Social Pedagogy Training in Poland and Hungary

Abstract

In the present study we compare the formation and development of Polish and Hungarian social pedagogy. The main aspects of the comparison are the principal stages in the history of social pedagogy, the development of training, and the current situation in Hungary and Poland. The history of social pedagogy can be divided into three stages, following key events in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, as these historical events had an impact on the appearance and development of social pedagogy. The first stage is the early period, in the era before 1945, the second is the period after 1945, when the number of orphaned children increased significantly after the Second World War and communism determined the socio-economic development of both Poland and Hungary. The third period started after 1989 when, after the collapse of communism, the development of both countries was placed on new socio-economic foundations, and new social problems appeared in the subsystems of society, which were partly addressed by social pedagogical solutions. In what follows, we give a brief overview of the 20th century history of Polish and Hungarian social pedagogy, the initial period of its formation.