Views from Central Europe: Education & Transition

Thursday, 10 September, 17:15 - 18:45

Location: 105.Oktatóterem [C]

Speakers:Gyöngyvér Pataki; Pavel Zgaga; Marek Kwiek; Voldemar Tomusk; Tamás Kozma; Vlasta Vizek Vidović

Chair: Gyöngyvér Pataki

The theme of the conference is ‘Education and Transition - Contributions from Educational Research’. The conference provides the opportunity for critical reflection on the notion of transition in countries where education in general and specifically educational research has been perceived to have contributed to the democratization of a country since 1989. Political, economic and broader social changes of that time had a major impact on national education systems, but also the sphere of education was often a major player in these changes. In many countries, groups from among the students and teaching staff played an important role in the social and political movements. On the other hand, educational researchers supported major structural changes of the national educational system during the period of the so-called transition.

Giving a brief overview of the educational systems, organizations, subsystems and educational reforms the roundtable will shed light on the complex question of the relative low level of engagement of academics and researchers  from Central and Eastern European countries in the European Educational Research Space, especially in terms of participation in Europe wide conferences. However, the integration of educational researchers from Central and Eastern Europe in the EERA have gradually strengthened and just in the present period a few more national associations from this region are entering EERA (Croatia, Serbia, Albania). The roundtable will have enough critical, epistemological and intellectual mass to go beyond the structures of traditional East-West division and construct an inclusive discourse around the future of the European Educational Research Space which will address the current unequal distribution of the means of power. Entering into dialogue with the audience the roundtable will aim to develop a public discussion about challenges and constraints that face educational research both within the Central and Eastern European region and across Europe as a whole.. The discussion will be organized around six key issues from the perspective of Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Poland:

• What were the key issues in the process of “educational transition” in 1989/90 in Central and Eastern Europe?
• What was the role of educational research during “the transition”?
• What have been the achievements of this process and the barriers to success?
• What are the key issues and responsibility of education in Central and Eastern Europe  today?
• To what extent is educational research in Central and Eastern Europe ready to open up its discourses and networks into a rather unstructured and diverse European and global space?
• What is the future for educational research at a time when the European project is being questioned?