In recent years, factors suggesting that we are living in a world risk society (Beck 1997, 2007; Beck&Grande 2004) have been strengthening. Economic and political crises, increasing poverty, new migration flows, political populism gaining strength and technological changes (ICT, web2), in addition to the intensifying European youth vulnerabilities specified at the beginning of the century (Furlong & Stalder & Azzopardi  2000), create new vulnerabilities for child and youth generations both in Europe (Sortheix & Parker & Lechner & Schwartz 2017) and in Hungary, such as the crisis of freedom, solidarity, empathy, values of autonomy (crisis of universal humanistic values, crisis of European values), furthermore, exposure to manipulations of the post-truth era, the “fear industry” (Beck 2007). The influencing effects of the mass media have become dominant on young people’s thinking. Along with the appearance of web2 and smart devices, time spent on talking in the family is decreasing, thus the impact of the family on young people’s thinking and value orientations is also decreasing. The role of peer groups has been revalued. In most recent years, real, face-to-face friend communities have been taken over by virtual youth interpreting communities and influencers guiding the individual. As a consequence of all this, in Hungary, school age children use the Internet and social media as a basic source of information, which thus become fertile grounds for hoaxes, misconceptions, manipulative grouping of information, and claiming false facts. This vulnerability is reinforced by the phenomenon of increasing isolation, seclusion, measured among Hungarian youth (Gábor 2012, Jancsák 2013), which means that children and young people leave the filter system of traditional interpreting communities (family, peer friend communities) that would restrict the spread of misconceptions and manipulation (Galán 2014). The Hungarian educational system is not prepared to provide answers for this phenomenon. This applies for the school subject of History and Civic Education, which provides civic education within the frameworks of educational documents (National Core Curriculum), with its key task to sensitize (educate) students in grades 8 and 12 of public education (14- and 18-year-olds) into conscious, active citizens. Our earlier studies reveal that history education, due to its textbook-driven nature, performs its democratic education function to a lesser extent, contents reflecting on civic education issues are absent from history teacher education, and teachers do not feel prepared for this task. (Jancsák 2018)

Relying on the value theories of Rokeach 1968, 1973; Schwartz 1992, 2006; Rezsohazy 2006, our research focus was whether the phenomenon of value crisis/value change could be detected among Hungarian children and young people in two school life phases that are significant from the point of view of civic education. Our other research question aimed at discovering whether the phenomenon of value crisis appears, and how it appears, among teachers of History and Civic Education. Furthermore, we investigated what opinions students and history teachers hold concerning value transfer processes that are and that could be realized within the framework of History as a subject in case of certain European (universal, humanistic) social values such as freedom, solidarity, autonomy, democracy, right for making decisions, critical thinking, active citizenship, and empathy.

The empirical data of the present paper were gained through my studies conducted in Hungarian public education institutes. Questionnaires were administered in two age groups: among 8th graders in primary school (14-year-olds) and among 12th graders of secondary school before their matura exams (18-year-olds). The first data collection happened in the spring of 2017, the second is happening in the spring of 2019. The venues of data collection were the 28 partner schools of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – University of Szeged Oral History and History Education Research Group. In the two data collection phases of the research, questionnaires were and are administered among history teachers as well (2017 N=133, planned for 2019: N=200). The items on our questionnaire were based on Gábor’s (2013) adaptation of the questionnaires applied by Rokeach (1968), Inglehart (2000) and Schwartz (1992), for Hungarian youth research, and specified for the democratic and civic competencies expected to appear in history education according to the Hungarian National Core Curriculum, and also supplemented with a group of questions on values of democratic competencies, critical thinking, historical thinking and active citizenship. The independent variables of our study, in case of the students, are sex, age, cultural capital of family (parents’ qualifications, talking about historical and public topics), economic situation of family (financial situation), the interpreting community role of peer friend communities made up of real people, and online user habits. In case of the teachers, the independent variables are sex, age, year of earning a degree, and participation in further trainings.

According to our expectations, in the two data collection phases, changes in the social environment of the youth and school in Hungary (e.g. the communication environment appearing in connection with the European Union and migration), the opinion forming of virtual interpreting community platforms (websites, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter), and the reception of manipulative media contents all had an impact on students’ value orientations and structure of value judgements. Our study revealed the expected research findings that the phenomenon of value crisis/value change (Rezsohazy 2006) means the devaluation of universal (European) values and the preference of material values of a new type (financial well-being versus equality, consumption versus environmental awareness) and the preference of individual values (egocentrism versus empathy, experiences versus solidarity, individual versus community, benevolence and altruism versus stereotypical thinking and hate). At the same time, it is also assumed that, in case of History and Civic Education as a subject, there is a chasm between the teachers, who are more sensitive from the point of view of critical and historical thinking, and new generations, being formed in school, who are exposed to new vulnerabilities.

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