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In the broadest sense, social sciences encompass society, human behavior, and its influence on the world. Social sciences help understand how society works, ranging from the causes of unemployment, economic growth, what makes people happy, and so on. The information it provides is vital for governments and policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and local authorities.
Social Sciences and Law
Abstract
There is a general consensus in mainstream education sciences and sociology that the Hungarian educational system has long been highly selective. 1 Although the majority of Hungarian society has high hopes that the educational system promotes social mobility, empirical studies show that the problem of selectivity has not been handled effectively, regardless of the multitude of changes in education policy in past decades. 2 It has become a very fashionable theme in the past few years to denounce the detrimental effects of neoliberalism on the educational system for this failing. 3 We, however, argue that neoliberalism has only played a secondary role in the controversial evolution of educational policy, while its chief causes may rather be found in ambiguous education legislation.
As a result of the aforementioned controversy, the impact of neoliberal economic policy on the institutional selectivity of education needs to be clarified. Accordingly, this paper aims to highlight the main patterns of how the neoliberal idea has affected education, as well as its side effects on social mobility.
Abstract
A common feature of the present-day constitutions of the Western Balkans is the effort to solve conflicts of ethnic character using predominantly legal tools, mostly in a parliamentarian way. However, the practice shows that most legal regimes based on instruments that give preference to the interests of one or more equally strong ethnic groups can be built mostly to the detriment of democratic states. Effective and functional state institutions and ethnic power-sharing in multi-ethnic states seem to be in conflict with each other. Rule-of-law-based models can only function properly if parties have mutual trust and can solve their internal conflicts through compromises among themselves. Political agreements based on mutual trust are more effective in the long term as legal instruments. There are examples of such arrangements in multi-ethnic states of Western Europe (Belgium, Northern Ireland, and Switzerland). Analysis of the solutions of the Western Balkans countries and their comparison with these Western examples shows clearly that hard legal tools (vetoes) do not soften but sharpen conflicts, while informal arrangements based on mutual trust are more productive.
Abstract
As the role that publicly owned and private think tanks play in evidence-based governance grows, several parameters that have a bearing on the agenda, schedule and timetable of the think tanks have already been studied. Here we look at the interplay between the funding model (public vs. private) and the analysis intention (the temporal outlook; ex-ante vs. ex-post approach), choosing Lithuanian education policy, system and agents as the study domain. Among other findings, we see that the funding model correlates with the temporal outlook: the investigated representative of private think tanks tends to engage in ex-ante work more intensively, while the publicly funded equivalent is exhibitive of both ex-ante (preparatory) and ex-post (evaluative) research tactic in almost equal measure. We conclude that the private sector may afford the luxury of being more focused and efficient in its information behavior mostly due to the clear and non-debatable ideological commitment. In a deliberative democracy this is rarely possible. It would be of great interest to check whether the same generalizations hold for jurisdictions that are free from the post-Soviet administrative tradition.
Abstract
The aim of the present study is to identify teachers' reading strategy use in L1 (mother tongue) and L2 (foreign language), and also to examine whether background variables such as gender, qualification, teaching experience, platform of teaching, reading habits, majors, L2 level and the number of L2s known make a difference in teachers' reading strategy use. Reading has been widely researched yet examining L1 and L2 reading strategy use simultaneously yielded contradicting results. Furthermore, there is little research on teachers' reading strategy use although their role in students' reading is vital. An online, anonymous questionnaire including background variables and items from MARSI was used, which was filled in by 256 teachers. Data analysis found that teachers use more reading strategies in L1 than in L2. No background variable had any significant relationship with L1 reading strategy use. Reading habits, L2 level, majors and L2s known, however, did make a difference in teachers' L2 reading strategy use. Thus it seems that L2 metalinguistic knowledge and reading habits might be important to consider when examining reading strategies.
Abstract
In today's globalized, multicultural and multilingual world, diverse social processes and macrocontextual factors are influencing people's motivation to learn a new language. According to OECD, the students' mobility to study abroad has increased more than two times during the past 2 decades, which plays a significant role in the world's future development. This paper aims to obtain a deeper understanding of international students' motivation for learning Hungarian in Budapest, Hungary. To achieve this aim, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 international students who were awarded the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship and have achieved between A1 and B1 level in Hungarian as a foreign language. The interview guide was adapted from Dörney's L2 Motivational Self System and Taguchi, Magid, and Papi scales. The collected data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that international students have integrative and instrumental motivation for learning Hungarian. However, their integrative motivation purposes are more common than their instrumental motivation.
