The Academic Reception of Austrian, German and Swiss Reform Pedagogy Representatives in Hungarian Educational Science in the Interwar Period. Quantitative Content Analysis of the Magyar Paedagogia (1918–1939)

Abstract

By remarkably dissenting from the contemporary mainstream educational thinking, reform pedagogy played a pivotal role in shaping the educational landscape of Europe and North America. This influence was also reflected in the professional periodicals of these geographical areas. Focusing on the Central European macroregion, my paper aims at examining the references to the different representatives of three (at least partly German-speaking) countries’ reform pedagogy within the pages of the prominent Hungarian educational journal, Magyar Pedagógia (Hungarian Pedagogy). The study applied computer-assisted deductive content analysis in order to identify the key figures of reform pedagogy in the text of the journal. The results indicate a notable increase in the number of the mentions subsequent to the Trianon Treaty. These reform pedagogy representatives frequently co-occurred in the same writings, with the work school (Arbeitsschule) being highlighted as a key nexus where their ideas converged.