Religious Values and Educational Norms among Catholic and Protestant Teachers in Hungary

Katinka Bacskai,Laura Morvai,Gabriella Pusztai

doi:10.3390/rel12100805

Katinka Bacskai, Laura Morvai + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100805

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Abstract

There are several studies looking into the differences between state-run and church-run schools in the recruitment and retention of their teachers. In Hungary, where teachers of church-run schools do not have to meet any special official requirements, church-run education has seen a rapid expansion since 2011. The denominational schools in Hungary are faith-based government-dependent private schools. The number of both Catholic and Protestant schools has increased twofold, and the expansion is still continuing. The vast majority of the newest denominational schools used to be run by the state and were taken over extremely rapidly, along with all their teachers and students, by the church. In our present study, based on our analysis of the survey “Teachers in church-run educational institutions” (2015–2017, N = 1134), we compare Catholic and Protestant teachers from church-run schools. Our results show that there are only slight differences in teachers’ values in the different denominational schools, which implies that the value systems of those schools are highly similar. The detected differences do not depend on the denominations that operate the schools but rather on the individual teachers’ religious affiliation. The most marked differences, however, have been detected between the value systems of religious and non-religious teachers.

Highlights

Are there differences between teachers in Catholic and Protestant schools, as we have seen that the values of the denomination may be different, or will the values of the schools be highly similar along the line of universal Christian values? Does it matter if the maintaining denomination is Protestant or Catholic, or is it more important to which denomination the teacher belongs? We formulated the research hypotheses along these research questions: 2.1
If one’s religious faith is observed individually rather than in a community, it is called spiritual capital. These resources are undoubtedly instrumental in how teachers in Protestant and Catholic institutions of education define their roles, act as role models to children, provide patterns of behavior, and handle stressful conflicts that arise during their work
In our present survey, teachers at Catholic schools appeared much more religious, with two thirds of them claiming to observe the rules of the church, one fifth claiming to be religious in their own way, and only 5% refusing to reveal their position

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Our study aims to examine whether the religiosity and educational values of teachers in different denominational schools are different. A total of 1137 teachers from Catholic and Protestant schools filled out our questionnaire. We examined their religious faith, religious beliefs, the frequency of religious practice, and their educational values. It was important for us to understand how consistent the educational value system of teachers is with the value system of the denomination of the schools in which the teachers work

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