Abstract
This article intends to show that while the strong VET-labour market link has a long tradition in the Netherlands and likely maintains strong in the future, the dynamics that substantiate this link, especially in terms of institutional arrangement have seen a radical shift in the last decades. To explore the shifts we make use of Rageth and Renold (2020) model of three ideal types of linkages between education and employment system and the ideas concerning vocational and academic drift (Hippach-Schneider, 2014; Cedefop, 2017, 2020). This article is based on a literature review and case studies conducted in recent years on the Dutch system in the context of various (European) research projects. The article concludes that while the ownership for VET of the employment system decreased, the VET schools, due to the high level of autonomy and institutional capacities, were effectively able to install cooperation mechanism, joint delivery mechanisms in VET programmes and effective feedback mechanisms. The article shows that powerbalancing on VET content and supporting vocational drift does not necessarily require powerbalancing institutionally. In doing so, the article offers reflections to other countries’ VET systems on how to balance education and labour market systems in the determination of the VET content and the governance of the VET system.
Abstract
The paper discusses the options for a conceptual framework to describe how the knowledge created and acquired in VET is changing due to technological innovation and the shift towards a knowledge economy. The discussion sets out from the question how vocational or professional knowledge may be distinguished from other forms of knowledge and what philosophical and epistemological traits may underpin this distinction. Building on an analysis of ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’ conceptions of knowledge, the paper explores how appropriate descriptors for the classification of theoretical or propositional knowledge as well as practical knowledge may be identified. As a result, a proposal for structuring vocational knowledge is presented. The concluding part addresses the question how the proposed categories may serve to characterise changes in vocational knowledge and explores the requirements for applying the conceptual framework in empirical studies on the effects of technological innovation and societal developments.
Abstract
Vocational education and training is more complex than academic education. It is also subject to important differences among countries due to at least two factors: a) the particular fabric of the productive system of the country and b) the involvement of social actors (employers and unions) as well as the labor market relations and the balance between capital and work.
Historical and comparative vocational education and training has deployed a series of analytical tools which have contributed to identify different patterns of existing vocational education systems. Some institutions have also worked in order to help vocational education advance in the past decades: among these, the European Center for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) has twice devised future scenarios in Vocational education, at the turn of the 20th century and right before the Covid-19 pandemics.
The combination of current VET systems and suggested scenarios indicate that transformations are subject to negotiation among actors within countries (administration, employers, unions, teachers) and across countries; as well as subject to legitimation of decisions before the wider society. The sociology of conventions is a useful approach to analyse processes of negotiation and legitimation behind historical developments in VET systems; we suggest applying it to tackle current VET scenarios.
Abstract
The role of the parents is crucial in the children's effective functioning, having a long-term effect on the physical, mental and social health of the individuals. Sense of coherence is one of the most important elements of mental health, having a significant effect on the various aspects of life. So do parental goal emphasis by setting the main directions for the children. The current survey aimed to study the impact of sense of coherence and the perceived parental goal emphasis for teenagers' anxiety disorder. 80 of these students (40 suffering from anxiety disorder and 40 normal individuals) were selected due to a questionnaire about anxiety and sampling method, considering the goal of the research. The sense of coherence questionnaire was filled by students' mothers, and to understand parents', the perceived parental goal emphasis questionnaire was filled by the students themselves. The results were calculated and analysed by a statistical program called SPSS (V.20) with MANOVA on the Dependent variables test. The results indicate that the sense of coherence was different in two groups of mothers and students than anxiety disorder and normal individuals. It shows that sense of coherence had a higher rate in normal students' mothers. Also, the orientation senses of parents and its component had a huge superiority over students with an anxiety disorder than normal.
Abstract
Professional learning is complex and is the result of a mix of experiences made in academic and workplace settings. An interesting step in the learning trajectories of professionals is represented by internship. Interns have to engage in boundary crossing when connecting academic learning with professional practices. An interesting issue to explore concerns the experiences of undergraduate interns when they encounter challenges in workplaces. Drawing upon Dewey’s notion of experience to examine internship learning, this article focuses on the role of sociomateriality when neophytes—interns—enter the workplace. Analysing semi-structured interviews with undergraduates (N = 38) performing their internship at the public relations and communication industry where internship is not an established practice, we present three findings. First, materiality of work activity plays a central role in organizing learning for interns at the workplace. Second, interns report networking at the workplace for convergence of work objectives which in turn provides opportunities and constraints for learning about the logic of workplace activities. Finally, interns report balancing between different identities during internship practice in order to direct their participatory efforts within the complex workplace organization. The value of internship learning calls for agency from the learners while considering the implications for the workplace organisations where learning experiences are located. Finally, we bring attention to the role of the workplace supervisors and faculty members in the development of professional learning in such complex professional learning settings.
