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Social Mobility through Education: Lifelong Learning and the Roma-Minority in Selected Central and Eastern European Countries
58-69Views:548Education plays a central role in supporting or impeding social mobility (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1974; Fend, 1980, 2006). The disadvantaged social and economic situation of the biggest part of the Roma minority (not only) in Central and Eastern Europe is usually seen as the main reason for their low educational attainment and success. And vice versa: the poor educational results are considered the main reason for their social deprivations. Therefore, education and lifelong learning have become the main strategy for improving their situation, especially since the ´Europeanization of the Roma issue` (Ram, 2015) through the European Union. Today, Education and lifelong learning are now the centre of EU-policies for achieving political and economic goals, like economic growth and social cohesion (Óhidy, 2008, 2009). This article analyzes the problems faced by and opportunities presented to the Roma people in selected Central and Eastern European countries, problems and opportunities arisen in the years up until 2020, regarding social mobility through education. In its analysis, this paper focused on the similarities. The article is based on 5 country studies from 2019, written by experts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia (see Óhidy & Forray, 2019). The study uses the evidence from the country studies from Markéta Levínska, Dana Bittnerová & David Doubek, 2019 (Czech Republic), Julianna Boros & Eszter Gergye, 2019 (Hungary), Agnieszka Swietek & Wiktor Osuch, 2019 (Poland), Aurora Adina Colomeischi, 2019 (Romania) and Rastislav Rosinsky, 2019 (Slovakia) to explore the similarities in challenges, to increase the participation and success of Roma people.
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Myth or Reality? Mobility Trends among Recent Graduates of Different Fields of Study
43-57Views:290The paper focuses on the intergenerational mobility processes in Hungarian higher education over the past decade. Its purpose is to explore these processes and to analyse the differences between the fields of study. The second-generation mobility theories, which serve to be the theoretical background of this paper, focus on the differences between income, education, occupational groups and social classes in connection with status attainment and mobility. Among the mobility theories relating to higher education, theories analyzing inequalities are studied, to discover whether they are found in Hungarian higher education („Maximally Maintained Inequality”, MMI and the theory of „Effectively Maintained Inequality”, EMI). The analysis also covers the „dynastic effects” related to mobility, whether they strengthen or weaken intergenerational processes. The database of the analysis is the Graduate Career Tracking System 2010-2021.
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International Academic Mobility as a Capacity Building Factor in Higher Education
82-91Views:344International academic mobility means the teaching or research activity of higher educational instructors or researchers, which spans a couple of days or a few months, during which individual professional growth, the establishment of international cooperation and networks, personal relations and friendships may develop. It is also considered to be a fundamental necessity for building capacity and an outstanding supremacy, even if a country’s academic resources are modest. Thus it is crucial to gain information about its current and actual state, quality, standards, struggles and the direction it is heading towards. As a part of a bigger research study, we wanted to know how international academic mobility, used for capacity building, changes over time, and whether country-specific features and patterns could be traced. In this present study we made an attempt to uncover the international activity based on the academic mobility of the full-time instructors at two Hungarian higher educational institutions. One of them is a large university that plays a leading role in internationalization. The other is a dynamically developing regional knowledge center. We examined the instructors of two faculties from the first, and everybody from the regional knowledge center, since it is smaller in size. Altogether 210 instructors responded to our 60 questions in the survey. The surveys were processed in the SPSS statistical analysis program. Concerning the examined discussions, categories and proposed topics, our research was built upon two previously carried out investigations – a Hungarian and a Norwegian one. We found that in Hungary in the given time period (2012-2014), the instructors with the strongest international activity were: 1. the men; 2. those who held higher academic positions; 3. those who were married or were in a relationship; and 4. who were from the field of social science.
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First Generation Students in the Hungarian Higher Educational System
53-65Views:392The first part of the study attempts to summarise the most frequently used and cited theories and empirical findings in the field of first generation students. The specialist literature has identified those factors (cultural background of family, parents’ special attitude toward learning, the features of the time-budget etc.) which can generate a disadvantageous situation within the higher education system for these students. However, the presence of this group is a significant indicator of the openness of a society and social mobility, and a more careful analysis of this population may reduce the drop-out rate, as well. During the empirical analysis two databases were used (Eurostudent VI, Hungarian Youth Research 2012 and 2016). Our results draw attention to the process of social closure and the decreasing chance of attending higher education for young people from lower social groups. This unfavourable shift can mirror the relatively closed features of Hungarian society, but at the same time it can make the distances among social groups more rigid.
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Staying aspirations among Hungarian minority students in Central and Eastern Europe
61–70Views:21Research on youth mobility in Central and Eastern Europe has primarily focused on migration intentions and the drivers of out-migration. Much less attention has been paid to the motivations behind staying, particularly among national minority youth living in peripheral regions. This study examines the staying aspirations of Hungarian minority university students in Central and Eastern Europe and explores the demographic, human, economic, and sociocultural factors that shape their intentions to remain in their home regions. Drawing on the aspiration–capability framework developed by Carling and Schewel, the study analyses survey data from 1,107 hungarian minority students enrolled in higher education institutions across several Central and Eastern European countries. Using multivariate statistical models, the analysis investigates how different forms of capital and regional embeddedness influence students’ aspirations to stay rather than migrate. The findings suggest that staying aspirations are not merely the result of limited mobility opportunities. Instead, they are strongly associated with sociocultural embeddedness, minority community ties, and forms of social capital that connect students to their local environments. These results challenge the dominant migration-centred perspective in mobility research and highlight the importance of immobility as an active and meaningful life strategy. The study contributes to the growing literature on youth immobility by demonstrating how minority status and regional attachment shape mobility aspirations in Central and Eastern Europe.
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From Ukraine to Hungary: A Specific Case of Student Mobility
101-103Views:237Bibliography of the reviewed book: Pallay, K. (2024). Mobility, career development, integration. Mobility, career development, integration. Students of the Balassi Institute in Transcarpathia]. University of Debrecen Centre for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD).
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Pedagogical modernization or political assimilation? The 1879 elementary education act in the mirror of parliamentary debates and Néptanítók Lapja
13-19Views:36Act XVIII of 1879, which mandated the teaching of the Hungarian language in all elementary schools across Hungary, represented a decisive turning point in the educational structure of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of Ernest Gellner (1983) and Eugen Weber (1976), this research focuses on how state-driven linguistic homogenization emerged simultaneously as a professional necessity and a tool of nation-building. Our study presents the content of the act and the pro et contra arguments within the parliamentary debates surrounding its adoption. Furthermore, it highlights the core concepts and elements of the official pedagogical discourse following the legislation through a qualitative thematic analysis of the 1879 issues of Néptanítók Lapja (People’s Teachers’ Gazette), a government-sponsored weekly professional journal. Our findings reveal an inherent contradiction in the official rhetoric: while the journal promoted innovative, communication-centered “natural methods” in language instruction, these pedagogical advancements primarily served to consolidate political loyalty and erode minority national identities. The analysis identifies three main discourse types: the professionalization of the “Magyarization” process, the ideological construction of the Hungarian language as a “civilizational” prerequisite for social mobility, and the practical challenges faced by rural educators working in multilingual environments. By placing the Hungarian case within a broader European comparative perspective, the study contributes to the understanding of how 19th-century school systems functioned as arenas for national identity construction in multiethnic regions.