Capacity Building of Early Career Researchers through the Mentoring Program in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Informed policies must be created to support teachers' capacity for research and their involvement in it. The Mentoring Program for Research Capacity Building of Young Researchers of Regional Higher Education Institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan was established in order to meet this requirement. The present research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the program and the mentees’ perspectives on it. The longitudinal design case study used mixed methodologies to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data. The study participants comprised 12 early career researchers affiliated with the universities of the Western region of Kazakhstan. A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design with a single group time-series design was employed to identify differences in mentees’ research attitudes and challenges in conducting research before and after intervention – at the start and end of the mentoring program. One-to-one interviews with 9 mentees were conducted to have an in-depth picture of early career researchers’ perspectives on the mentoring program and support required for them. The results showed that the early career researchers’ level of perceived research engagement increased from pre-intervention to post-intervention of the mentoring program. The interviews with the program mentees outlined their overall positive perspectives on the mentoring program scoring it 9.7 on a 10-point scale. The mentoring program allowed them to develop analytical skills, critical thinking, and research planning. The program mentors received 9.9 on a 10-point scale because of the information and experience they shared with mentees, which helped them develop their research capacity. The research results and developed strategies could be applied to many higher education institutions that intend to support their researchers. Research development officers, university administration, and policymakers may utilize the findings of this study to create a complete framework for strengthening research capacity and infrastructure from both organizational and individual perspectives.