Studies
Katona, András
The Reception of the Rákoczi War of Independence in Hungarian History Textbooks Until 1945 – On the Occasion of the 300th Anniversary
The end of April and the beginning of March this year, 2011, marked the 300th anniversary of the end of the Rákoczi War of Independence, the first of the Hungarian wars of independence that rocked the last centuries. This was our only struggle for independence that finished with a compromise, brought visible (albeit, disputable) results too, and did not lead to retaliation, not counting the “voluntary” emigration of Rákóczi and his exiled compatriots. This study seeks to follow – from a remove of 300 years – the reception of the Rákoczi War of Independence in the history textbooks of the past two centuries all the way up to 1945, first of all assessing the whole series of events, especially with a view to the Peace of Szatmár and the circumstances of its signing, while devoting less attention to particular details. In our study, we also try to sketch a picture of the serious influence of the writing of history on the writing of history textbooks. It is also important to note that among the history textbooks that are part of the study, we devoted more attention to those of an aetiological nature, or in modern terms, at the higher level of analytical history teaching, which were used mainly at the end of the course of public education, we could say, since 1850, before the school-leaving exam.
Dr. Kaposi, Zoltán
Past and Possible Results of Factory History Resarch
This well-known economic historian gives an encompassing picture of a peculiar and rarely discussed area in historical research, and, it must be added, in a didactic manner of great use for the teaching of history. First of all, he clarifies the relationship between the science of economics and the writing of economic history, then after a short presentation of the subject in a European framework he gives a sober and proper look at the past and present of the writing of factory history in Hungary. He also takes care to counterbalance the capital-centricity arising from the topic with many examples from South Transdanubia, even sneaking in a bit of local patriotism to the topic. The university instructor and author also tries to sketch a picture of the future with regard to factory history. The big picture offers little reason for optimism, but the author does manage to dissipate the fog of despair. All in all, we can say that we can convey to our readers with studies useful materials for learning and knowledge in history teaching that compliment an abundant list of professional literature with an incentive for further learning.
Latest issues
Babócsi, Károly
Cooperation Between the Jakabszállás and Piotrków-Trybunalski Polish-Hungarian Friendship Societies
The study brings us into recent history, revealing a thin slice of the relationship in the late Kádár era between two friendly peoples, the Hungarian and the Poles, in an examination of the peculiar cooperation between Jakabszállás and Piotrków-Trybunalski, mainly in the 1980s. In the first part, the young author shows the formation of Jakabszállás’s Polish-Hungarian connection, the two participating communities: Jakabszállás and Piotrków-Trybunalski and the formation and operation of the Jakabszállás People’s Front Professional Alliance. The second unit provides a look at the composition of the Polish workers, their completed work in Jakabszállás, activities in their free time, and their everyday lives during their stay in Hungary. In a third part, the author briefly shows the trips of residents of Jakabszállás to Poland. The fourth part describes the process of and main reasons for the decline of the relationship. The richly-documented work uses to a great extent the modern-era method of oral history interviews, but also pays attention to written and pictorial sources. The work, inspired by sociology, is built on local history research, with the use of microhistory’s new option of inquiry.
Workshop
Kojanitz, László
The Processing of Sources for Research-based Learning
The goal of research-based learning is to establish an effective teaching environment in which students gradually build their knowledge of this or that important historical question based on information from original sources. But an analysis of sources is not research-based learning. For this, the method of teaching and learning includes assistance for students that can give their independent work a genuine degree of worth and consequence. What are the conditions for the possible transformation of processing sources into research-based learning? This is what we would like to show and illustrate with examples.
Dévényi, Anna
Cooperative Learning and Cooperative Teaching in History Teacher Training
(Lessons From a Starter Cooperative’s Missteps)
The following take place for demonstration in a university course in which the instructors carried out an experiment on the adaptability of organising cooperative learning. The study deals with several learning processes at the same time. On one hand, it shows the process of the students learning, the course of the class, its goals and their achievement. On the other hand, it examines how the instructor learnt (learns) the correct use of cooperative structures and how to build a course (if possible in all parts) on cooperative principles, which difficulties arise, which mistakes follow and how to try to correct these.
