistic skills. Since teachers’ affective experiences and emotional challenges have received little attention in Kazakhstan, this study probes STEM teachers’ emotional experiences to understand how they navigate the EMI policy, and how the policy entangles with their professional roles, professional selves, and identities. Drawing on data from interviews with 60 teachers from six regions/cities, the data demonstrate that due to perceived inadequacies in English language and pedagogy, teachers report intensely charged emotions such as stress, frustration, reluctance, fear, embarrassment, and lowered confidence. Similarly, teachers’ feelings of voicelessness and a sense of split/divided professional identity entangle with the top-down policy, and lack of professional preparedness. The study concludes with a theoretical premise that the teachers’ negative emotions and eventual “emotion labor” originate more in the sociocultural structure/system, and in the local policymaking and governance mechanisms than in teachers themselves.