„Enjoy the playing!?”

The deprofessionalization of kindergarten teachers and its related tensions in Hungary

Abstract

The article, using the growing lack of kindergarten teachers in Hungary as a starting point, discusses the ways these professionals have experienced recent changes within their profession. Whereas numerous work has analysed the Hungarian education system, most of these focus on schools. Our aim is to highlight those processes that have substantially influenced kindergarten teachers’ work over the past 10-15 years. Our analysis brings together both regulatory-institutional changes and socio-cultural processes. Based on qualitative empirical research, our article highlights these changes through the self-interpretation of kindergarten teachers, which has thus far received less attention in Hungary. We argue that these broader changes have resulted in the amplification of external pressures from two sides – from the state through increasing control and bureaucratic documentation, and from stronger parental requirements. This has led to the deprofessionalization of kindergarten teachers, i.e. a decrease in their autonomy and social prestige. Moreover, these processes often collide with the main values the teachers accord to their profession, whilst also the resources are increasingly lacking for satisfying these new criteria. This causes increasingly unresolvable tensions for the teachers, which further aggravates the situation of this profession, making it more difficult to find solutions for the growing lack of professionals.