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Pathway to academic well-being: The role of institutional social capital in the well-being of academics in five Central and Eastern European countries
85-98Views:175This study examined the relationship between institutional social capital and the emotional well-being of academics in Central and Eastern European higher education systems. Building on Pusztai’s conceptual framework, this study distinguishes between intragenerational social capital, referring to collegial cooperation and communicative exchange, and intergenerational social capital, referring to informal interaction with students beyond formal teaching. The analysis draws on survey data collected in 2023 from academics in five countries (Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine) (N ≈ 800). Institutional social capital is operationalised through indicators capturing the frequency and diversity of interactions, while emotional well-being is measured using Warr’s Affective Well-being Scale. The results show that intragenerational social capital is a significant positive predictor of well-being, whereas intergenerational social capital has no independent effect. The findings suggest that collegial relational embeddedness constitutes a relevant, albeit limited, resource for emotional well-being in academic work.
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Elementary Schools of Art in Hungary are the Key to Increasing One's Chances, Disadvantage Compensation and Multilateral Self-Development
131-133Views:240Bibliography of the reviewed book: Szűcs, T. (2019). Az alapfokú művészeti iskola, egy esélynövelő iskolatípus. Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetemi Kiadó. 190., 978-963-318-768-5.
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Language, school and society: The status of German in Hungarian public education
159–163Views:89Bibliography of the reviewed book: Sebestyén, K. (2023). Kik és miért tanulnak németet az érettségit adó képzésekben? [Who and why do the study German in the programs with secondary school leaving exam?]. Debrecen University Press.
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The International Comparison of the Educational Systems of Iran, Myanmar and Ethiopia
84-94Views:469Education systems usually fall into two main types: the Continental and Atlantic systems of education. Countries
belonging to the third world often follow after the characteristics of the continental system, however, the
specificities of the country may overwrite some characteristics of the original concept. This article aims to
introduce some specific aspects of the educational systems of Iran, Ethiopia and Myanmar through the
comparison of these systems. According to the data analysis, centralisation is relevant, but decentralisation
tends to be strengthened in each country. Concerning their structure, similarities in the division of levels were
identified, along with differences in duration and focus. Unsurprisingly, the curriculums are different in each
country; however, the basic subjects are almost the same. Finally, the grading systems use similar categories,
although the underlying points providing the basis for the grades significantly differ. Comparing them can
contribute to their evaluation and further development. -
Strengthening family–school partnerships through research, training and innovation: Reflections from the MTA‑DE‑PARTNERED program
71-84Views:219This study presents the comprehensive findings of the MTA-DE-PARTNERED research and development program, which ran from 2021 to 2025, and aimed to explore and develop the theoretical, empirical, and practical dimensions of family-school partnerships. Within the framework of Epstein’s model of parental involvement, the research examined parents’ educational and learning-support activities at home, school–parent communication, volunteering, participation in decision-making, and community building. Analyses based on a review of the literature, large-scale questionnaire surveys, interviews, and case studies show that patterns of parental involvement are influenced by the child’s achievement, school type, school sector, and social background. The MTA-DE-PARTNERED program placed a strong emphasis on improving teacher training, recognizing that teachers’ preparedness and attitudes play a key role in the quality of the partnership. During the development phase, we created an evidence-based collection of best practices, a university toolkit, and an innovative educational board game based on cooperative. The board game aimed to support the positive development of asset-based attitudes among students and teachers through the simulation of various parental involvement scenarios. The results of the impact assessments suggest that the board game significantly contributes to the development of reflective thinking, a multi-perspective approach, and partnership-centered attitudes. This study shows that strengthening family-school collaboration requires systemic, research-based, and training-related innovations that will, in the long term, contribute to the improvement of student achievement and the development of pedagogical culture.
