Abstract

Educational reform in post-Soviet contexts is often framed through deficit narratives that cast local legacies as impediments to Western modernity. This paper challenges such framings by utilising a third-space lens to analyse how Kazakh language teacher educators navigate the structural constraints of state-mandated reform. We used a multimodal phenomenological approach involving five experienced Kazakh language teacher educators as research collaborators. Our methodology utilized three distinct registers of engagement: questionnaires featuring comic strips, the “Significant Circles” visual mapping tool, and dialogic interviews using metaphorical image cards. This approach allowed us to move beyond traditional boundaries of professional discourse to reveal the submerged epistemological labour of the trainers. The study provides a novel decolonial framework for understanding teacher agency by introducing “living through epistemicide” as a pathway toward epistemic freedom. Findings indicate a definitive shift from deficit discourses toward a narrative of epistemic vitality. We demonstrate how “untranslated” local pedagogical philosophies serve as vital intellectual resources for educators navigating asymmetrical knowledge systems. By mobilising these frameworks alongside imported models, educators enact a triple consciousness that resolves apparent contradictions through principled reasoning. This study unsettles global hierarchies of expertise, repositioning Kazakh teacher educators as central theorists who reclaim the right to interpret the world from their own location. Furthermore, our collaborative positionality as Kazakh and South African scholars fosters a South-South dialogue that purposefully bypasses the traditional center-periphery model of knowledge production.