Framework curricula for public education in Hungary were first issued in 2000. In accordance with the educational policy of the period they were compulsory for all public educational institutions. After the 2002 governmental change these framework curricula became optional. As a result of a one-and-a-half-year developmental work, in 2013 a new set of framework curricula covering all types of schools was completed. Their gradual introduction starting from grade 1 of each type of school is again compulsory. Our presentation will be about two related research projects. The first project was carried out before the development of the new framework curricula, between December 2011 and March 2012. Its aim was to explore which curricula proved to be good in practice, what changes took place during school adaptation, what modifications were needed, etc. The ongoing project aims to repeat the relevant elements of the previous one, that is, to study the implementation practice of the new framework curricula. We intend to explore how and to what extent the new framework curricula were built into the pedagogical programmes and local curricula of different schools from grades 1 to 12. Our central concern is to examine if the structure of the new curricula developed on the basis of results from the previous project has proved efficient. As the current research project is being carried out in a different regulational environment, the areas involved have been modified, new areas have appeared, emphases have been shifted. The hypotheses: • Institutions differ considerably as to how deep their adaptation processes were, who and to what extent were involved in developing local curricula. At one end of the scale are institutions that added the least necessary to the framework curricula involving the smallest possible group of people, at the other end are schools that developed real local curricula through a creative interpretation process. The question is how schools are distributed along the scale between these two ends and which end is a typical school closer to. We presume it is closer to the first type described. • Schools are heterogeneous as to what problems they were faced with and how they reacted to them – both in the development and the implementation phase. Their problems could be identified and typified – at least from the point of view whether they are originated in the framework curricula or some external factors (shortage of time, lack of experience, etc.).

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