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The Challenges of Adopting a Learner-Centered Approach to On-Line English Teacher Education: A Teacher-Research Study on Jigsaw Reading and PeerTeaching in Cambodia
60-71.Views:508In Cambodia, the shift to on-line learning due to Covid-19 reinforced an already overly teacher-centric approach to education, leading to the risk of greater learner disengagement. To address this problem, I3 embarked on a research project involving the redesign of the on-line delivery of a final year English teacher education course on ‘School and Society’, in which all lectures were replaced with jigsaw reading (JR) and peer teaching (PT) tasks. To track the impact of this innovation, I recorded class sessions, kept observation logs, and obtained data from students’ reflective journaling, interviews, and a focus group. This paper reports on the design principles behind the innovation and its impact on student motivation and engagement. The research has implications for on-line teacher education and the introduction of learner-centered pedagogies in global south contexts.
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A schema social circle of Indonesian students in higher education
143–158Views:91Social circle is one of the issues that we must address. It emerged as a significant social phenomenon because members joined based on their shared interests, rather than proximity or assigned ranks. It changes based on individual needs and the environment. This research aimed to expand the Indonesian community that studies abroad socially, specifically within their social circle. It is also a goal to explore students' social circle strategies as they learn within Hungary's higher education system. Quantitative pilot research was employed in this study. Convenience sampling was used. A questionnaire was administered to Indonesian students to collect data from 22 per cent (N=47) of Indonesians who studied in Hungary. The Indonesian student was the one who held a Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship. All of them come from different educational backgrounds and programs. The results revealed that most of respondents are members of home country student associations. Among various social background variables, educational attainment emerged as the sole significant determinant of multi-organizational membership. Other result is among the identified clusters, there is one that represents new types of motivations including relationship-building motivations, among Indonesian students. These findings highlight the pivotal role of informal, peer-driven networks in the social integration of Indonesian students, superseding formal university-led initiatives. Universities should implement policies that actively promote student satisfaction by facilitating access to identity-affirming and interest-based student organisations, while ensuring the affordability of participation through low-cost or subsidised social programs to guarantee inclusivity and accessibility for all students.
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A General Overview of the Educational Programmes of the Hungarian Football Academies
101-110Views:438In the course of our research, we surveyed the educational programmes of the football academies of Hungary. We wished to reveal the educational aspects of the life of the students at the football academies. The purpose of our project is to comparatively analyse the formal and conceptual dimensions of the educational programmes of the academies through an analysis of the documents of the academies concerned. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with the heads of the social- and educational sections of the academies (N=6). We used the results of the interviews to check–confirm or refute–the results we found. We believe that the findings of our research make it possible for us to better understand the elements and value-based components of the educational dimensions of the football academies. In this way, our survey is similar to the projects of researchers who worked with local educational programmes (for example, Brezsnyánszky et al., 2000). As a conclusion of our research, we may point out that both the formal and conceptual dimensions of the educational programmes of the individual football academies are strongly heterogeneous, and the quality of their pedagogical programmes is often questionable. The results yielded by the analysis of the interviews suggest that although an educational-social department is present at each of the academies, some our former conclusions in connection with the general standards of the educational work were confirmed by the answers we received from our respondents. The academies, almost without an exception, produce their own educational programmes and carry out their educational work individually, and do not cooperate with the other institutions. There is, consequently, no uniform and standard educational work, and there is no professional documentation of the work going on either. In this way, the quality of educational work is not really able to improve.
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Parent-Teacher Communication from the Perspective of the Educator
13-24.Views:3385Several, mostly quantitative, studies have already examined the relationship between teachers and parents, as well as the positive effects of parental involvement. The aim of this study is to explore how parental involvement is realized in communication between the two actors. In the framework of a qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 teachers teaching in elementary schools, and the analysis was performed using the Atlas.ti software. Based on our findings, we concluded that regular communication, common language use, a positive attitude from both parties, and the appropriate use of information and communication technology tools are essential for effective communication. The practical significance of this is that teacher trainees should also emphasize practical education, with a special focus on their ability to establish appropriate communication with parents of different socioeconomic backgrounds.
