Abstract
The article provides scientific and practical justification for introducing the course “The Image of Kazakhstan in World Literature of the ХХ–ХХІ Centuries” into the educational process and evaluates its pedagogical effectiveness for students in the “Russian Language and Literature” program. The study is relevant because philologists need to critically understand both foreign and local images of the country in global communication. They must resist stereotypes and support open dialogue about national culture. Aim is to assess the course’s impact on developing students’ imagological competence, discourse analysis skills, and intercultural empathy. Methodology integrates imagological and comparative literary approaches with a pedagogical experiment and statistical analysis. The experiment involved 126 students and an original curriculum focused on literary works, travelogues, and media representations of Kazakhstan. Results showed significant improvement: understanding of auto-image and hetero-image increased from 12% to 74%; ability to detect exotization rose from 10% to 78%; and critical evaluation of media images improved from 14% to 76%. A strong correlation was found between mastery of theoretical material and critical thinking development (r = 0.71). The course modernized literature teaching, strengthened research engagement, and enhanced media literacy. Study concludes that the discipline should be included in the mandatory component of philological and teacher education programs, as it develops professionally significant competencies for working with regional material and national context. Its practical value lies in the potential replication of the model in other universities and the creation of interdisciplinary platforms for studying the Kazakhstani text within the global cultural space