Abstract
This study examines language and education policy in Kazakhstan through the lens of parental language ideologies in minority communities including Chechen, Ingush, Korean, and Turkish groups with a focus on language of instruction. Drawing on narrative writings and interviews, and employing Spolsky's framework, it finds that Kazakhstan's education system offers limited institutional support for minority languages, despite official multilingual and multicultural discourse. This gap is largely driven by state-led Kazakhization and trilingual (Kazakh–Russian–English) policies tied to nation-building and modernization, which together produce symbolic multiculturalism: the state acknowledges diversity but does not substantively support it in schooling. In response, parents adopt pragmatic strategies — prioritizing Russian for integration, Kazakh for identity and mobility, and English for global opportunity while confining heritage languages largely to the family sphere. At the same time, schools, media, and state policy actively reproduce these language ideologies, even as families negotiate and contest them in everyday life. Over time, this produces gradual language shift with reduced everyday use, weakened intergenerational transmission, and heritage languages retreating to ceremonial functions. The study recommends integrating heritage languages into curricula, supporting community-based programs, strengthening multilingual teacher training, and building more inclusive assessment systems that balance national unity with linguistic diversity.