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Opportunities and Barriers in the Partnership Between Foster Families and Schools
Views:216The primary socialisation area is the family, and the secondary socialisation area is educational institutions. From the point of view of educational sociology, the meeting between the family and the school institution represents the intersection of these socialisation areas (Kozma, 2001; cited in Bacskai, 2020). This issue and its methodological development is something that Joyce Epstein has been working since the 1980s (Epstein, 1986; Epstein, 1987). According to Pusztai (2020a), parenting can be understood as a multifaceted concept, typically referring to the mutual relationship between parent and child. Researchers have focused on this parenting resource mainly from the perspective of the child's progress at school and learning at home, with the parent acting as an external supporter of the work in school. In this research we focus on the specific characteristics of the cooperation between foster parents and schools, and examine the characteristics of foster parent involvement, along with the supporting and detrimental factors of the partnership between foster parents and teachers at the intersection of child protection and public education. Recently, the number of research studies on foster care has increased (Erdei, 2019; Rácz, 2021), but the relationship between foster parents and teachers is still a little-researched area in Hungary. The novelty of our qualitative research lies in the fact that we are dealing with a special, rarely studied group of parents in Hajdú-Bihar County in terms of family-school relations. The second phase of the analysis has us exploring the narratives of teachers. Our basic research questions are: (1) How can the relationship between foster families and school be characterized? (2) What are the forms of contact and cooperation between foster families and teachers? (3) What factors support or hinder the development of partnerships between foster families and teachers? The focus group data collection was based on semi-structured interview schedules. The research participants were foster parents (N=15) and teachers (N=10). The interviews were coded and analysed using Atlas.ti software. The results show that, overall, there is regular, daily, mainly personal contact between foster parents and teachers. The teacher's tolerant attitude, taking into account the specific educational situation, appeared as a supportive factor. However, there were also a number of cases reported by foster parents where they had been received negatively by teachers. In order to facilitate collaboration between the two parties, teachers would like to receive training (foster families, foster-parent-school collaboration) and would find it useful to have ongoing supervision.
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Labour Market Characteristics of Helping Professionals
66-75Views:399In Hungary, considerable efforts have been made in recent years to analyse the career paths of higher educational graduates, which have highlighted the need for field-specific and training-specific analysis. In this context, our research concentrates on a special training segment, focusing on the position of young professionals working in occupations helping the function of the society. Previous research focused only on the professionalization of the different occupations and the recruitment was examined from institutional and regional aspects. However, during the statistical analysis we examined the social recruitment base and the labour market situation of social pedagogy graduates in the Graduates 2012 (Frissdiplomások 2012) national database. The novelty of our work lies in the comparison of those who graduated in social work, pedagogy and andragogy in full-time programs. The most important result of our quantitative analysis is the statement that the differences in the composition of the group are strongly explained by the regional location of the institutions providing the training. In terms of horizontal and vertical congruence, the values of the humanities group are the most unfavourable.
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“Student success is not an individual achievement” – Motivation and teacher education in the digital age
133–142Views:88The motivation of student teachers is a key issue in contemporary teacher education, typically examined through psychological theories focusing on individual learning processes. This paper does not aim to provide a comprehensive literature review; instead, it offers a conceptual reflection that pays tribute to the work of Gabriella Pusztai, whose research highlights the social embeddedness of student achievement, integration, and persistence. Building on her approach, the study integrates psychological, pedagogical, and sociological perspectives to reinterpret motivation in pedagogical courses. It proposes a three-dimensional framework consisting of integration, relevance, and identity, emphasising that motivation is a context-dependent and dynamically changing phenomenon. The paper also examines how digital learning environments reshape motivational conditions by influencing autonomy, relatedness, engagement, and perceived relevance. The findings suggest that understanding student motivation requires moving beyond individual-level explanations and recognising the decisive role of relational, institutional, and technological contexts.
