Studies
Fischer, Ferenc
The 1956 Hungarian Revolution as Reflected in Spanish History Textbooks
We proceeded along three concentric lines in our five-year MTA-PTE academic research group project entitled the “Image of Hungarians in Central Europe and Ibero-Amercia in the Second Half of the 20th Century” started in January 2007. First we directed our attention to the image of itself Hungary projected in the direction of Central Europe, Europe and the rest of the world. That is, our examination followed a logic proceeding from the inside out. The next, second line of our investigation dealt with the image of Hungary and Hungarians in Central European countries, that is, our point of view changed, and we looked at our home elevated from this group of countries, from outside in. Finally, we extended the third line of our examination to our global world, not in its entirety, but to as broad a slice as possible, thus to the Ibero-American world, or to Spain, Portugal and the countries of Latin America. In the Ibero-American dimension, we rather thematically sought an answer to how the Hispanic-Lusitanic world saw our home in the past half a century, and within this mainly two major turning points: the 1956 Revolution and our role in 1989 with the end of the global Cold War division. The present study deals more precisely with the “The reflection of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Spanish history textbooks” in the third line of the examination.
Vajda, Barnabás
Chips Off a New Didactic of History Teaching II.
The Didactic and Method of Source-Processing Work – an Analysis
The author is one of the eminent representatives of the young generation of Central European history teachers. He is an instructor and researcher of history who teaches methods and history didactics on the History Faculty of the János Selye University’s School of Education. His annotation “Introduction to History Didactics and History Methodology” was published by the university at the end of 2009. (Mária Sávoly reviewed the volume in our third issue in 2010.) We have published and are publishing two chapters – that can stand on their own – in our previous and current issues. Earlier, we published chapter 8, on lesson planning, of this slim, hard-to-get volume. This time, we are showing our readers chapter 11, which deals with analyzing sources. The author raises then answers a whole range of analytical questions on the topic. The study can serve as useful analytical “background material” especially for present and future “cultivators” in our source-based history teaching in secondary school, but it can also serve as assistance “for laying the groundwork” in primary school.
Latest issues
Farkas, Csaba
Monarchy and Power
The Paraenesis of György Rákóczi I in the Mirror of Other Works on State Theory
One work after the other on state theory, in which the person of the ruler is at the centre, were produced in the 17th century. It is not by chance that this is the century of absolutism, and it pre-empts and paves the way for the forthcoming philosophical breakthrough, the enlightenment. We find among the authors rulers, thinkers and advisors. The works often contain paraenesis and advice on how the ruler is to behave. The paraenesis genre has a grand tradition in our own home, considering Saint Stephen, who established our state, also wrote a paraenesis for his son, Prince Emeric. The 17th century brought a golden age of works on state theory in Hungary, and especially Transylvania. At the centre of this study is the Paraenesis of György Rákóczi I, the thoughts of which are enumerated in the analysis and compared to such works which could have been the consciousness of the monarch, impacting his world view, the way he exercised power and the guiding work he wrote later for his son György Rákóczi II.
School: Dobó Katalin Gymnasium, Esztergom
Advising teacher: Endre Gergely
Workshop
Albert B., Gábor
Sándor Domanovszky and the Institutionalisation of the Hungarian Textbook Revision Movement
A number of educational and other organisations became involved in the textbook revision movement in Hungary in the 1920s. At the beginning of the 30s, the textbook revision movement was institutionalised and established its own division of labour. The C.I.C.I. (Commission Internationale de Cooperation Intellectuelle) Hungarian National Commission’s Foreign Textbook Affairs Sub-Committee (referred to from here on as the Foreign Textbook Affairs Sub-Committee) took on negotiations and the drafting of concrete proposed changes. At the same time, the Fourth Department of the Ministry of Religion and Public Education (referred to from here on as the MRPE Dept. No. 4) carried out the collection of material, the ordering of foreign textbooks and Hungary’s foreign representation, that is the processing of textbooks with the involvement of Hungarian academic institutions. The person of Ferenc Olay ensured communication between the two organisations. He was at the same time the presenter of the Foreign Textbook Affairs Sub-Committee and the head of the MRPE Dept. No. 4. During the 30s, Sándor Domanovszky played an active role in pushing forward textbook revision with constructive proposals, first as a member of the sub-committee, then, after a short time, as its chairman. While Olay oversaw the organisational work, Domanovszky’s name always came up in the background, in the preparation of strategic decisions. Our present, non-exhaustive study shows the work of the MRPE Dept. No. 4, but also covers Domanovszky’s proposals. Our paper concentrates on the first half of the 30s. Primarily we undertake the reconstruction of events, dispensing of a detailed analysis of their historical impact.
Dévényi, Anna
Changes of Ideology-Approach and Didactic in Hungarian History Textbooks Between 1945 and 1989 – An Anti-Revolutionary Prime Minister’s Example
The study follows the “career” after 1945 of an “anti-revolutionary” prime minister, Gyula Gömbös, in Hungarian textbook literature, thus attempting a schematic presentation tracing changes to content, ideology and didactics. It briefly sketches the transformation of Hungarian history writing after 1945 (concentrating primarily on an assessment of the Horthy period) and strives to show its direct and indirect effects on textbooks. In addition, the study reveals the role of politics in shaping textbooks, showing in several points how the dictatorship used history and history education to legitimise its own power and acts.
