Abstract:

In my study I present and evaluate the current state of teaching history in Hungarian minority schools in Slovakia. In order to make the study transparent, I briefly discuss the Slovakian school system, the school types and class years of public education. After this I continue my paper with the methodological particularities and deficiencies of teaching Hungarian history in Slovakia and with this I point to the desired pedagogical renewal of the subject. In the following part I review the History lesson distributions per years in all school types: primary schools, high schools, vocational schools and trade schools. Next I present the examinational system of the history subject in each school type. I consider it important to present the effect of the level of professionality on the educational work, since – according to congruent opinions – in the imaginary ranking of the subjects, history stands on the lower level steps of the hierarchy, its prestige is very low in Hungarian minority schools in Slovakia. Trainings, methodological programs and summer universities might play especially big roles in this issue, since half of the teachers teaching this subject do not have a history major qualification. In the paper I also review the possibilities Hungarian history teachers in Slovakia have for professional training. The rest of the study deals with the most often discussed problem of domestic history teaching: the history textbooks used for teaching history. Finally I touch upon the contentual questions of teaching history, the Slovak-Hungarian history textbook experiment initiated by Szlovák-Magyar Történész Vegyesbizottság [Slovak–Hungarian Historian Mixed Committee] and the association representing the professional interests of Hungarian history teachers in Slovakia, the Történelemtanárok Társulása [Association of History Teachers].

Keywords:

Minority schools, Hungarian history, primary schools, Slovak–Hungarian Historian Mixed Committee.