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Higher Education Choice in China: Social Class, Gender, Parental Involvement and Educational Inequality
97-100Views:654Bibliography of the review book: Sheng, X. (2014). Higher Education Choice in China: Social Class, Gender, Parental Involvement and Educational Inequality. Routledge. 173 pp., ISBN: 978-0-415-84309-6. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315814254
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An International Comparison of Educational Systems: the Columbian, Iraqi and Kurdish cases
110-120Views:672As developing countries aim to improve their education to address the challenges of globalisation's economic and social demands, comparative education can provide references for reforms and changes. Through studying the educational systems of other countries, we can discover which reforms are possible and desirable. This article attempts to demonstrate some specific aspects of the educational systems of Columbia, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan and to compare them. It shows the decentralisation process and challenges of the systems. It also reveals the structure of education of the three systems and their differences related to duration and organisation of primary and secondary schools. Following that, the curriculum provision and their orientations are explained. Finally, the article also tries to find the differences in teacher training in terms of duration and training types, occurring before / during service. The obtained results show that the decentralisation process and its challenges are very similar in these educational systems while there are differences in the duration, structure, and curriculum subjects.
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Sociology of Education – Theories, Communities, Contexts
107-109Views:345Bibliography of the reviewed book: Pusztai, G. (Eds.), (2023). Sociology of Education – Theories, communities,
contexts. Debrecen University Press. -
A Survey of the Vision of Future the Members of the Football Academies have at the Academies in the Capital City and in the Provinces
97-107Views:322Although research into various dimensions of Hungarian football academies has become more intensive over the recent years, there is still a wide range of questions and problems to be addressed, most of which can be identified in the educational-pedagogical dimensions of the academies. Our present research concentrates on the players of 3 academies in the provinces and 3 in the capital city (N=560). As a method of the research, we opted to use an inventory to collect the answers of the players (Rábai, 2021). We interviewed them about the way they imagine their future and their responses were, at each question, analysed in a comparison of the provinces and the capital. We assumed that there were considerable differences between the two groups, based upon the review and findings of the relevant literature. We found significant differences between the answers of the players of the two groups of academies, primarily in the aspirations to achieve vocational qualifications (p=0,039), the students’ views about their prospects of a professional career (p=0,000) and a career abroad (p=0,047) (Rábai, 2021). Our findings suggest that the majority of the young football players we contacted have a largely positive vision of their future. It especially applies to the students of academies in the capital city. In a number of their responses, students in the capital city provided answers that were highly confident.
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Wind Bands for Hungarian Community Music
90-97Views:353The scholarly study of community bands as music communities can be considered a relatively young trend even on an international level. Despite this fact, there is more and more research done on the potential effects they may have on society and music education. Our national literary records on wind bands, however, are mainly focused on their historical background and their legacy in the military. Thus, there is an insufficient amount of information provided on the aspects of sociology and pedagogy. Besides the literary comparison done in our research, we also study the resupply of our national bands in music schools, using available data from the the 2016/2017 Statistical Yearbook of Public Education. This paper serves mainly as a tool of problem identification, laying the groundwork for further researches done in this area.
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International Trends of Remote Teaching Ordered in Light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and its Most Popular Video Conferencing Applications that Implement Communication
84-92Views:2903The global coronavirus pandemic that emerged at the end of 2019 and will reach its peak in 2020 has affected education systems worldwide and led to widespread, complete closure of schools, universities, and colleges. UNESCO estimates that a total of nearly 1.6 billion students worldwide have been affected by the closures of educational institutions. The indicator was the highest in the period from April 1 to April 5, when exactly 1,598,099,008 students were affected by the measures. This accounted for 91.3% of the world’s total learning community, with a total of 193 countries providing full nationwide remote teaching. In response to school clo-sures, UNESCO has proposed distance learning programs as well as open educational applications and platforms that have ena-bled schools and teachers to reach their students remotely and make online education easier (UNESCO, 2020). In addition to reviewing the recent literature and monitoring lockdown measures, the study also suggests a number of specific solutions.
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The Effects of Family Background on the Processes of Foreign Language Learning in Hungary
87-97Views:498In Hungary, the academic achievement of schoolchildren is very strongly influenced by their family background, a statement often quoted in connection with PISA surveys (Róbert, 2004). Although the effects of family background have mostly been studied in connection with key competences, it is easy to see that they are also likely to influence foreign language learning, possibly to an even greater extent (Csapó, 2001). The aim of our paper is to provide an overview of theoretical and empirical findings related to the family background of Hungarian schoolchildren on different aspects of language learning: language choice, individual differences and success in language learning. We hope to provide a meta-analysis of empirical studies and their results, however it needs to be noted that their number is relatively scarce. We would also like to inspire future studies exploring similar, under-researched topics. Research into the effects of family background is imperative, as it appears to play a pivotal role in ensuring equal opportunities in language education.
