Education paper by Miklós, Ágnes Kata
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary

Magyarization and Early Childhood Care in Late 19th Century Hungary

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper aims to highlight the importance of the 1891/XV law about early childhood care (“A kisdedóvásról”) in the Magyarization of the minorities. Although the Law on Nationalities (1868/XLIV) and the Law on Public Education (1868/XXXVIII), both part of broader legislation bound to the Compromise itself, established a wide range of linguistic rights, including primary education in the mother tongue, nationalities politics gradually took a Magyarizing turn, influencing early education.
In the decades following the foundation of the first Hungarian early childhood education center (1828, the “Angel Garden” of Therese Brunswick at Buda) the number of kindergartens increased exponentially. In the early 1890’s there were 757 kindergartens and 11 institutes for kindergarten teachers in Hungary, and their proliferation made it pressing to regulate the rules and requirements of early childhood care and education.
The bill, prepared by Count Albin Csáky (minister of education and religion), became the subject of a long parliamentary debate. The parliamentary representatives of minorities argued that its sole purpose was the early childhood Magyarization of their children. Although the final text didn’t mention it explicitly, the goal the representatives of minorities suspected behind it often manifested itself during its execution. Using the almanachs of the first school for kindergarten teachers established after the passing of the law, the Archiepiscopal Institute for Kindergarten Teachers in Esztergom (1892, Esztergomi Érseki Kisdedóvónő-Képző Intézet), the paper intends to demonstrate how Magyarization became one of the main goals of early childhood care and how it was aligned with broader pedagogical considerations.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ágnes Kata Miklós is a literary historian and college professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Vitéz János Centre for Teacher Training). After graduating as kindergarten and primary school teacher, she studied Hungarian literature at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Her PhD theses at ELTE’s “Modern Hungarian Literature Doctoral Programme” was written about generation change in the Transylvanian Hungarian literature in ‘70s.
Currently she’s also a first-year PhD student at the “Education and Society” Doctoral School of Education, University of Pécs, working on a thesis in Sociology of Education, about the connections between early childhood education/care centers and the local society.