Changes in the state of alternative education from the regime change to today

Abstract

Opinions are divided on the emergence of alternativity and pluralism in education. The 1976 Pedagogical Lexicon does not contain articles for alternative pedagogy, or alternative schools, and the curricular experiments of the time were not categorized as alternative pedagogical solutions (Báthory, 2001; Langerné Buchwald, 2017), even though these formed the basis of subsequent alternative pedagogies and schools, and played an important role in the alternative pedagogical movement of the ‘80s (Mihály, 1989; Kozma, 1990, 2009; Báthory, 2001). The 1985 public education reform which legalized alternative pedagogies/schools that deviated from the socialist pedagogy of the time, could be considered a landmark of this movement (Báthory 2001). Since then, education, and more specifically, the legal background of alternative schools, has undergone numerous changes: the public education law; the emergence of the national core curriculum, which also changed a number of times; in the early 2000’s, besides the national core curriculum, the frame curriculum was also intruduced, which also changed many times. The funding of schools has also changed significantly, as well as the national funding of non-state alternative schools. In the scope of this study, legal documents pertaining to the regulation of alternative schools - the public education law, the national core curriculum, the frame curriculum statutes and the frame curriculum catalog - were analyzed, to find out how the operating conditions of  alternative schools have changed since the 1985 public education reform, what trends in educational policy could be identified and what effect these changes have had on alternative education and pluralism in Hungary.