The Department of Philosophy and Political Science has a unique history spanning over 50 years. Currently, the department has a staff of 14 full-time faculty members, including 5 candidates of philosophical sciences, which constitutes 35.7% of the total teaching staff. At present, Senior Lecturer Akkulieva A.E. of the department is a third-year student in the Philosophy program at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University under the supervision of Lecturer Ranova G.K., and is also a third-year doctoral student in the Cultural Studies program at Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University.
The department's staff is fully staffed and meets both qualitative and quantitative requirements.
MISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT
The department’s mission is to ensure the socio-cultural development of future specialists based on the formation of worldview, civic, and moral principles.
EDUCATIONAL AND METHODOLOGICAL WORK
To provide methodological support for the department’s courses, work on developing educational and methodological manuals and textbooks is actively carried out. In particular, in recent years, department faculty members Kulbayeva D.D., Kuandykova E.Zh., and G.K. Musabekova published a textbook on Philosophy, A.A. Imanbaev published a textbook on Logic, and A.A. Imanbaev and Imanbekova released a Russian-language educational-methodological manual on Political Science.
Additionally, the textbooks “Philosophy” and “History and Philosophy of Science” by R.E. Dzhunsheev and G.K. Musabekova, “Practical Philosophy” by Associate Professor G.B. Nuradin, and “Ancient Eastern Philosophy” by G.K. Musabekova (including structural diagrams and tables) were recommended for use in higher education and postgraduate institutions in Kazakhstan by the decision of the Republican Educational-Methodological Council’s Educational-Methodological Association at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Currently, these works are being distributed to university libraries across the country.
In the process of using digital technologies in higher education, the department has developed massive open online courses (MOOCs) in both Russian and Kazakh, including “Philosophy” and “Practical Philosophy,” as well as “Foundations of Civilization” and “Philosophy of Culture” in Cultural Studies. Associate Professor G.B. Nuradin supplemented the collection of Kazakh MOOCs on the Coursera platform with the course “Fundamental Concepts of Philosophy.” This course is the 20th online course developed in Kazakhstan.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Faculty members regularly publish scientific articles in journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, as well as in publications meeting the requirements of the Committee for Quality Assurance in Education of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The department is conducting a three-stage research project for 2025–2027 on “Philosophical Analysis of the Political and Cultural Identity of 21st Century Humans.” Currently, the second stage of the research, focusing on the cultural and anthropological aspects of the 21st-century individual, is underway.
Moreover, the department faculty is conducting research within the framework of a grant-funded project for 2024–2026 titled “Practical Philosophy: An Integrated Educational and Design-Thinking Metamodel for Teaching Social and Humanitarian Disciplines,” with a total budget of 87 million tenge.
The department’s “Logos” Scientific and Cognitive Club plays an important role in developing students’ research activities. Under the club’s organization, small scientific-practical conferences are regularly held involving university students as well as students from regional and city schools and colleges.
SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY WORK
The department actively participates in the social and community life of the university, the city, and society at large. For instance, D.D. Kulbayeva and R.E. Dzhunsheev are members of the scientific-expert group under the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan in the Zhambyl region. Department faculty regularly publish analytical articles in the media and on social networks concerning ongoing political-social reforms and pressing societal issues in the country.
