Current situation: overview of reforms supporting innovation and teacher learning

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environment. Schools that calibrate well with the notion of having distributed leadership and active involvement in overall school development set the best examples of successful schools in Hungary under the support of European Social Fund interventions (Fazekas, 2018).

Prior to this study a National Education Sector Innovation Strategy (Nemzeti Oktatási Innovációs Rendszer stratégia – NOIR) was devised following a comprehensive international review of the education system. The NOIR strategy proposed an institutional framework for knowledge creating and sharing with the aim of improving and developing educational practices that would enhance effective teaching and successful learning in schools. The objectives included (OECD, 2016, pp. 28–29):

1. Developing regulatory institutional and organisational frameworks 2. Improving human conditions

3. Ensuring quality

4. Improving knowledge management

5. Exploring potential of technological development

The NOIR strategy indisputably argued that “[a] well-developed sectoral innovation system contributed significantly to the performance of the education system and to the achievement of key public policy goals of the education sector” (OECD, 2016, p. 29) and insisted on the need for a comprehensive and coherent national strategy that continues to bring key partners and stakeholders to focus on improving the quality of education. In the following years, the NOIR strategy was supplemented with a further so-called NOIR+ study which specifically focused on the fourth objective of developing and improving the knowledge management system through better structures of sharing and creating knowledge (ELTE PPK, 2015). The special significance of this study was that it provided a base for the development of the teacher career progression system, which in its essence builds on the notions of teachers’ learning within school communities (Halász, 2018).

5.1.3 Current situation: overview of reforms supporting innovation and teacher learning

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been introduced to the school system after 2011 with a change of government and legislation that placed schools under strict, centralised governance of the state-appointed authorities. This shift came after two decades of decentralisation and had deterred schools and teachers with less autonomy to make decisions about curricular matters, student assessment, and ways the school functions (Halász, 2018). Only after 2016 there was some extent of decentralisation with regards to curriculum regulation; the government loosened the regulation and introduced the possibility of using flexible syllabi, as well as established 58 school districts to manage state schools which replaced the direct control from the central ministry.

Similar to the previous set of national programmes, HEFOP and TÁMOP, the current system uses European Union funding to address some of the current issues and support further development. The present national programme called Human Resource Development Operational Programme (Emberi Erőforrás Fejlesztési Operatív Program – EFOP) concerns several specific pre-tertiary funding objectives such as:

- EFOP-3.1.1: Support for early childhood education

- EFOP-3.1.2: Methodological preparation of teachers to prevent early school leaving - EFOP-3.1.3: Promoting social inclusion and integration

- EFOP-3.1.5: Support for institutions affected by early learning of students - EFOP-3.1.7: Creating opportunities in public education

- EFOP-3.2.13-VEKOP-17: Public education framework related to measurement, evaluation and digital developments of innovative educational management procedures.

While this is not an exhaustive list of all the EFOP sub-programmes, the funding scheme targets not only education providers but any social institution that aims to develop its human resources.

Of course, some of the above are specifically targeted to schools (e.g. 3.1.2, EFOP-3.1.5). Another current development on the national level in 2018 was a devised new core curriculum for basic education that in this case is being done by an expert team without public consultation. This does reflect the fact that policy-making in Hungary is not always keen to involve a wide range of stakeholders, and in return risks being noncomprehensive and disconnected, causing revolting feelings among teachers. Such examples happened in recent history, for instance in 2016, when a so-called I’d Like to Teach Movement (Tanítanék Mozgalom) mobilised around 35,000 individuals and 940 educational institutions nation-wide to protest against the governmental provisions and overwhelming pressures teachers

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experience due to high levels of bureaucracy (Tóth, Mészáros, & Marton, 2018). In addition, important national research projects are also not always utilised to their full potential, which according to a conversation with an educational expert was a case with NOIR+.

Having said so, a national research is currently being implemented under the title The emergence and diffusion of educational innovations (Helyi-intézményi oktatási innovációk keletkezése, terjedése és rendszerformáló hatása - Innova) that has been producing important conclusions in relation to both how school-level innovations are developed and how they influence the teaching staff and practices. Hence, Innova research was developed with an intention of examining:

1. Conditions and processes that lead to the emergence of local innovations improving the effectiveness of learning environments and student learning

2. The conditions of the diffusion of such innovations

3. The ways these innovations influence the macro level effectiveness of the education system.

Even though the research is currently being implemented, first conclusions have already provided important input for understanding the nation-wide potentials for educational innovation, and consequently the teachers’ significant role in it. One study, presenting data from the research project mentioned above, notes that thousands of teachers have been involved in developmental interventions and had to engage in expansive learning, thus shifting the importance for teacher learning from the initial teacher education to continuous lifelong learning (Halász, 2018). According to the study, survey data indicates that around 70% of all participating teachers were involved in training programmes and 1/3 of them had to step further and create pieces of pedagogical or methodological tools which were directly connected to their everyday challenges (Halász, 2018). The following figure also presents the high rate of learning methods such as observations and experimentation which have been also previously noted to be the main ways of teacher learning in contexts of educational innovations (Bakkenes et al., 2010).

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Figure 12: Reported behaviours and attitudes of teachers related with learning

Source: Halász (2018)

It is significant to note also, that Innova results indicate that among 3200 surveyed teachers almost 85% reported that they invented new solutions for more effective pedagogical work at least once, while 40% noted that this happened often or very often. When exploring the specificities of the environments which impacted the teachers in a significant way, another survey discovered an important element of schools as learning organisations, namely the confidence of the school leader that the teachers are “adult learners capable of self-regulation”.

As Halász notes:

In those schools where the value of this indicator [adult learner] was higher, teachers were using more student-centred pedagogical methods for competence development. for instance, the proportion of teachers using project-based learning was, on the average, about four times higher in schools where teachers reported that their leaders were seeing them as self-regulated adult learners (2018, p.17).

The EU funded development programmes made it possible for innovation to crawl into many schools and get integrated into the school processes in Hungary (Halász, 2018). Moreover, national research projects that study these phenomena also managed to make a trace and impact policy-building processes. For instance, the outcomes of the research connected to NOIR+

which was previously mentioned as generally underused and overlooked, did indirectly impact the development of the teacher progression scheme that is currently being used. The scheme

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was introduced in 2013 and rests on the premise that teachers’ career progresses with time and skills, thus there are five levels of teacher career progression:

1. Novice teacher: first two years after diploma, considered obligatory 2. Pedagogue I: maximum 9 years, considered obligatory

3. Pedagogue II: final obligatory stage

4. Master teacher: an optional stage that includes system level tasks of counselling and inspection

5. Research teacher: optional and can be obtained through application with a research plan and doctoral diploma, the status is renewed in 5 years and there is an obligation to do research.

The career progression scheme still parallels a 277/1997 government decree on obligatory continuous professional development that obliges teachers to accumulate 120 hours of CPD courses within 7 years. This is considered as a condition for remaining in profession. The decree also advised that schools prepare 5-years CPD plans and have yearly schooling plans that are accepted by the school community. Leaders of schools need to take specialised postgraduate courses by accredited authorities, usually based at state universities.