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• Children’s Literature in Transcarpathian Schools for Teaching English as a Foreign Language

  108-120

  Enikő Nagy-Kolozsvári

  János Gordon Győri

  Views:

  463

  Since the origins of formal foreign language teaching, literature has always played an important role. Currently, modern language teaching trends suggest starting foreign language learning as early as possible; thus, the use of children’s literature in foreign language teaching is undergoing a revolution. This situation encouraged us to examine the use of children’s literature and the attitude of foreign language teachers to it. This article focuses on primary and secondary school English language teachers in a western county of Ukraine (N = 118). The results of the qualitative research revealed that the teachers’ general attitude to the use of children’s literature is positive; they are aware of their advantages but still avoid using these materials. Most teachers do not apply children’s literature in their foreign language teaching because the school curriculum is too congested and fast-paced, they do not have access to appropriate authentic children’s literature, or they were not taught how to utilize authentic children’s literature during their university years. Results suggest that teachers should be encouraged to use children’s literature, though there is no universal solution. The first suggestion is for schools themselves to support teachers, but it would be a significant step forward if this approach were also to be taken in in-service training.

• Religious Socialisation of Children and Youth in Eastern Orthodox Christian Church as Educational and Pastoral Challenge of Sharing of Cultural Practices

  1-16

  Liana Galabova

  Views:

  458

  As a result of three decades of social-cultural transformation, Bulgarian literature and practice of religious education though still rare is increasing and improving. As the Church recovers, local parishes, monasteries, and convents become visibly re-socialised and motivated again to provide more adequate pastoral care for all ages. This study explores the importance of informal improvisation and innovation as an approach, in the best interest of children and youth, at a time when an effective, regulated mass public religious education system in Bulgaria is not likely to appear soon. At the same time, revitalised eparchial, parish, convent, and monastery centres start meeting actual needs of renewed church ethos, and begin to provide opportunities for religious socialisation of children and youth that is more functional. Based on direct and indirect experience, on observation, and on partial access to limited local empirical data (that is historically and/or anthropologically only partially explored and categorised), this paper contributes to the analysis of the following unresolved issue: how to direct research toward and keep account of well-known educational and pastoral practices, whether traditional or contemporary, that aid the effective and sustainable religious socialisation of children and youth.

• Parental Assistance with Assignments – Types of Parental Involvement in Homework

  25-36.

  Mária-Magdolna Szász

  Views:

  625

  The present study analyses – using qualitative methods – parental involvement in children’s homework, the forms of parental involvement and the types of parents in the studied area, emphasizing the decisive role of parents in the educational life of their children, using the sample of several rural settlements in Szeklerland. By focusing on the rural context, this research contributes to the existing literature by offering a more nuanced understanding of parental involvement, potentially uncovering challenges and strategies that are unique to rural communities. The literature lacks a parent typology based on qualitative research. The most common types of parents are: “aversive”, “ ambitious “, “partner”, “accountable”, “networking”. The benefits of parental support for children’s learning at home have been widely emphasized by experts in recent research. Active parental involvement has a positive impact on student achievement and learning. It also gives parents a better insight into school life and enables them to develop a partnership with the teachers.

• Educational poverty in Italy: concepts, measures and policies

  1-10

  Gian Luca Battilocchi

  Views:

  953

  In recent years in Italy, as a result of the initiative by the NGO Save the Children Italia and of the government action, we have witnessed the success of the notion of “povertà educativa”, as an effective way to indicate severe inequalities in education across the country. Firstly, the aim of this paper is to shed light on the different concepts and measures of educational poverty in socio-economic literature, in order to highlight specific and innovative aspects of this idea. Moreover, the paper intends to scrutinize Save the Children’s proposal in order to monitor and tackle educational poverty as well as to show how the action of the NGO has influenced the development of Italian recent government policies against child and educational poverty.

• Gender Differences Among Teacher Education Students in Light of a Pilot Study

  80-93.

  Enikő Gál

  Views:

  225

  This paper aims to present the measurement tool designed to examine gender differences among teacher education students and the results obtained during the research. The theoretical section of the paper describes teachers’ and parents’ influence on children’s gender role attitudes, gender socialization and career orientation. To prepare the questionnaire, we analyzed the Hungarian and international literature and built on the results of our previous qualitative research. We grouped our questions into three dimensions: (1) gender socialization in the family, (2) parental involvement, (3) gender socialization at school and career orientation. According to our results, gender-neutral toys were more often chosen by male students’ parents, and mothers were more involved in their children’s school activities than fathers, setting higher expectations as well. Teachers and parents, especially mothers, played an important role in students’ career choice. In addition, students perceived that teachers handled them differently depending on their gender in terms of the evaluation of their academic progress and behavior as well as the frequency of compliments and punishment.

• Insuperable Language Inequalities? A Reflecting Study on Bernstein's Linguistic Codes Theory and its Critique

  Barbara Biró

  Tímea Ceglédi

  Views:

  115

  Kindergarten education is compulsory in Hungary, and the National Basic Programme for Kindergarten Education foresees effective language activities. This is in line with what Bernstein has proposed to address language inequalities. The research question is whether linguistic differences can be observed among kindergarten students in Hungary based on the socio-economic situation of the place of residence. The investigated settlement categories according to Government Decree 105/2015. (IV. 23.), and the Central Statistical Office data were the following: disadvantaged, less disadvantaged and advantaged (N=39). The speech of kindergarteners was examined using three playful tests, which were analyzed applying dimensions and indicators determined by reviewing the literature written by Bernstein, his followers, and critics, and a pilot study. During the analysis, the underperformance of the disadvantaged settlement’s children was detected in several scales, sometimes spectacularly (adjectives, word count, sentence coherence in the first test, noun-verb relationship), sometimes only to a lesser extent (the use of conjunctions, extended sentences, personal pronouns). Overall, the results support that Bernstein’s theory created two generations ago are still valid today: language inequalities can still be experienced in terms of the settlement disadvantages. The research draws attention to the need to increase the efficiency of mother tongue development in kindergartens.

• Types of Fathers’ Home-based and School-based Involvement in a Hungarian Interview Study

  95-103

  Zsolt Csák

  Views:

  278

  This study explores the ways that Hungarian fathers are involved, at home and at school, in their children’s
  development and achievement. It also identifies the types of fathers that emerge based on this involvement.
  According to the literature, paternal involvement at home and at school contributes to academic achievement,
  similar to the involvement of mothers, but to a lesser extent and in different ways. The theoretical framework of
  the research relies on the types of parental involvement as defined by Epstein. The research was qualitative,
  based on 14 semi-structured interviews and the classification of fathers, resulting in three groups of similar size.
  The first group comprised fathers who contributed to their child’s achievement at home, often by helping with
  school-related activities, while not participating in school events. The second group included fathers who were
  involved at home and at school alike. Finally, the third group consisted of four divorced fathers, three of whom
  were involved both at home and at school, due to their particular situation. Overall, fathers’ school-based
  involvement can be increased by the supportive attitude of wives, fathers’ greater confidence in themselves and
  their abilities, and by informal events organized by schools (cooking or sports days), in which fathers are more
  likely to participate.