The reform context in Hungary was affected by the Hungarian government movement to reduce the number of early school leavers to less than 10 percent by 2020. The University of Miskolc took part in the Project EFOP-3.1.2-16-2016-00001, entitled “Methodological renewal of public education to reduce early school leaving” project that supported the measures to reduce early school leaving. This project focused on renewing the content of teacher training and in-service training to facilitate a change in pedagogical approach. Within this project, researchers focused on “methodological training of teachers to prevent early school leaving without qualification.” One major professional development aspect was Complex Instruction (CI). Complex Instruction sought to implement the specific professional content of interventions according to the needs of institutions. Complex Instruction supports the prevention of school leaving via a rich set of professional tools and services. Complex Instruction helped to improve the organizational culture of schools and, on the other hand, to increase the student retention capacity of schools by expanding the methodological repertoire of teachers. This led to the initial connection with the iSTEP program. Hungary provides an example of how the iSTEP Institute worked as a catalyst in a country characterized by a fractious political environment and contentious debates about university curriculum. It provided commitment to embedding the principles into a program context. The iSTEP Institute provided a new focus on practice-based teacher education that served as a catalyst for advancing practice-based teacher education throughout Hungary. Despite the challenging socio-political context, the focus on equity -- derived from the foundational Complex Instruction Program -- was retained. Faculty began working to establish strong relationships with schools – a novelty in the Hungarian context and indicative of the power of the network to transform existing institutional arrangements. The Institute also served to elevate a norm for high-quality PD for teacher mentors and strengthen coherence between the university curriculum and teaching practices in schools.

Project EFOP-3.1.2-16-2016-00001