Abstract | The Hungarian education system is experiencing a period of major change. The number of students studying at universities and colleges has doubled in the past ten years; last year 96 universities and colleges were amalgamated into 23; and there is also an influx of foreign students into the technical and medical universities. Economically and socially, it is considered that Hungary has successfully completed changes that will take her into the European Union. Many of the educational changes have been driven by the forces of having to change to a market economy. Are the changes likely to enhance the learning experience for Hungarian individuals? By ‘learning’ we understand a fundamental change of view that is likely to impact on an individual’s thinking and behaviour. Firstly, drawing on an earlier theoretical framework that argues for an in-depth historical understanding of culture and change, we analyse the evolution of education in the Hungarian system over the past century. Drawing on a series of interviews with those involved with the changes, particularly at the Budapest Business School, and through a combination of narrative methods and analyses of changes in curricula, we will track the initial responses to these changes and the problems experienced by those responsible for implementing the change. The methodology employed is that of action research. Action research changes focus as it develops, and does not aim to be an accurate picture of a single situation at one point in time. The method has been chosen since it fits in with our views of the world and change, and also to address some of the important methodological problems of carrying out research in the transitional economies ( Michailova and Liuthto, 2000). It draws on our personal interpretations and values and aims at objectivity not through being impersonal or replicable, but through a critical analysis of what is being assumed. The presentation of results will take the form of a reflexive account of our involvement and perceptions of the change process, and will therefore reflect a deepening connection between ourselves as we cross our own personal and cultural barriers. Our chosen method also reflects an understanding that research as it has been traditionally carried out in the West is hierarchical: in this form researchers have power to determine the project and what meanings shall be attached to the lives and words of others, creating a separate culture for researchers: a culture of detachment and power. We want to move away from this, and using action research to expand the meanings so that in our work we can have a ’dialogue’ about the change process which promotes an integration of ideas and meanings between the West and the emerging economies. |
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