The impact of EU-funded development interventions on teaching practices in Hungarian schools

Abstract

This article analyses the impact of EU-funded curriculum development interventions implemented in Hungary between 2004 and 2012, focusing on contextual features influencing school- and teacher-level adoption processes. It is based on a four-year empirical study which aimed at better understanding the impact mechanisms of modernising interventions targeted at school and classroom level teaching practices. The results show that: (1) EU-funded curriculum development programmes have had a significant impact on a large number of Hungarian schools (ISCED 1, 2 and 3), (2) interventions were particularly effective in schools operating as knowledge-intensive organisations and (3) the impact of interventions was influenced by the specificities of both the programme and the local context of adoption. The first part of the article presents the theoretical framework of the research and the main characteristics of EU-funded curriculum-development programmes. The following section explores the key features of the research, including its purpose, design and survey instruments. The last part presents the main outcomes, showing the measured impact of interventions on everyday practices of both schools as organisations and individual teachers, as well as the possible links between organisational characteristics and the success of programme implementation.