Student Communities in Teacher Education as Sources of Professional Socialization

Student dropout is a relevant issue of teacher education in Central and Eastern Europe. Related to the research, two contributing risk factors must be highlighted. Firstly, teacher education students face hardships while they try to integrate into the community of their universities; frequently, they do not even find the right peer group in their own training program. (Pusztai, 2015; Pusztai & Fónai, 2012) Secondly, the structure of teacher training should be elaborated on. The main problems here are the immense quantity of theoretical knowledge required by courses, the late development of the ‘teacher role’ in students, and the dissatisfaction with methodology classes (Bacskai, 2022; Pusztai & Fónai, 2012).

We base our research on Tinto’s student integration model, according to which successful integration into peer groups on campus and involvement in university life can efficiently improve a student’s chances of becoming persistent against dropout (Tinto, 1975). In addition, membership in volunteer groups can also increase students’ social capital and improve their institutional integration (Fényes & Pusztai, 2012; Pusztai, 2015; 2019; Pusztai et al., 2019; Pusztai, Fényes & Markos, 2021). Our research was conducted with the participation of 16 students and 5 university lecturers / community staff members. The researched communities are related to four Hungarian universities: ELU, UD, UP, and USZ. Participants were inquired through half-structured interviews, and in the case of 12 students, we used focus group interviewing. Moreover, students were asked to fill out a questionnaire related to their social and educational background. Transcripts were analyzed via the combined logic method (Atlas.ti) and personal triangulation was instrumentalized to ensure the validity of the results. (Csók & Pusztai, 2022; Pusztai & Csók, 2023)

Our research discovered the diverse practices of the examined communities, and by participating in the UNICOMM symposium, we look forward to learning about international solutions in the field of teacher research. The project is supported by the EKÖP-24-2 University Research Scholarship Program of the Ministry for Culture and Innovation from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.