Abstract

‘Knowledge is not for knowing: knowledge is for cutting’ (Foucault, 1984). The paper provides a space for reflection on the questions of ethics and truth-telling in two studies recently conducted in Kazakhstan. The first study with the focus on student transition is a part of an ongoing collaborative programme of work between Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK, and Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. The second study with the focus on urban inequalities in Kazakhstan was conducted by the research team based at KIMEP University, Kazakhstan. In both cases collaborative nature of research has exposed tensions between different understanding of the format, ambition and timing of the research as these are interpreted by the local and international researchers. This paper presents perspectives of the two female researchers who in the process of negotiating the cultural schemas and hierarchies of the Western and Kazakh academe, re-discover their own identities, which are at once ‘local’ and ‘Western’, an ‘insider’ and an ‘outsider’, which is a reflection of the author’s diverse cultural background and pathways into research.