ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses recent reforms in Hungary ’s education system, particularly focusing on the regulation system, which has governed the national curriculum in the 1990s. These reforms are considered within the broader context of educational change to enhance our understanding of why and how reform occurs in education systems. As well, the case must necessarily be considered in terms of the larger social framework of transition from a non-democratic regime to democracy and a free-market economy. This chapter provides a critical analysis of the impact of the social transition on educational reform in Hungary, addressing those characteristics that distinguish the Hungarian case from other post-Soviet countries. More specifi cally, the analysis concentrates on those elements that are relevant to the theory of educational change presented in Fullan ’s conceptual framework (2001). It is argued that the change process, as experienced in Hungary, does not necessarily follow a linear pattern (as it does in North America); also that coherent outcomes may emerge from rather chaotic processes.