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Family and Career. Future plans for university students. Ed. Ágnes Engler.
99-101Views:276Bibliography of the reviewed book: Engler, Á. (2018). Future plans for university students. Debrecen: Center for Higher Education Research and Development. p. 212., ISBN 978-615-80077-6-4.
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Women in the Blind Spot: Review of Invisible Women
164-165Views:243Bibliography of the reviewed book: Perez, C. C. (2019). Invisible Women: exposing data bias in a world designed for men. Abrams Press.
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Play and Learn: Introduction of Robotics to the Library
60-66Views:337Our library, the Katona József Library of Bács-Kiskun County, has recently started to introduce the basics of robotics, currently with LEGO Mindstorm kits. LEGO robots are programmed using a simple, graphical interface, making it easy for anyone to learn. Our main objective is to show the public that robotics is not just a thing of the future, but an important element of our time today. We see our work in this direction as a “first step”. Considering different possibilities and needs, two types of programmes on robotics have been developed. The shorter, one-hour session will present the way to robotics in the modern sense, through examples of cultural and technological history and current applications. This will be followed by a playful trial of three different robots on display. For those who want to learn more about robots, we offer a weekly “Library Robot Hour”, a club-like service where you can learn how to code robots and solve specific tasks, either with help or independently at your own pace.
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Physical Activity and Workplace Stress: Influences on Health Perception Among Academics in Central and Eastern Europe
1-13Views:342Several studies have drawn attention to the unhealthy lifestyles of academic staff (lack of physical activity, unhealthy diet, high levels of stress, etc.). However, few studies have addressed the physical activity (PA) of academics, the problem of inactivity as compared to the average population or university students. Our study aims to determine the role of PA and participation in university sports, as well as other health behaviours and sources and resources of stress at work, on the self-assessed health (SAH) status of academics in five Central and Eastern European countries (Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia and Romania). To answer our research question, we used the database of our international survey (CEETHE 2023, N=821). According to our results, SAH is mainly and positively influenced by PA and health-conscious eating, as well as work engagement, and negatively correlated with age, burnout, work-life conflicts and workplace bullying as work stressors. Based on our findings, workplace interventions including sports and time management programmes are recommended for universities, and a safe working environment is essential to improve academics' subjective health status.
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Tablets in Hungarian Primary Schools: An Empirical Study of Institution-level Application
29-37Views:574The increasing interest in introducing tablets into education as well as many countries’ education policies (see Digital Education Strategy) support the integration of the above-mentioned mobile devices (Mulet, van de Leemput & Amadieu, 2019). Accordingly, several governments are presently procuring or have already supplied a significant number of students with these devices (Tamim et al., 2015). Similar to most international large-scale initiatives, there are remarkable variances in tablet-supported education. The different school conditions (infrastructure, framework, human resources) result in the diversity of technological integration. In our research, in order to learn more about the infrastructural conditions at schools’ institutional levels, with online questionnaires we examined 145 primary schools using tablets in their education. We were looking to answer the following, questions: (1) what kind of infrastructural conditions are characteristic of the different institutions? (2) What kind of differences in infrastructural conditions are there between the schools in different settlements? To sum up the results, we can observe significant differences in the number of tablets, their hardware, accessories and software, along with differences in internet access and the regulation thereof.
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Attendance of Pop and Classical Music Concerts among the Hungarian Youth
67-74Views:432In this paper we wanted to give a comprehensive picture of capital theories from a theoretical point of view, looking at it from several angles. In our empirical study, we analyzed the Hungarian Youth Research 2016 database, which was recruited Hungarian youth aged 15-29. The study was conducted with several variables in mind, mapping the influence they have on the attendance of classical and pop music concerts. We took into account the gender, age, place of residence of the respondents, the highest level of education and looked at the frequency of the concert attendance by counties and regions. Our results show that many variables influence the frequency of attendance at concerts by both genres.