Shaping the Professionality of Secondary Teacher Candidates with Diverse Backgrounds during the Great Depression

Abstract

This paper addresses the social transformation of the Hungarian secondary teacher candidates brought about by the combination of the effects of the Great Depression and the standardisation endeavours of the teacher training institution between 1930 and 1935. The reconfiguration of the social composition of candidates is revealed by making use of archival sources and statistical reports. Document analysis of archival sources, descriptive statistical analysis and secondary literature review are employed as the main methods. Notions related to the critical approach of professionalisation theories are applied in the interpretation process. Results suggest that the professional institution did not only prevent less affluent social strata from dropping out of training but contributed to their disappearance by introducing standardisation initiatives when the crisis was imminent. It contributed to the worsening of the teacher shortage and the abandonment of uniformization that set the whole profession on a deprofessionalisation course.